Talk about adding financial insult to on-field injury for the Indiana football program.
Indiana faced Tennessee in the Gator Bowl this past college football bowl season. Midway through the fourth quarter, the Hoosiers held a 22-9 lead. IU was on the verge of claiming its first postseason win since the 1991 Copper Bowl. The Vols, though, scored a pair of touchdowns in less than a minute of game time to come away with a 23-22 win.
For participating in the bowl game, Indiana’s athletic department received $2.125 million from the Big Ten. The expenses surrounding the trip to Jacksonville, though, were $2,169,416. So, in other words, it cost IU a little over $44,000 to lose that heartbreaker of a game.
From HoosierSportsReport.com:Nearly $2 million of those expenses were for the football team specifically, with the most costly line item being travel. Flights to Jacksonville, Fla., cost $690,333, plus there was another $145,406 in ground travel.
Meals were the next biggest expense at $337,236. Hotel costs amounted to $219,240. Uniforms and bowl apparel were a nearly quarter-of-a-million-dollar expense, at $249,150.
There was also a $110,930 expense for awards, which includes commemorative rings for players in the game.
IU’s band and cheerleading team accounted for a combined $174,262 in expenses, including $156,272 for IU’s Marching Hundred.If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say that the 15 extra practice sessions that came along with the bowl trip -- especially since spring practice was gutted by the pandemic -- helped ease the financial loss. For the head coach, at least.