How Much Money College Football Bowls Lose

For decades, a bowl invitation was treated as an unquestioned reward in college football. Extra practices, national television exposure, and a postseason trip were seen as automatic positives. That assumption is starting to crack.

In recent seasons, more colleges have declined bowl invitations, a decision that once would have been unthinkable. While fans often point to player opt-outs or roster disruption as explanations, NCAA financial reports suggest a more basic reason: many bowl games lose money for the schools that play in them.

When postseason participation is isolated in NCAA accounting — through bowl-specific revenue and expense categories — the financial outcomes are often negative. Travel, logistics, and coaching bonuses can quickly outweigh bowl payouts, turning a “reward” into an expensive endeavor that can distract from bigger team goals.

The Action Network looked into NCAA financial reports to identify just how much five colleges spend to participate in bowls. Here’s what the numbers show.

Key Findings

• Bowl appearances often lose money — even for major programs. In this sample, every school analyzed posted a net loss from its bowl trip, including SEC brands like LSU, Tennessee, and Ole Miss.

• Losses can reach seven figures. LSU (-$1.28M), Wyoming (-$1.23M), and Tennessee (-$1.21M) each lost more than $1 million on a single bowl appearance.

• Coaching bonuses are a major driver of red ink. Bowl-related coaching compensation ranged from roughly $143,000 to $746,000, large enough to erase much of the reported bowl revenue.

• Financial pain hits smaller-budget programs harder.Wyoming’s bowl loss equaled roughly 28% of its total football spending, showing how a single postseason trip can represent a significant budget shock outside the Power Four.

• The “bowl payout” figure is not the final financial story. Reported revenues can look substantial, but travel, logistics, and contract incentives frequently push total costs beyond what schools bring in.

• The trend of schools declining bowls is consistent with these economics. As playoff expansion, transfer timing, and opt-outs reduce the upside of bowls, a projected deficit can make turning down an invite a rational choice — not a lack of interest.

How Much Money These College Bowl Trips Lost

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1) LSU (SEC): -$1,282,549

LSU generated more than $1.53 million in bowl-related revenue, but postseason expenses and bowl-linked coaching bonuses pushed total costs well beyond that figure. The result: a loss of over $1.28 million for a single bowl appearance.

The takeaway: even at the highest level of the sport,  bowl participation is not guaranteed to be profitable.

2) Wyoming (Mountain West): -$1,225,740

Wyoming’s bowl revenue barely exceeded $125,000, while total bowl-related expenses topped $1 million, with significant coaching compensation layered on top.

For a program with a relatively modest football budget, this kind of loss is substantial (28% of all football spending) — and illustrates why bowls can carry very different implications for schools outside the power conferences.

3) Tennessee (SEC): -$1,213,101

Tennessee’s bowl payout exceeded $1.4 million, but travel costs and more than half a million dollars in coaching bonuses turned the trip into a seven-figure deficit.

This example highlights a recurring theme: the payout number fans hear is rarely the final financial story.

4) Ole Miss (SEC): -$447,858

Ole Miss brought in more than $2.15 million in bowl revenue, yet still finished in the red once expenses and coaching compensation were accounted for.

It’s a reminder that even “good” payouts can disappear quickly under the full cost of postseason participation.

5) Memphis (AAC): -$325,248

Memphis’ bowl expenses alone were manageable, but nearly $440,000 in bowl-related coaching compensation flipped the outcome into a loss.

This case underscores how incentives written into coaching contracts can quietly turn postseason appearances into financial liabilities.

Why Bowl Games Lose Money

Across conferences and budget levels, bowl losses tend to come from the same sources:

• Travel and logistics: Bowl games are destination events, requiring large travel parties, extended hotel stays, and complex operations.
• Coaching bonuses: Many contracts include automatic payouts for bowl qualification or victories, adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to postseason costs.
• Overstated “payouts”: Public bowl payouts don’t always reflect what schools actually keep after expenses are deducted.

As the postseason landscape shifts — through playoff expansion, transfer portal timing, and increased opt-outs — the non-financial benefits of bowls have become harder to justify. When a bowl appearance projects to cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, declining an invitation can become a rational financial decision rather than a sign of disengagement. As more colleges weigh postseason participation against budget pressures, the question is no longer why schools might decline bowls, but why the system so often expects them to lose money for accepting the invite.

Methodology

This analysis is based on school-submitted NCAA Membership Financial Reporting System (MFRS) reports, which detail athletic department revenues and expenses by standardized category.

To isolate the financial impact of postseason bowl participation, three bowl-specific categories were used:

• Football Bowl Revenues (Category 19): revenue attributed to bowl participation, including conference distributions and bowl payouts.

• Football Bowl Expenses (Category 41): direct costs such as travel, lodging, meals, logistics, and game-related expenses.

• Football Bowl Expenses – Coaching Compensation (Category 41A): bowl-related bonuses paid to head coaches and assistants.

For each school, net bowl outcome was calculated as:

Bowl Profit/Loss = Category 19 revenue – (Category 41 expenses + Category 41A coaching compensation)

When Category 41A was not separately reported, only Category 41 expenses were included.  Total athletics expenses and total football expenses were referenced when available to provide budget context but were not included in the profit/loss calculation.

This method captures direct, reported bowl-related cash flows. It does not attempt to quantify indirect benefits such as exposure, recruiting impact, or additional practices, and results may vary based on institutional reporting practices.

You can see the full dataset here.