For Top 25 and Bowl Championship Series teams, football is one of the biggest money makers for the athletic program. Last year, the eight BCS teams that played in the bowls each were paid $15 million. But for the smaller Division I programs, receiving that kind of payday is not necessarily the case.
Ball State University is no exception.
The Ball State football program has been playing guarantee games against the likes of the University of Michigan, Purdue University and Auburn University. The Cardinals' opponent Saturday, Michigan, will pay out $495,000 for Ball State to visit Ann Arbor. It gives each side what it wants. The Bowl Championship Series school can chalk up an easy victory, and the little guys get a big payday to bolster the athletic budget.
And it's not as if Michigan can't afford it. Last year, the school generated more than $35 million in revenue from its football team.
"When you look at scheduling you want to try to have a schedule that's challenging for your competitive nature," Ball State coach Brady Hoke said. "I think you always want a schedule that gets you an opportunity to have more home games. Also, for the benefit of the program, there may be a game in there that you're going to play in nice stadium and be a little bit of a payday for the university."
According to the U.S. Department of Education Web site, the Ball State football team lost more than $2.4 million in the 2005-06 school year. Ten of the 12 Mid-American Conference football teams lost money and the other two, Central Michigan University and Ohio University, broke even.
It's not just the football program that doesn't generate revenue. None of Ball State's athletic teams broke even last year. Ball State's budget for the 2005-06 year was $14,538,840. To offset the operating costs of each sport, an additional $11.9 million to balance the athletic budget came from outside sources since revenue from all sports only totaled $2.5 million.
Included in the $11.9 million is money received from sponsorships, television and radio rights, the NCAA and student fees.
In 2004-05, Ball State kicked in $7 million it received in student fees to cover the operating charges for each of Ball State's 18 sports. In the same year, Ball State received $750,000 from the NCAA. The amount of money received by the NCAA includes two factors: money from CBS for the NCAA Tournament in men's basketball and a check every university receives from the NCAA for having more than 13 sports.
The athletic department will bring in $720,000 for Ball State's games against Purdue University and Michigan. Ball State also hosted its first Big Ten opponent when it played Indiana University, falling to the Hoosiers 24-23.
Indiana received $150,000 from Ball State for playing the game. The Hoosiers will return the favor when Ball State travels to Bloomington in 2008 ($150,000) and 2011 ($200,000).
The three people primarily in charge of making the football schedule - Deputy Athletics Director Ken Brown, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Tom Collins and Hoke - all seem to agree on one thing: Ball State's athletic department needs the football team to make itself prey for a BCS school at least once a season.
"I'm not sure we can have three Big Ten opponents on our schedule in one year," Collins said. "Philosophically, I don't want to get into a situation where we have to rely on playing big guarantee games on the road and I think there are some schools that are kind of caught in that right now."
But Ball State is caught up in it, at least through the 2007 season. In 2007, there are two potential top 10 teams on the schedule in the University of Nebraska and West Virginia University. The payday for Ball State's athletic department: $725,000 and $300,000, respectively. However, Ball State is currently trying to get out of the West Virginia game.
In 2005, Ball State made trips to the University of Iowa, Auburn and Boston College.
The Cardinals lost those three games by a combined score of 157-3. However, the athletic department collected $1.05 million for the three losses, which is $350,000 per loss.
The $500,000 paid to Ball State for playing Auburn did not factor into last year's budget, as that amount was set aside for field turf to be installed in Scheumann Stadium for the 2007 season.
While playing these games boosts the athletic department's bottom line, it can also impede a program's long-term progress.
"I think that can definitely take a toll when you look at the mind set," Hoke said. "I think that was a poorly designed schedule and one that didn't help the progress of the program."
The school will receive its biggest payday in 2009 when Ball State travels to Auburn again. The amount: $800,000.
Obviously, the long-term goals are to win a MAC championship and slide into a BCS game. For that to happen, the Cardinals would have to finish in the top 12 in the final BCS poll.
"The most important thing is to win the MAC championship and go to a bowl game," Collins said. "Who is it that you can play in the non-league stages that's going to help prepare for those? They're probably MAC-type schools like Troy, Middle Tennessee State and Florida Atlantic."
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