Is this the beginning of the end for the bowl system?

Schools lose money, but coaches and AD's make money

So we'll have this system until some outside force changes it

quote:

---

Bo Pelini receives a $250,000 bonus. If this pay structure is still accurate, Nebraska would owe the assistants more than $160,000 in bonuses. They also must pay the Big 12 an additional $500,000 for leaving because they didn’t make a BCS bowl game.

---

these are NOT bowl-related losses and shouldn't be looked at as bowl-related.

1. leaving the big12 has nothing to do with a fricking bowl game. they have to pay a lot more to leave

2. coachin salaries, while tied to bowls, are not bowl-related expenses

and let me add this. since the teams individually are being examined here, it's not really fair to compare the losses of individual teams unless we made playoff payments solely to teams.

if UConn can't sell all its tickets, why should the money makers in college footblal subsidize their shitty fanbase by rewarding UConn (via Big East playoff payments) for making the "playoffs?" how does that make sense?

teams have lost money on bowl games for years and years. why it is NOW such a hot topic?

hell, why is the media now using things that aren't really bowl-related to "prove" how bowls are bad? just read the nebraska article

quote:

---

Because it is about what happens on the field not the fan base.

---

whoa

you're talking about money. don't change the argument

quote:

---

Its not Uconns fault their fans don’t travel well.

---

in terms of being a viable economic performer, it is

quote:

---

much less tickets to lesser bowls like the Cotton.

---

i think we had a tough time selling the peach bowl tickets a few years ago

the athletic departments themselves may lose money on the individual bowl game .. but still profit handsomely when the conference revenue share check comes in from all the bowls ... some of these schools just need to cut back on their bowl budgets .. you ought to see how many are in these "official" travel parties and what they spend on them when they get there ... also, all of these schools hand out bowl bonuses to everyone in the athletic department too ... that's why they lose money a lot of times .. what in the frick did the assistant SID in charge of tennis and golf have to do with getting them to a bowl game ??

quote:

---

it's just smear tactics by anti-BCS writers now

---

and its borderline dishonest. They take what UConn gets from the Fiesta Bowl this year, which they share with other Big East Teams, and compare it with the cost to UConn for the trip. What they don't include in the accounting is the amount UConn gets from other BE bowls this year which cost UConn zero and the forget to mention UConn got $2M or whatever their share of the BCS bowl $ is every year they have been in the BE.

quote:

---

Only selling 4,000 tickets so far is

---

why are you shocked ? have you seen their home games ? it's on the other side of the country for them ... that's a $4,000 trip for someone a week after christmas to watch a glorified exhibition game ... welcome to the world of television .. the days of bowl games being packed outside of the NCG are long over ... why spend all that money to sit in an end zone 10 stories above the field when you can watch it on your couch in HD with cheap beer 10 steps away ...

the bowls might wanna stop banking on ticket sales ..

quote:

---

just because a school might lose money going to a bowl, in the end they profit on revenue sharing .. and these schools waste a shite ton of money when they go to these bowls too ... if they trimmed the fat, they wouldn't lose money on these things ..

---

UConn receives $2.2 M from the Big East as part of its revenue sharing from the BCS. I'm sure that more than offsets the costs of going to a bowl. In total, they receive $9.6 M in revenue distribution from the Big East (2009 number).

The problem is the additional $2.5 M they'll lose if their fans don't buy tickets.

That's drop in the bucket compared to where some of their other "revenue" comes from. The athletic department receives $8.1 M in student fees and $5.6 M from the state. So, in essence, the students and taxpayers pay for $13.7 of their $58 M budget.

And yet the discussion is about the $2.5 M additional that UConn will lose if their fans don't buy tickets.

I agree with SFP and Rag. It's not new that schools lose money on individual trips to smaller bowls, but the AD's could do a better job controlling their expenses. Instead, they count on conference distribution to make up the difference, allowing every employee to have a fun working vacation in California or Hawaii.

The authors of these anti-bowl articles also conveniently leave out that the presidents and chancellors could say "No Thanks," but they go because the AD, coaching staffs, and various lower-level employees want their contract bonuses for going to the New Orleans Bowl or the Dallas Bowl.

This is just the hot topic du jur for anti-bcs crusaders.

One more thing left out of the discussion is that a bowl trip, particularly for a mid-level or up and coming school, can pay financial dividends down the road through increased booster support. That wouldn't happen if they were perennially one of the 90+ schools that can't make a play-off.