Too Often, College Bowl Games Aren’T Profitable For Participants

By the time Air Force’s football team lines up against Fresno State in the Silicon Valley Classic bowl game in San Jose on Dec. 31, the academy will already know, in one sense, whether it won or lost.

Money, that is.

From a financial standpoint, the best the school can hope for is a tie. Because of travel expenses and required ticket sales, breaking even would be considered a victory for this first-year bowl.

In fact, it’s what most of the 50 bowl-bound teams hope for when they qualify for college football’s postseason: just to break even. The Silicon Valley bowl offers a $750,000 payout to each team.

Which is fine, except . .

. “Generally, your expenses for a bowl game exceed $1 million,” said Mike Sax, Air Force director of financial resources.

Don’t include BCS games in this equation. Orange Bowl teams Oklahoma and Florida State, who will play for the national title Jan. 3 in Miami, get a payout of between $11 million and $13 million. Florida and Miami, playing in the Jan. 2 Sugar Bowl, get $13.5 million.

While bowl trips have become the symbol of wretched excess for many schools, Air Force finds itself tightening its belt this year after an Air Force Inspector General’s inquiry into federal spending violations by the academy’s athletic association during the team’s trip to the 1998 Oahu Bowl, the Falcons’ last bowl appearance.

An audit revealed more than $36,000 was spent for spouses and family members of military and civilian employees to make the trip.

When Air Force beat Washington in the Oahu Bowl, the academy’s traveling party consisted of more than 400 people. The academy lost about $100,000.