Graphic Developed by Michael Uribes / The Collegian
Non-BCS conferences cash in on bowl appearances
The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) is notorious for being a money generating opportunity for athletic departments around the country, and with the dust finally settling from all the bowl games and the dollars being distributed, Fresno State will reap the benefits.
This year, a record $24 million will be distributed amongst the five college football conferences that don’t receive an automatic bid to the BCS, according to the payment arrangement that was established four years ago.
A majority of the $24 million dollars will be rightfully awarded to the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and Mountain West Conference (MCW) for sending teams to BCS games this season.
With credits awarded to Boise State and Texas Christian University (TCU) for its appearances in the BCS, the WAC will receive $7.8 million while the MWC will be awarded $9.8 million.
Boise State became the first team to receive an at-large bid from a non-automatic qualifying conference. Boise earned $3 million and another $1.5 million split eight ways among every other WAC school, for its appearance in the Fiesta Bowl. That’s $187,500 per team just to watch the game from the couch.
Fresno State is expected to receive $550,000 for the 2009 football season along with every other school in the WAC.
TCU, who was defeated by Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, earned $9.8 million in the 2009 season for the five non-BCS conferences. The MCW receives $6 million from that, and the rest of it is split evenly between all five conferences.
Conference USA will earn $2.8 million, the Mid-America Conference will get $2.1 million, and Sun Belt will take $1.5 million.
The five non-BCS conferences also receive nine percent of the total BCS revenue, which is between $9 and $10 million. That nine percent is split in half and distributed equally among the five conferences, which works out to just under $1 million per conference. The other half of that nine percent is split up based on performance. The WAC earned about $1.3 million thanks to Boise State being the second-highest ranked non-BCS team.
All told, the WAC earned about $8 million for the 2009 season, compared to just $3.2 million from the year before when there was no team representing the WAC in a BCS game. The difference of nearly $5 million reflects the $4.5 million Boise State earned the conference for playing in the Fiesta Bowl. This shows that while the details are complicated, the end result seems simple: get to a BCS bowl game and your conference gets paid.
With Frsno State and every other WAC school receiving just over $500,000 each, which is about $200,000 more than the previous season, the $187,500 extra from Boise State playing in a BCS bowl game proved to be the difference.
The $142.5 million netted this year is the lowest payout since the 2006-07 season. The continuous high-dollar contracts associated with the system keep it generating.
Of the BCS revenue, $82.5 million steadily comes from FOX Broadcasting for its television contract. The remaining money varies depending on revenue from the BCS bowls. However, conferences can expect drastic changes within the system next year when ESPN takes over the contract reportedly worth $125 million a year.
This is the last year the money will be divided up in this particular way. The conferences will meet in the off-season to discuss whether to keep or change the current revenue distribution strategy.