Collegiate Times

Virginia Tech may have participated in two consecutive Orange Bowls, but the university will still receive the same bowl revenue as all other Atlantic Coast Conference teams, including those who did not participate in a bowl game.

When the Hokies were selected for the 2009 FedEx Orange Bowl, they earned $18 million for the ACC.

Michael Kelly, the ACC's associate commissioner for football, said all ACC programs take an equal share of postseason conference earnings.

"With the BCS berth as one of 10 bowl berths earned by the conference, the ACC takes television money and bowl money and puts it into a collective pot to be divided among all 12 conference teams," Kelly said.

All conference schools then receive funding on a continuous basis throughout the year, said Lisa Rudd, Tech assistant director of athletics for financial affairs.

Conferences aligned with the BCS, such as the ACC, earn $18 million for the first bid, which is divided evenly among the other teams. These conferences have an automatic BCS bid for the champion.

These conferences also stand to earn an additional $4.5 million for at-large bids. The Southeastern Conference and Big 12 each earned $22.5 million from BCS bowls this year.

Notre Dame, an independent, makes $1.3 million from the BCS every year, whether the Fighting Irish make the BCS or lose all of their games. After dividing their prize amongst the entire ACC, Orange Bowl-winning Tech takes home $1.5 million in BCS earnings.

There is no financial benefit for winning a BCS bowl game.

Kelly said teams participating in these games receive a higher expense allowance and more national exposure.

While the program may not receive any financial benefit from team success, coaches and athletics department officials are rewarded for the team's achievements.

In total, the Hokies' victories in the ACC Championship and Orange Bowl resulted in $683,921 in bonuses.

Head coach Frank Beamer received the largest bonuses. He was awarded a $50,000 bonus for his triumph in Tampa and $75,000 for the New Year's win in Miami.

Coordinators Bud Foster and Bryan Stinespring each received $7,500 for the ACC Championship win and $55,000 for the Orange Bowl victory.

All assistant football coaches received bonuses. Some athletic department staff members, as well as the directors of the Marching Virginians, also benefited from the team's success.

Tech will receive a $1,625,000 reimbursement from the ACC, according to Rudd. This is meant to cover team travel expenses including transportation, Miami area hotel lodging, as well as coach and player travel stipends.

Rudd said that the ACC used to send a flat rate of $1.6 million to a team from its conference participating in the Orange Bowl, but added extra money to Tech's stipend this year after factoring in distance and location demographics.

The ACC allots only $160,000 in travel money for each team playing in the ACC championship, which was staged in Jacksonville in 2007 and Tampa Bay in 2008.

Rudd said reimbursements are used to encourage responsible financial planning.

"I would think that the conferences purposefully keep bowl reimbursements fairly low in order to encourage schools to do what they can to keep expenses down and limit travel party size," Rudd said.

Still, the Orange Bowl offering falls well short of actually covering the expenses of playing the bowl. Rudd said that expenses are generally higher than reimbursement and that Tech actually lost money by playing in the aforementioned bowl each of the past two years.

Ticket sales play a major culprit. Rudd said that Tech has to pay for some of the tickets it doesn't sell for the game.

"We did sell approximately 5,000 tickets of the 17,500 allotment, and the majority were sold in the first 2 or 3 days after the announcement," Rudd said. "The ACC picks up 50 percent of unsold tickets from 6,001 to 7,000, 75 percent from 7,001 to 8,000, and 100 percent 8,001 and up, so the loss is somewhat less than the face value of 3,000 tickets."

According to the New York Times College Sports Blog, Orange Bowl tickets were taking bids as low as 99 cents on eBay.

The Times' blog post said the Orange Bowl, which would host the BCS National Championship game seven days later, forced fans not affiliated with either Oklahoma or Florida to also buy tickets to the Virginia Tech-Cincinnati bout.

The Orange Bowl's total paid attendance ended up at 73,602, but the actual turnout was 57,851.

A countless number of people stood outside of the stadium on New Year's Day in the attempt to sell extra tickets.