It Can Pay to Lose in College Football

[UNTflyer]

This year’s college football bowl pairings were released Sunday, and the last-place teams from the biggest conferences will be crying all the way to the bank. The top teams from the small conferences will be crying poverty.

In NCAA Division I football, profits are higher for doormats from the six "major" conferences--Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern--than for champions from the five smaller conferences.

Also known around the industry as "equity" conferences, for the big revenues they generate, the six major conferences are those that automatically receive entry into the biggest money bowl games as part of the NCAA’s Bowl Championship Series (BCS), the ranking mechanism for college football teams. And with those bowl bids comes big money.

Compare that to Boise State and Toledo, schools that won their respective conferences and played in bowl games last year. Boise State, winner of every Western Athletic Conference title since 2002, grossed $8.5 million in 2005, while Mid-American Conference champ Toledo grossed $7.2 million.

School: Syracuse University

Conference: Big East

2005 record: 1-10

Revenue: $19 million

Dollars per win: $19 million

School: University of Washington

Conference: Pac-10

2005 record: 2-9

Revenue: $31.7 million

Dollars per win: $15.9 million

http://www.forbes.com/2006/12/04/college-f...05football.html