You'll hear a lot of "Teams lose money going to bowl games"! They'll likely reference Connecticut and how they "lost money" even though they went to a BCS game. Please ignore this for BCS teams. Roll your eyes if they are referring to any team from the Big Ten, SEC, Pac 12, and probably the Big 12. I'm not sure about the ACC or Big East but I would imagine that all of them end up with plenty of money too. Most of the "BCS teams lose money" stuff comes when you compare them to teams from the same conference who didn't go to a bowl. It is true that Indiana and Minnesota will actually make more money not going to a bowl game this year in terms of payouts but that's simply because they get roughly the same payout(teams are allowed to take out some of their expenses before passing the money on to the conference) with no travel expenses.

These teams choose to go big especially when it's a prominent bowl game. They bring lots and lots of people and the band and influential alumni and other stuff. Accounting wise, they can "lose money" but this is kind of like saying that I lost money by going on vacation except no one helps supplement my vacation.

Now, it is true that they are required to guarantee a certain amount of tickets. This is not a problem for most schools. They likely will sell all or most of them and any shortfall is likely covered by the money paid out by the conference bowl payouts.

Any BCS school that wanted could go on the cheap and send the players, part of the band, and other personnel that normally travel anyways. Connecticut could have treated that BCS game like it was a trip to West Virginia but they used it for a lot of non-monetary benefits and accepted an accounting loss.

This is why, unless you have strange circumstances like off the field issues that no one turns down bowl games even if it's one of the bad ones played in front of 150 people in San Diego. Most of them don't lose money, and the ones who do choose to do so.

For the non-BCS schools, they are more likely to lose money, but the ticket guarantees for the bowls they go to are in general lower and the exposure/recruiting benefits outweigh whatever money they lose.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!