The Independence Bowl advertises a payout of $1.1 million per each participating team. This payout, however, is only given to teams which come from the automatic tie-ins to the Independence Bowl (one SEC team and one Big 12 team).

“If you’re an at-large team then that kind of payout becomes more negotiable or kind of mandated based on not getting one of those affiliated teams, and it drops off significantly,” Compher said. “Most people don’t get that. I wish [the Independence Bowl] wouldn’t put that out there. People think: $1.1 million; you’re set. If it were $1.1 million; we’d be fine.”

Once negotiations were reached, NIU received a $750,000 payout from the Independence Bowl. But this entire payout did not come back to NIU.

As part of accepting an invitation to a bowl game, teams must commit to selling so many tickets to the game. In the case of the Independence Bowl, the Huskies had to commit to 12,000 tickets at $35 a ticket. This produced a $420,000 expense for NIU.

If a program is unable to sell all its tickets, it must pay for the unsold tickets. This cost is defrayed from the bowl payout.

NIU produced around $38,000 to $39,000 in ticket revenue for the game, Williams said. Not all of this, however, was profit as some of the ticket revenue went to tickets that were given to spouses and other family members.

“Some tickets you have for spouses or relatives,” Williams said. “The bottom line was a majority of the funds had to come from the allotment, and that’s basically what happened in the other bowls.”

The Independence Bowl also required the Huskies participate in a Christmas night gathering and the Minuteman luncheon prior to the game. These required experiences cost NIU $2,220.

Comparatively, when the Huskies went to their last bowl game in San Diego, they were required to go to Sea World, which cost $9,000.

The bowl payout also goes to cover other expenses that a team will incur such as team travel and lodging for not only the players and coaches, but for the marching band and cheerleaders.

“It sounds good but when you get down to the details you find out and oh,” Williams said about the bowl payout.

Continue reading this story by clicking on part six.