We Demand Playoffs

This is a must-read article from Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports:   The bowl boondoggle

Here are a few excerpts that might get your heart pumping…

College football participates in one of the worst business arrangements imaginable. It outsources its most profitable and easily sold product – postseason football.

After spending an entire year investing in the teams, the system and the publicity to create a can’t-fail product it turns over its sale to an unnecessary third party who cuts nicely into the profits.

Wetzel breaks down Sugar Bowl expenditures and compares them to the SEC Championship game.  Some startling facts are uncovered.

Scanning recent tax documents, the Sugar Bowl spent:

• $1.3 million in employee salaries in 2006, including $453,399 in total compensation for Hoolahan

• $494,177 in unspecified “entertainment” (in 2005)

• $455,781 on unspecified “special appropriations” (in 2006)

• $348,487 in “Sugar Bowl entertainment” (in 2006)

• $188,305 on “Hall of Fame” (in 2005)

• $176,277 on “media relations” (in 2006)

• $118,004 on “decorations” (in 2006)

• $114,666 on “committee meetings” (in 2006)

• $84,255 on “conference relations” (in 2006)

• $82,884 on “other expenses” (in 2006)

• $60,932 on “gifts and bonuses” (in 2005)

• $58,995 on “liaison” (in 2006)

• $46,017 on “conference meetings” (in 2006)

Overall the Sugar Bowl spent $11.1 million in 2006 alone. The SEC operated its 2007 Championship Game (in effect a bowl game) for just $2.1 million. The ACC managed to pull off its 2006 title game for $1.2 million.

Tell me the average University couldn’t benefit from a share of the extra $9 million.