The losses from January's Fiesta Bowl continue to mount for the Connecticut athletic department.
If the 48-20 defeat to Oklahoma in front of a national TV audience didn't feel like a kick in the teeth, coach Randy Edsall resigned hours after the game to become coach at Maryland.
Now comes word that the university lost nearly $1.8 million on its trip to the Valley of the Sun.
Yes, prestige comes at a cost.
The Huskies' biggest expense — $2,924,385 — came from unsold tickets. The Fiesta Bowl requires teams to purchase 17,500 tickets. Connecticut sold only 2,771, according to documents obtained by the Daily Campus, the university's student newspaper.
The loss is considered to be second only to the $2.2 million lost by Virginia Tech on its trip to the 2009 Orange Bowl.
The documents did not include bonuses awarded to Edsall, his staff, athletic director Jeff Hathaway or any other athletic department administrators.
Connecticut, like many other states, is facing tough financial times, with lawmakers trying to figure out how to address a $3.2 billion deficit. But don't count on Huskies basketball coach Jim Calhoun to help. Calhoun, the state's highest-paid employee, was asked in 2009 about taking a cut from his $1.6 million annual salary to help the state address its deficit, which at the time was $944 million.
"Not a dime back," Calhoun said.
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