It’s no coincidence that bowl games fall during the holiday season. After a long, grueling fall schedule, teams are rewarded with a chance to play on the national stage.
But, as with any good holiday, come January it’s time to fork over a check. Ohio University, though, footed a much smaller bill for this season than it did for its last.
OU paid $9,722.43 to attend the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise last month. The university paid $96,645.76 — almost 10 times that amount — to attend the 2010 R + L Carriers Bowl in New Orleans.
Unlike regular season competition, Ohio Athletics does not foot the bill for postseason play. Everything from the season opener through the Mid-American Conference Championship is covered by the athletic department’s annual budget.
Bowl games, however, are not.
That’s where the Post Season Reserve Budget comes in. The fund was established in 2009 and supplies $120,000 annually so that all Ohio teams may continue to postseason play, if applicable.
However, the funding for sending part of the Marching 110 and the plane ride for President McDavis are not included in these numbers.
Dan Hauser, Ohio’s senior associate athletic director for External Operations, likened the gathering of funds to a pair of silos — one that contains the General Fund and another that makes up the General Fee.
“The two silos of money cannot be dipped into interchangeably,” he said. “Each entity has to operate in its own silo. In essence, it’s not like this $9,000 was taken from academic, institutional money that operates the General Fund silo.”
But the money still has to come from somewhere. In this case, it’s the students — each full-time student on the Athens campus pays $419 in general fees every quarter.
“Some of that check rideover goes into the General Fund, and some of that check rideover goes into the General Fee,” Hauser said. “All of that money is piled into those silos and supports all that programming in each one.”
John Day, associate provost for Academic Budget and Planning, said if the Post Season Development Fund is not used in its entirety, it carries forward to the following year’s General Fee.
“It’s only provided to Athletics if the event happens,” said Chad Mitchell, interim budget director for OU. “The money is fixed centrally and then is allocated once the budget is approved, and they demonstrate they need to use the money.”
The total cost of the six-day trip to Boise was $486,682.43. That is more than last year’s bowl game, which had a $412,525.76 price tag.
OU has such a reduced out-of-pocket cost because the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl has an exclusive agreement with the Mid-American Conference that automatically allocates a payout of $475,000 to the conference’s representative in the game.
“I think it’s completely appropriate that the conferences help subsidize this,” said B. David Ridpath, assistant professor of Sports Administration in the College of Business. “For some schools, it can be a major financial hit, and if this can lessen it for the institutions, I am all for it.”
The lesser bottom line is welcomed openly by Ohio Athletics. The comparison of New Orleans and Boise is not completely linear, as many costs are determined by exclusive partnerships with local establishments, such as hotels, restaurants and transportation companies.
Five nights in Boise cost Ohio $68,204.63, while the Bobcats’ bowl lodging cost less than $50,000 the previous season. The team stayed at The Riverside Hotel in Boise, the bowl’s official hotel partner, for $109 per room per night.
But the New Orleans cuisine was more costly than the meal tab in Boise. Eating in the Big Easy racked up a hefty $84,318.36 bill, while meals for the Potato Bowl trip cost $55,251.60.
“I think there’s a lot of work involved to make sure that we are being as frugal as we can, to minimize our expenditures and stay within our budgeted range for a bowl trip,” Hauser said. “I’m confident that we made the right choices to do that in this trip. Each destination creates unique challenges, but we try to solve those within the frame of the budget.”
Ohio Athletics administrators say incurring a cost to play in a bowl game is worth the investment because of the exposure the team receives at the bowl site and on television.
Ridpath said he does not necessarily believe that appearing on national television is all that it’s chalked up to be for a university.
“The impact of that stuff is not as great as advertised. I do think there are some residual effects, there’s no doubt,” Ridpath said. “But I think we have to be cautious in claiming that’s going to happen when research is pretty clear that it’s not as pronounced in many ways.”
Expenses while the team was still on campus make up nearly 11 percent of the overall bill. While in Athens, the Bobcats spent $52,408.82 on food, transportation, lodging and other expenses. Nearly $34,000 of that sum was paid to university-operated departments.
Ohio Athletics also received a $1,960 return from ticket sales.
“I would say that we are happy with our ending dollar figure,” Hauser said. “Between the three revenue elements together, we were able to cover our expenditures.”
jr992810@ohiou.edu
