Lesser bowl will not affect UNC's bottom line

After the UNC football team’s crushing defeat by N.C. State on Saturday, UNC lost its chance to play in a Tier 2 bowl game, leaving it with the possibility of playing in a Tier 3 bowl game or none at all.

There are four ACC teams that are 6-6 — UNC, Miami, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh — but only three guaranteed bowl slots for them. An extra bowl game might become available for an ACC team depending on where bowl-eligible teams from the Big 12 conference end up.

“We put so much work in, so I’ll feel pretty bad if we don’t get to play in a bowl game,” said Kendrick Singleton, a junior wide receiver.

While UNC fans and players could potentially be disappointed, dropping down a tier or not going to a bowl at all will not significantly affect UNC financially.

“We set our budget in February, March or April, the year before, based on a projected amount of money that the ACC tells us we’ll get, regardless of if we’re in a bowl game,” said Rick Steinbacher, the senior associate athletic director for external communications.

The bowl games are a major source of revenue for the ACC and its schools, and each school receives the same bowl payout amount from the ACC if it plays in a Tier 1 bowl, Tier 2 bowl or no bowl at all.

Steinbacher said each of the 14 ACC schools receives an equal split of the bowl revenue allotment. This year, each school received slightly less than $5 million for a bowl payout.

Each school that makes it to a bowl game also receives an expense allotment to cover its travel costs, but the expense allotment is not intended to be a financial gain. All bowl teams receive the same expense funding, except for the teams that make it to the college playoffs and the Orange Bowl — they receive more funding.

The biggest concern with UNC potentially playing in a Tier 3 bowl is that fewer students and alumni will attend because the game will be farther away. In 2013, UNC played the University of Cincinnati in the Belk Bowl in Charlotte, giving nearby alumni and students a chance to attend.

“It’s been a while since we played a bowl game that wasn’t really a drivable distance,” Steinbacher said. “Certainly, playing a bowl game farther away will have lesser amounts of fans.”

Sports business scholar Marc Edelman said while a faraway game does not necessarily guarantee low fan attendance, in UNC’s case, it likely does.

“For a school like UNC, a lot of graduates stay in the area, so the farther the team travels, the harder it’d be to find fans,” Edelman said.

“The University of Michigan is a perfect example of a school that has a strong alumni base nationwide. In Michigan, Florida, California, they’re going to have a strong base anywhere.”

Due to the timing of the bowl games, as well as the likelihood of the game being far away, it might be difficult for UNC students to attend.

“A lot of the bowl games are during Christmas break, and people have family plans, so it’s hard to travel far,” said freshman Abbey Rogers. She said she is from Charlotte and would have liked to go if the game had been held there again this year.

The announcement of bowl assignments on Dec. 7 will determine if UNC will play in a bowl.

university@dailytarheel.com