BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The bowl industry cranks into gear over the next month for the final time in its current form. The BCS will soon be history, the College Football Playoff will replace it, and the non-playoff bowls will be figuring out what the fallout means to them.

An NCAA audit report of bowl games released last week shows that every Football Bowl Subdivision conference received more money from 2012-13 bowl payouts than their schools paid on bowl expenses.

The 35 bowls distributed $300.8 million last year to conferences, who negotiate deals on behalf of their teams, and schools reported spending $90.3 million on bowl trips. According to the NCAA report, bowls received $445.6 million in gross receipts and spent 26 percent of it on operating expenses. Bowls retained 7 percent of the receipts.

"The perception is out there that schools are losing money going to bowl games and the reality is that's not true," said Wright Waters, executive director of the Football Bowls Association. "Bowls strike deals with conferences, and there very well may be issues that conferences are not giving them a big enough allowance to go to the bowl. But at the end of the day, the conferences are still distributing money at the end of the year."

The NCAA report says the data came from audited financials of BCS and non-BCS bowl organizations, including supplemental schedules of actual revenues and expenses. The 2012-13 bowl reports submitted by schools were the first in which the NCAA did not count bowl bonuses to employees as institutional expenses.

Schools generally receive expense allowances and participation money for going to a bowl, depending on each conference's bowl distribution formula. At a later date, every team in a conference usually gets pooled money from the rest of the league's bowl revenue.

For example, the SEC approved earlier this year to increase its distribution of bowl revenue by $50,000 to participating teams. That means Auburn will now keep $1.975 million for playing in the BCS Championship Game instead of the $1.925 million kept by Alabama last year. Those figures don't include an SEC expense allowance.

The SEC received $52.3 million in payouts from bowls last year and had $37.5 million of revenue excess after paying for institutional expenses. The SEC's bowl payouts totaled $8.7 million more than the next-closest conference, the Big 12.

According to the NCAA, even smaller conferences had a net gain in bowl revenue after institutional expenses. Conference USA ($1.6 million) and the Mountain West ($2.3 million) had the smallest amount of revenue left once bowl trips were paid.

Bowl Money By Conference, 2012-13

Conference Bowl Payout Received Institutional Bowl Expenses SEC $52,278,677 $14,762,565 Big 12 $43,583,877 $11,673,620 Big Ten $43,056,054 $13,056,498 Pac-12 $41,233,877 $11,456,487 ACC $36,708,878 $10,122,047 Big East $32,108,877 $6,902,285 MAC $15,700,213 $4,108,580 Independents $7,872,485 $5,874,842 C-USA $7,020,983 $5,465,101 Sun Belt $6,850,200 $2,359,094 WAC $6,160,133 $1,059,173 Mountain West $5,709,267 $3,441,389 Other distribution totals $2,550,000 $0

Source: NCAA audit

The BCS totaled $202.5 million in revenue last year, accounting for 67 percent of the bowl system. The SEC and Pac-12 each took home $31.7 million from the BCS by placing two teams in the BCS.

The MAC received $12.9 million thanks to Northern Illinois' BCS appearance. Other lower-tiered FBS conferences without a BCS team received between $2.3 million and $4.1 million. Football Championship Subdivision conferences each received $250,000. Independents Navy, Army and BYU got $100,000.

The SEC played in five of the 10 highest-paying non-BCS bowls, including the top four. The Big Ten played in two of the four highest-paying bowls. The SEC's bowl value will increase next season with more frequent access to higher-paying bowls.

Non-BCS Bowl Revenue Distribution, 2012-13

Bowl Total Payout to Both Teams Bowl Matchup Capital One $9,216,978 Georgia-Nebraska Cotton $7,350,000 Texas A&M-Oklahoma Outback $7,200,000 South Carolina-Michigan Chick-fil-A $7,100,000 Clemson-LSU Buffalo Wild Wings $6,750,000 Michigan State-TCU Alamo $6,200,000 Texas-Oregon State Gator $5,450,000 Northwestern-Mississippi State Russell Athletics $4,650,000 Virginia Tech-Rutgers Holiday $4,500,000 Baylor-UCLA Sun $3,850,000 Georgia Tech-USC Music City $3,725,000 Vanderbilt-N.C. State New Era Pinstripe $3,600,000 Syracuse-West Virginia Meineke Car Care $3,400,000 Texas Tech-Minnesota Belk Bowl $3,100,000 Cincinnati-Duke Liberty $2,625,000 Tulsa-Iowa State Las Vegas $2,200,000 Boise State-Washington Heart of Dallas $2,000,000 Oklahoma State-Purdue BBVA Compass $1,950,000 Ole Miss-Pittsburgh Kraft Fight Hunger $1,750,000 Arizona State-Navy Independence $1,700,000 Ohio-Louisiana-Monroe GoDaddy.com $1,500,000 Arkansas State-Kent State Poinsettia $1,452,485 BYU-San Diego State Hawaii $1,300,000 SMU-Fresno State Little Caesars $1,300,000 Central Michigan-Western Kentucky Armed Forces $1,200,000 Rice-Air Force New Orleans $1,000,000 Louisiana-Lafayette-East Carolina Beef 'O' Brady $925,000 UCF-Ball State New Mexico $912,500 Arizona-Nevada Famous Idaho Potato $472,296 Utah State-Toledo Military No cash distribution San Jose State-Bowling Green

Note: Payouts are not necessarily split in half. Some conferences in a particular game receive more money than the other.



Source: NCAA audit

Tickets are a bowl game's greatest source of revenue and accounted for 34 percent of the combined gross receipts for all 35 bowl games in 2012-13. Other major sources of revenue: BCS TV and sponsorships (31 percent); media deals (15 percent); title sponsorship (6 percent); and corporate sponsorship (6 percent).

The participating bowl teams absorbed $12.1 million in unsold tickets -- a long-held public criticism of the bowl system. That was an average of $173,479 per team.

Waters said it's a misnomer that bowls force schools to buy the tickets, noting that it's a contractually-obligated number that's negotiated. By brokering ticket deals with conferences, bowls lose inventory to sell even in good years when tickets could have been sold at a higher amount, Waters said.

Starting next year, the postseason increases from 35 to 39 bowls due in part to the influx of new FBS members. Conferences will have more power than bowls in selecting the teams and will reduce the guaranteed ticket allotment schools must buy.

Waters said bowls won't like not making picks, but the change "won't be all bad" if better games are produced. The average bowl attendance last year was its lowest since 1978-79, although 18 of the 35 games experienced increases.

"What we found is bowls do better with teams that go regionally, teams that have compelling matchups, and teams that are hungry," Waters said. "I think what you're going to see is rather than conferences making their selections in working with the bowls, you're going to see more conference vs. conference communication in trying to set up regionally-compelling matchups."

Waters said Conference USA is "ahead of the curve" this year by keeping many of its matchups regional. For instance, Marshall is playing at the Military Bowl in Maryland and North Texas is in Dallas. C-USA no longer plays at the Hawaii Bowl, an expensive trip that can hurt the financial bottom line for a school and conference.

However, Waters raised concerns about lower guaranteed ticket allotments, particularly for games not associated with the College Football Playoff. There will be six high-profile bowls next year, not four, once the playoff starts: Rose, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, Cotton and Chick-fil-A.

Lower guaranteed ticket allotments "will probably create some problems with teams who travel well and who may not get tickets," Waters said. "Fans will have to pay scalper prices. Bowls will probably try to sell their tickets locally."