An undefeated regular season earned the 2008 Ball State University football team a trip to the GMAC Bowl and a bill of more than $140,000.
It cost Ball State $142,398.07 to play in this year's GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Ala., said Randy Howard, associate vice president, finance and assistant treasurer. The cost of the game has added fire to a debate of whether or not big-time athletics have a place at American universities.
While university officials say the benefits of the game outweigh the cost, the price tag has caused others to question the value of intercollegiate athletics at Ball State.
EXPENSES AND REVENUE
The Ball State Foundation paid for most of Ball State's expenses - more than $105,000 - for the bowl game. The Ball State Foundation is the university's nonprofit group that processes gifts and pledges; manages university-related funds for scholarships, programs and projects; manages assets and investments; and is responsible for the Planned Giving and Endowment Stewardship program.
Earned bonuses for coaches, trainers and others - which amounted to more than $36,000 - were paid for by the athletics budget.
When the football team played in the International Bowl in Toronto last year, it cost the university approximately $395,000, Howard said. The biggest reason for the decreased costs this year was because of the GMAC Bowl payout, he said.
The GMAC Bowl gave Ball State $350,000 to play in its game. The International Bowl gave tickets to Ball State to sell last year, and the university got the money it made in ticket sales.
The extra funds from the bowl payout helped prevent Ball State from losing even more money this year than last year. Without the payout, Ball State would have lost more than $492,000 this year.
Ball State had more than $530,000 in expenses from the bowl game.
Ball State's biggest expense was the $160,000 it paid for a chartered plane for the football team, coaches, athletics staff and university officials. In Mobile, Ball State spent more than $135,000 for meals, hotels and other travel expenses.
It also cost more than $56,000 for the university to take its band and cheerleaders to the game.
Excluding the bowl payout, Ball State had approximately $75,000 in revenue.
Ball State's biggest source of revenue for the GMAC Bowl other than the bowl payout was ticket sales - which brought in more than $52,000 for the university.
Ball State's bowl expenses fell in the middle for Mid-American Conference schools.
Central Michigan University spent less than Ball State - with a net loss of $67,227 for the Motor City Bowl in Detroit. Northern Illinois University spent more than Ball State - with a net loss of $158,792 for the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La.
The University at Buffalo and Western Michigan University did not provide financial records from their bowl games.
BENEFITS OF FOOTBALL
While Ball State spent more than $100,000 to play in the GMAC Bowl, university officials said the cost was well worth the investment.
"I think the benefits from the visibility well exceed the investment of the dollar figure that you see there," said Tony Proudfoot, associate vice president for marketing and communications.
The bowl game was the eighth nationally televised game of the season for the Cardinals, which greatly increased the university's visibility, Proudfoot said. The added visibility made more prospective students aware of Ball State and renewed alumni involvement, he said.
On campus, the bowl game not only improved the experience for football players, but it also improved the college experience for the student body as a whole and increased institutional pride, Proudfoot said.
However, not everyone thinks the Ball State football team and athletics program is a great thing for the university.
Professor of economics Marilyn R. Flowers presented a report to University Senate in the fall that outlined concerns about the amount of money the university spends on athletics, specifically from student fees.
The 2008-09 budget for the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics shows that Ball State has more than $14 million budgeted for its athletics programs. Approximately 80 percent of the budget is paid for from student fees - almost $9 million - and institutional support - almost $2.5 million.
"When it costs so much for kids to go to school, and you charge them $800 a year and most of them don't go to any games, that I think is really unfortunate," Flowers said.
Flowers also contributes to a blog on the Indianapolis Star's Web site called "The Bottom Line." Flowers' first post in January questioned the purpose of college athletics given their high costs.
"I think university athletics has kind of become the tail that wags the dog because it's so much money," she said.
APPLICATIONS FOR ADMISSION
After Boston College beat the University of Miami on a Hail Mary pass at the end of a 1984 game, applications to Boston College increased 30 percent in the next two years, according to the Associated Press.
The event led people to think that successful athletics programs cause more students to apply to universities - a phenomenon that is known as the "Flutie Effect," which is named after Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie.
At Ball State, the benefits of the "Flutie Effect" are not so apparent.
