NIU has learned going to a bowl doesn’t mean it will put the money in its checking account.

Instead, a bowl game payout is given by a bowl for a school to cover its expenses. The money is therefore not intended to be used as revenue.

“That’s what [the bowl committees] expect you to do with the money. Its not cash – here go put this in your bank and use it,” Williams said.

“They expect it to cover the team coming out, the band expenses, and all the experiences associated with it,” he said.

This also means the events a bowl “sends” a team on are covered by the payout.

For example, the Poinsettia Bowl sent the NIU football team to the San Diego Zoo. This was part of the team’s program determined by the bowl. But the bowl covered this event out of the payout.

“It’s like why would you spend $9,000 going to Sea World?” Williams said. “It’s because that was the program.”

This also meant NIU had to bring the marching band to San Diego for the “Battle of the Bands.”

Some expenses, like team awards are left to the university to decide.

“I think that’s decided by the school. The school decides that they want to give some memento for being there,” Williams said.

In total, NIU spent $12,000 on team awards. Every player, coach and manager received an iPod Nano, iPod Nano case, watch, sweatshirt and ski cap.

Apparel also is left to the university’s discretion. In total, NIU spent $18,289.55 on its apparel.

The university was going to spend $30,000 on apparel and embroidery of warm-up pants, jackets and t-shirts for the players. This purchase order was cancelled, though, and replaced with a cheaper one, according to purchasing officer Rebecca May.

For $8,000, the university purchased the apparel through Adidas. Adidas then shipped the apparel to be embroidered in California for $10,289.55. This method saved the university $11,710.45.

– BEN GROSS