A lot has been made over the fact that it cost UConn a whopping $1.8 million to travel to Arizona and get their backsides spanked by Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Additionally, he had been previously reported that both Auburn and Oregon “lost” money at or near mid-six figures for their appearance in the BcS title game.
However, not all schools took a financial bath on their postseason trip. Just most of them.
In a very detailed report by Stanford’s student newspaper, it was revealed that Ohio State netted $288,876 for their Sugar Bowl win over Arkansas, which the Stanford Daily reports earned a $5,525 “profit” from the game after expenses -- mainly consisting of unsold tickets and travel, lodging, etc. -- are deducted from the conference payout.
Fellow Big Ten member Wisconsin was the only other school to clear even a remotely significant profit, pulling in just a shade over $79,000 according to open-record requests made by the paper. Here’s a graphic the paper provided to show how well financially each BcS participant made out -- or, in most cases, didn’t make out -- this past year.
As noted, TCU is a private school and is not subject to open-records requests, so their profit/loss for the Rose Bowl win over the Badgers is unknown. Stanford’s number is based on an estimate given to the paper by the school’s chief financial offer, Brian Talbott, who said the school “broke even at worst.” Talbott also said that the “ancillary benefits” the school received mitigated whatever loss or negligible profit the school made.
“We know the numbers that the Pac-10 gets as a payout; we know what it costs us—that piece is easy,” the CFO said. “What’s a lot tougher is quantifying the ancillary benefits: how many more ticket sales we’re going to get this year than last year because we went to the Orange Bowl, how many more donations are we going to get this year because we went to the Orange Bowl, how much better is our recruiting going to be because we went to the Orange Bowl. ...
“Even taking it a little further, the more people who come to any game for us, the more they’re going to have to pay to park, the more they’re going to buy concessions, the more they’re going to buy merchandise. All of these things trickle down.”
If that’s how schools look at these things, UConn had better sell a helluva lot of hot dogs and nachos and “Huskies are #1" foam fingers to make up for the nearly $2 million hit the athletic department’s budget took for the trip to the desert.
(Tip O the Cap: Ted Miller‘s ESPN.com Pac-12 blog)
