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A sea of red that made its way to New Orleans each of the past two Decembers resulted in two straight years of the UL football team being in the black when it comes to postseason play.
Not all college football teams wind up on the positive side of the profit ledger when final bowl-game expenses and income are tallied.
Some programs even have been known to take six-figure losses.
But according to financial statements obtained from UL the Ragin’ Cajuns made money as a result of their New Orleans Bowl appearances in both 2011 and 2012, pocketing about $374,000 after a win over San Diego State two years ago and – reduced because of newly implemented Sun Belt Conference sharing rules – about $40,000 after a victory last year over East Carolina.
With the 8-2 Cajuns under consideration by the New Orleans Bowl – and two other bowls, one in Mobile and one in Shreveport – as they prepare to host Saturday’s key Sun Belt game against in-state rival UL Monroe, UL athletic director Scott Farmer suggests the short ride a couple or so hours east on Interstate 10 simply makes economic sense.
“We have tremendous fans,” Farmer said. “But … I don’t know of a bowl we would sell more tickets to than the New Orleans Bowl.
“There may be one out there, and I would like to find out one day, but right now I am just amazed at number of tickets we sold to the New Orleans Bowl.”
The New Orleans Bowl announced a then bowl-record crowd of 42,841 in 2011, an overwhelming majority of those in attendance UL supporters.
The game announced a new bowl-record crowd 48,828 in 2012, most of them again Cajun fans.
The bowl played at the Superdome in New Orleans is known to again have the Cajuns quite high on its list of preferred invitees.
That established, however, Farmer does not rule out the possibility of UL perhaps accepting a bowl bid from elsewhere.
“I think you always look at all your options – always – and you always make a decision that is best for he program,” Farmer said.
“So I am not gonna say … we won’t look anywhere else.”
UL is known to also be under consideration by the Jan. 5 GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile, which like the New Orleans Bowl is contractually tied to the Sun Belt, and for a possible at-large invitation from the Dec. 31 Advocare V100 Bowl (formerly known as the Independence Bowl) in Shreveport.
All three are listed as “possible bowl destinations” for the Cajuns on a UL website taking priority seating orders from booster-club members.
The New Orleans Bowl has the inside track on eligible Sun Belt teams, though, so prying away UL from it could require extensive negotiations among – and monetary concessions and/or inducements from – various bowl, conference and school officials.
But the SEC may not wind up with enough bowl-eligible teams to send one to Shreveport, as it is contracted to do, leaving the bowl there scrambling for backup plans to pit an opponent against a team from the ACC.
“It is intriguing to play an ACC opponent,” Farmer said.
If an SEC-ACC matchup is Plan A for Shreveport, Plan B going into Saturday’s games appeared to be landing Notre Dame if no SEC team is available and a possible Plan C seemed to be getting UL if it can’t get Notre Dame – thereby creating an extra spot in a bowl for a Sun Belt team, something favorable for the conference.
Farmer said UL will “continue to monitor,” and “just stay on the phone the next couple weeks” with, “bowls we’ve been in contact with, bowls that have a lot of interest in us and that are fairly close to us.”
It also seems clear, however, that the Cajuns are well-aware the bowl most UL fans seem bound to travel to is located in New Orleans – and that the more fans a program sells bowl tickets to, the more money it potentially can make.
Whether a similar-sized bowl would be just as financially lucrative as New Orleans for the Cajuns, making it worth the risk of them going elsewhere, is tough to tell.
“It’s very difficult to figure that out,” Farmer said. “I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it is very difficult.”
One reason: No one knows for sure how many Cajun fans would travel to somewhere other than New Orleans. UL hasn’t played in a bowl outside of New Orleans since 1970, and that was the Grantland Rice Bowl in nearby Baton Rouge.
“I think how those (similar-sized bowls) can pull it off is if there is a great matchup – somehow a great matchup falls in their lap,” Farmer said.
“Right now we have a tremendous fan following to the New Orleans Bowl,” he added, “and I think that’s a very significant part of the bowl experience – sharing, or celebrating, your season with the fans.”
Making money – or least trying not to lose any – is another critical consideration.
Some smaller programs and conferences accept that a financial hit is offset by national exposure, recruiting benefits and an opportunity to keep fans happy and involved.
Coach Mark Hudspeth’s club, though, has bucked the system by cashing a check too.
According to an internal UL income statement, the Cajuns pocketed $374,090.13 from the 2011 New Orleans Bowl.
A total of $1,034,638.00 in income included $746,700 in ticket revenue, plus an automatic $250,000 in support from the Sun Belt – generated by BCS revenue – that goes to all conference bowl teams. Expenses of $660,547.87 included $259,894 in transport and accommodations.
According to records submitted from UL to the Sun Belt, the Cajuns pocketed only $40,304 from the 2012 game – even though total ticket revenue was up by about $140,000.
The biggest difference between the two years is that since the 2012 postseason Sun Belt bowl teams are required to share half of their direct ticket revenue with the conference, in order to help subsidize bowl participation by teams that could lose money just by accepting a bid.
The money collected by the conference is redistributed to reimburse the cost of transportation – be they busses or airline travel – for all member programs in bowls.
The decision was made via a vote of Sun Belt-member presidents, SBC associate commissioner John McElwain said.
That means that from a UL ticket total of $886,420, $259,070 went to the New Orleans Bowl, the Cajuns kept $305,745 00 and $321,605 went back to the conference.
In turn, however, on top of the $250,000 from the conference the Sun Belt also reimbursed UL $46,684.95 for transportation – part of the new sharing arrangement that’s also in place for 2013.
The conference taking a cut cost the Cajuns cash last year, and benefitted other SBC programs, but it could also benefit UL in future years.
The bottom line, in any event: For a team like the Cajuns, the more bowl tickets it sells the more lucrative it can be to go bowling – and bowl games in New Orleans, it’s been proven, are money-makers for UL football.
“Absolutely,” Farmer said.
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