Bowl Game Payouts Are Practically a Small Fortune in College Football
College football bowl season is more than just silly-named contests that NFL-bound players opt out of. It's a money machine.
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Bowl payouts are getting better and better.
- Each conference gets $300,000 for each school that meets the NCAA's academic performance review (APR) for participation in a postseason bowl; FBS Independents like Notre Dame also receive the same amount.
- Each of the 10 conferences receive a base payout, again pending that academic performance review. For the Power 5 conferences with contracts to send its champion to the Orange, Rose and Sugar Bowl, each conference receives around $79 million. For the other Group of Five conferences that do not have automatic bids for its champion, they divide a total of around $103 million amongst themselves. Notre Dame automatically gets $3.89 million if it meets that APR review; all other independents split about $1.89 million.
- Each conference gets $6 million for every football team it sends to a CFP playoff semifinal game. They also get an additional $4 million for participation in one of the other non-playoff New Year's Six bowl games. There is no additional revenue added for making the national championship game.
- Each conference gets an additional $2.85 million to cover travel expenses for each game.