BG to D-II?

[Warthog]

Bowl games are a whole different story because the MAC takes a big cut and we only hope to cover our expenses. You are completely nuts if you think we lose money on a game at Oklahoma/Wisconsin/Boston College/Missouri when then are paying us $400,000 plus.

-Charter buses to the airport - couple thousand, and no more. If it is, I'll start using my mini-van and shuttling people to the airport.
-the flight - let's just say $500 per person, which is a high commercial price, but I have no idea what a charter would be. 100 people * $500 = $50,000
-Charter buses from the airport and to/from practices and game- again, couple thou, tops.
-lodging/meals for 100+ for multiple days - I'll say there is probably a stipend of like $100 per person per day for food. So a three day trip is $100* 3 days * 100 people = $30,000. Lodging - players at least are two per room, coaches probably one per room, so maybe you need 75 rooms tops. 75 rooms * 2 nights (maybe, probably only one) * $150 per room = $22,500.

That gives me a total cost for what you listed - about $100,000. So that leaves me with $300,000, give or take, as profit. How the hell can you cay we lose money???

[SB-50]

My point exactly Flipper. Why go?! We go because we feel we are competitive with those teams (and we have been), and for exposure. My point is, let's stay closer to home, save money while we are whipping on the big boys. We can accomplish the same, AND MAKE MORE MONEY, by not taking games with high expenses. especially while we teeter on the brink of financial hardship, lower enrollment, etc.

@ Missouri, @ Maryland, @ Troy, @ WKU, @ Idaho, @ Boise, @ Va Tech. These are scheduled trips from 2009-12. I'd love to see the cost-benefit analysis for these trips.

The GMAC is a direct example of the high expenses of away games. It paid out $750,000 last year, yet each MAC school loses money each year. There's other benefits to a bowl game, i.e., 20 extra practices which amounts to another "spring ball" and much exposure than any regular season OOC game, not to mention guaranteed national TV, albeit ESPN.

In other words, it's a dogfish.

[hammb]

My point exactly Flipper. Why go?! We go because we feel we are competitive with those teams (and we have been), and for exposure. My point is, let's stay closer to home, save money while we are whipping on the big boys. We can accomplish the same, AND MAKE MORE MONEY, by not taking games with high expenses. especially while we teeter on the brink of financial hardship, lower enrollment, etc.

@ Missouri, @ Maryland, @ Troy, @ WKU, @ Idaho, @ Boise, @ Va Tech. These are scheduled trips from 2009-12. I'd love to see the cost-benefit analysis for these trips.

The GMAC is a direct example of the high expenses of away games. It paid out $750,000 last year, yet each MAC school loses money each year. There's other benefits to a bowl game, i.e., 20 extra practices which amounts to another "spring ball" and much exposure than any regular season OOC game, not to mention guaranteed national TV, albeit ESPN.

In other words, it's a dogfish.

No, it's a TERRIBLE example of a road game, because it's not a road game. It's a bowl game. The bowl games have incredibly high ticket allotments that you must guarantee and that takes a huge cut out of our bottom line since we cannot travel that many people.

Payday games against major BCS schools are definitely money makers. There is no way the travel expenses even come close to the half million + dollars that you get back.

Of the games you listed, certainly they'll lose money going to WKU, Idaho, Troy, and perhaps Boise. Of course those deals were also signed with home games involved. You don't demand to make a profit on a road game when you're getting a return trip to your home stadium...and all of these (except WKU) are pretty decent programs to pull in home & homes with.

Any time we play a 1 road game with no return trip to a BCS school I guarantee that we are making a profit. That's why teams play them.