Though this year's Cavaliers have fought their way into postseason football play on their own merits, they will ultimately share the financial fruits of their labor with the rest of the member schools of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Cavaliers will face the Texas Tech Red Raiders Jan. 1 in the 63nd annual Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla. As one of the oldest continuously played college bowl games, the Gator Bowl has a generous payout of $2.5 million per team. In comparison, some ACC teams participate in bowls with payouts as low as $750,000 per team. Only two ACC-bound bowl games have higher payouts than the Gator Bowl: the Chick-fil-A Bowl at $2.825 million and the Bowl Championship Series Orange Bowl, intended for the ACC champion, at $17 million.
One thing, however, is consistent for all bowls with ACC tie-ins, that is bowl games that have a contractual obligation with the conference that the bowl will invite one of the conference's bowl-eligible member schools: No matter the size of the payout, the respective ACC bowl team must share its bowl earnings evenly with the other teams in the conference. Though some conferences offer larger cuts for the actual bowl-participant, the ACC has decided to operate otherwise.
"You want to protect the viability of all of your conference members," said Jon Oliver, University executive associate athletics director. "All the conference members agreed and came together. When you pool your money and it's equally distributed, everybody in the conference is protected."
This type of payout sharing ensures the conference's worst team -- the struggling 1-11 Duke -- is paid the same amount in postseason bonuses as the conference's best team --the recently crowned ACC champion Virginia Tech. Though Oliver said programs such as Duke's pull their financial and promotional weight with their success during men's basketball season, one Virginia Tech official noted that his team's success was more financially rewarded in its old conference.
Before joining the ACC in 2004, Virginia Tech was a member of the Big East Conference. According to Randy Butt, Virginia Tech's associate director of athletics, the Big East had a significantly different arrangement for bowl-payout sharing. If Virginia Tech was still in the Big East, a BCS bowl appearance this winter would have earned it a larger portion of the payout than it will receive this year as a member of the ACC.
"There's a little more of a reward in the Big East," said Butt. "At the end of the year, there was a lot less money to distribute to all of the [Big East] schools."
Travel expenses
When an ACC team is selected to attend a bowl game -- the conference has eight guaranteed tie-in games if enough teams qualify -- the conference sets aside an expense allotment to help that team cover travel costs. The Cavaliers have a $1 million expense allotment for their trip to this year's Gator Bowl, which will cover expenses related to the travel and lodging of the team, marching band, cheerleaders and official entourage.
The Cavaliers' expense allotment can be affected by the University's ability to sell tickets to the Gator Bowl, a requirement of most bowls. If the University is unable to sell the required 13,500 tickets, according to Oliver, it must cover the unsold tickets with money from its expense allotment. The ACC, however, offers some assistance in the event that a school has problems selling tickets to far-flung bowls. This safety net from the ACC attempts to help teams from losing money when participating in bowl games.
"The ACC has been doing this for a while and understands it's not in the best interest of its member institutions to go to bowl games and lose money," Oliver said. "If you lose money going to a bowl game in the ACC, it's because you've chosen to do something over and above your basic expenses to travel to that game."
Though some schools have the potential to lose money participating in bowl games, Oliver noted that since coach Al Groh's arrival in 2001 the team has never gone over budget for a bowl game. Even bowl games with lower payouts, such as the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho, have significantly higher expense allotments to cover potentially expensive travel. In the case of a trip to Boise this month for ACC-team Georgia Tech, the bowl payout is $750,000 and the expense allotment is $1.1 million. Teams generally take a paired-down group with them on trips to these distant bowls, Oliver added, noting that the University is typically conservative in its bowl travel plans, no matter the location.
"Some schools decide that they're going to make it a giant celebration for the entire university," Oliver said. "If you try and do that, then it can get expensive. We're very clear on what we can cover, and the University is very supportive to keep it within the budget limits we have."
For Virginia Tech, however, a trip to this year's Orange Bowl will be a grand affair. As winners of the ACC title and as a participant in a high-profile BCS bowl game, Virginia Tech's expense allotment is the most of any conference team at $1.6 million. This will only begin to cover the cost of the university's bowl expenses, Butt said, adding that the school budgets a surplus into its athletics budget to cover any excess cost of attending a bowl. The last time the Hokies were in a major BCS bowl game -- the 2005 Sugar Bowl -- they had to fund additional expenses not covered by the Big East's expense allotment.
"We understand that the cost is not going to be covered by the expense reimbursement that we receive, so we just plan accordingly," Butt said. "Since we've been in the ACC, based on our knowledge of how the revenue sharing works, we understand what we're up against."
Butt said he would be surprised if other programs did not exceed their expense allotment when traveling to a bowl game. He added that schools spend their allotment in different ways. Virginia Tech will use part of its $1.6 million expense allotment to offer bonuses to its coaching staff, something the Cavaliers have not done explicitly with such funds in the past.
The Cavaliers' last bowl-game trip to the 2005 Gaylord Hotel Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn. resulted in a $963,475 price tag in part because the University was unable to sell all of its allotted tickets, resulting in a cost to the University of $248,115. This, along with lodging and per diem for all included in the official party, added up to the almost $1 million expense of the team's last major trip.
National exposure
This year's Gator Bowl will be nationally televised on CBS. Only one other bowl, the Capital One Bowl, will be shown at the same time on New Year's Day on ABC. Aware of this national exposure, University officials have prepared some halftime promotional spots to be shown during the game. According to University spokesperson Carol Wood, these spots will feature high-profile University figures quoting Thomas Jefferson about the University's founding and purpose. Wood said this spot will put a focus on the University's primary commitment to academics.
"It is difficult to accurately measure the impact of a national athletic event on a university," Wood said. "When universities combine outstanding academics with outstanding athletics, they will often see an increase in applications. Alumni and friends of the University take notice of such events, and it gives them an increased feeling of pride in their alma mater. This can sometimes be translated into increased financial support."
Though contributions to the University as a result of the Cavaliers' appearance in a bowl game are a possibility, the University's true financial gains this bowl season will be shared equally with its peers in the ACC. The conference will receive about $28.425 million in bowl payouts this season before giving expense allotments to its participating teams.
In reference to the Cavaliers' profit from being in a bowl game this season, Oliver said, "We would have benefited from the payout no matter what happened"
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