This week, the Wiz of Odds is taking a comprehensive look at what it costs for college football teams to travel to bowl games. (Hat tip to Austin.) Earlier today, the site posted NC State's expenses from the Champs Sports Bowl, if you're into that sort of thing.
North Carolina State expenses: The Wolfpack reported only 247 absorbed tickets at a cost of $4,014. Total reported expenses were $1.09 million. Under other expenses, the school listed items such as open practice ($4,524), staff overtime ($11,473), bonuses ($319,096), booster allowance ($15,000) and comp tickets ($126,674) for a total of $476,767.
Just 247 tickets absorbed by the school--that's an impressive number, especially when compared to, say, Connecticut, which absorbed nearly three million dollars' worth of Fiesta Bowl tickets. Understandable since Randy Edsall's UConn program was like your grandpa's Crown Victoria on the excitement scale.
West Virginia had to absorb 7,800 Champs Bowl tickets, which set them back $500k.
I wonder where those unsold tickets end up. If I were UConn's athletics director, I'd want to have all 14,729 tickets just for the hell of it. I mean, the school bought 'em, didn't it? There could be some sweet coupons on the back of those puppies, too. Fifteen thousand tickets... you think that's enough to wallpaper the bonus room at home?