That money couldn't go back into the previous year's budget no more than the OSU game can go towards last year's budget which included the Bowl game. And that Xavier money was as long gone as the OSU money was. The university has made a commitment to its athletes to support them towards post-season play. I'm sure it's more expensive each day the men's basketball team stays in Cleveland for the MAC Tourney. Or for the lady volleyballers in Toledo or to even, gasp, host NCAA matches. To lament the success of any of Ohio's teams seems is silly.
I don't disagree. I lament the cost of going to a bowl, but ultimately I think it's a cost you have to bear when you decide to field a FBS team (a position wouldn't necessarily take towards a future CBI bid).
Ohio spent $120K on a Bowl game last year. Hopefully, future budgets include that. But Ohio did what it could last year. Played a geographically sensible Bowl and limited practice time. Around $35K of expenses went to the university for lodging and I would doubt there were $40K of variable costs that need to be covered. Never mind that teams get a split of fellow conference team's payouts and from the BCS that would more than offset the $120K. We got a 1-minute commercial at halftime and 3 hours of face time in a game that was viewed by over 3.8 million people.
The bowl payout amounts that are reported are generally fabricated. Bowls report a big payout, but in reality rarely pay anything close to that, even before ticket allotments are factored in. Death to the BCS, the new book by Dan Wetzel et al. (which I'd highly recommend by the way) lays it all out pretty clearly, with the Motor City Bowl one of the prime culprits in fact. It would be interesting to see exactly how much we do take home from the MAC's 3 bowl tie-ins. The BCS did give the MAC around $2.1 million last year, which divided 13 ways would net us around $165K, but I assume that the MAC front office took some cut of that itself. Ultimately the question is how do we budget these revenues. Are they already relied on for annual expenditures, or do we set some of it aside to cover a bowl bid? Historically I am assuming it was the former, but given our recent success we may have switched to the latter model.