"I think I can say with confidence that interest in attending Ball State and the quality of students that we are getting that are interested in Ball State and the number of students that are interested in Ball State has grown every year over the past several years," Proudfoot said. "Does our participation in bowl games play a role in that? Yes. Can I quantify exactly how much? No, and I'm not sure that any university could."
From 2002 to 2006, Ball State's applications for admission remained within a consistent range of 9,683 at its low to 10,826 at its peak. Since 2006, though, the university has seen its applications for admission increase almost 20 percent.
However, other universities across the state have seen similar increases regardless of their athletics programs.
From 2006 to 2008, Indiana State University saw its applications for admission increase almost 45 percent - from 5,230 to 7,572. During that span, Indiana State racked up 26 consecutive losses on the football field.
Indiana University, Purdue University, IPFW and IUPUI also have seen a 10 to 25 percent increase in applications since 2006.
"I don't think anybody chooses the college to go to just because they have a football team, although there may be a few, I don't know," Howard said. "But I do think that maybe a student that hadn't really heard a lot about Ball State and then hears about them, generates some buzz about them and then they started looking and say, 'Wow, they've got a great architecture program,' or whatever.'"
While Ball State's applications for admittance have increased in recent years, the number of students enrolling has decreased.
Ball State's enrollment numbers have decreased every year since 2003, according to the Ball State's Fact Book. During the 2003-04 academic year, Ball State had 17,447 full-time students. In 2007-08, Ball State's enrollment decreased to 16,493.
Flowers said the number of students actually enrolling is the key, as they are the ones who help fund the university. How much effect the football team has had on Ball State's enrollment remains unclear, she said.
"The university, they claim they like the publicity and they think it helps them get students, and maybe it does but I don't think anybody has numbers one way or the other to justify that," Flowers said.
TICKET SALES
Although the Ball State football team had its second best season for average home attendance in program history this past season, it did not have the same success in bowl ticket sales.
This year Ball State averaged 19,200 fans at its six home football games. The attendance was the highest since the team drew 20,258 fans a game in 1997 - a year when Ball State went 5-6 after a bowl season.
Ball State sold 2,280 tickets for the GMAC Bowl this year - which ranked in the bottom 15 percent in the nation.
Of the 68 universities that played in bowl games this past season, 64 of them provided bowl ticket sales figures. The University of Maryland (Humanitarian Bowl), University of Memphis (St. Petersburg Bowl), University of Pittsburgh (Sun Bowl) and Texas Christian University (Poinsettia Bowl) did not provide bowl ticket sale information.
The University of Hawai'i sold the most bowl tickets with 45,718 for the Hawaii Bowl. The school's ticket office handles ticket sales for the bowl game because of their proximity, which inflates its number some. After Hawai'i, the University of Southern California sold the most bowl tickets with 33,179 for the Rose Bowl.
Fresno State University sold the fewest bowl tickets with 161 for the New Mexico Bowl.
Of the five Mid-American Conference schools that played in bowl games this year, Ball State was in the middle of the pack in terms of selling bowl tickets.
Central Michigan University led the MAC with 12,000 tickets sold for the Motor City Bowl while the University at Buffalo sold 10,300 for the International Bowl.
Northern Illinois University sold 2,000 for the Independence Bowl and Western Michigan sold 2,000 for the Texas Bowl.
When Ball State played in the International Bowl for the 2007-08 season, it sold a little more than 2,000 tickets.
PURPOSE OF ATHLETICS
While Ball State officials say NCAA athletics is a positive for the university, the continuing loss of money on athletics causes others to question that convention.
Ball State is not unusual among NCAA Division I schools in that its athletics department does not cover all its costs without financial support, Flowers said. Universities across the country pump millions of dollars into their athletics programs every year, even though they are meant for education, she said.
"I think we've got our priorities wrong in higher education in this area," Flowers said.
Proudfoot maintains it is hard to quantify the benefit of college athletics, but he said they are a benefit to Ball State.
"It's great that we're a major national institution, we're a major player, and that's something that donors want to be a part of, that's something that students want to come and be part of, and that's something that alumni and friends can be proud of," Proudfoot said. "It's a great stimulator of institutional pride."
Regardless of people's thoughts, athletics continue to be a large part of universities in the United States.
Flowers said she is unsure if big-time athletics is needed as part of the college experience as is often claimed, but she is not in favor of it.
"What does it say about higher education if the way you get students to come is to give them a football team?" she said.
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