The Wiz of Odds

Old Media

A look at front pages of newspapers in Ohio after Jim Tressel stepped down as Buckeye coach. Click an image for an enlarged view.

Tressel's Successor? Odds Favor Meyer

With Jim Tressel stepping down at Ohio State, the 2011 coaching carousel got cranked up early. Bodog has posted odds on who might be the next Buckeye coach. The favorite is Urban Meyer at 3/2. Then comes Florida State assistant Mark Stoops (5/2) and ESPN analyst Jon Gruden (3/1).

Also on the list are Nebraska's Bo Pelini (10/1) and Michigan State's Mark Dantonio (12/1).

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl

The Wiz of Odds is conducting a comprehensive study of bowl game expense reports. All of the data collected — expense reports for 56 teams and bowl surveys for 40 teams — are being posted on the site. Here is the latest installment. For an overview of the project, click here.

The Little Caesars Pizza Bowl has been played in the Detroit area since its inception in 1997. It was formerly the Motor City Bowl. The game is privately held by Dilip Dubey, chairman of the game, and operates as Motor City Sports Inc., a 501(c) nonprofit.

2010 participants: Florida International and Toledo.

Florida International expenses: FIU reported no absorbed ticket costs. This suggests the school negotiated a lower bowl payout (reported to be $750,000 per team) in exchange for bowl officials dropping the ticket commitment. FIU did report selling 392 tickets. The school also listed its travel party at 172, lowest among the 56 reports obtained by The Wiz of Odds. FIU listed its total expenses to be $396,601. Download Florida International Expenses

Survey: Although the game is played in the hub of the motor vehicle industry, athletic director Pete Garcia said there was a shortage of courtesy vehicles.

"We definitely could have used two more courtesy vehicles, three cars was not enough," Garcia wrote.

Garcia also gave a "neutral" rating to the availability of practice equipment.

"The only thing is that we had to bring our own practice equipment," he wrote. "We understand that this the norm for teams, but with our team traveling from Miami, it made it difficult to get our equipment trucked up to Detroit." Download Florida International Survey

Toledo expenses: The school reported selling all of its $60, $45, $23 and $15 tickets but got stuck with 902 tickets priced at $5. That left the bill for absorbed tickets at $4,510. Total expenses were reported to be $212,191, the second-lowest total of the 56 reports obtained by The Wiz of Odds. Download Toledo Expenses

Survey: Athletic director Michael O'Brien wrote no comments, but his responses to questions made it clear he wasn't overwhelmed by the Little Caesars Bowl experience.

He answered "adequate" when asked of his overall impression of the event. And he gave responses of "neutral" on the availability of practice equipment and cost of rooms.

In all, O'Brien answered, "satisfied" to 16 questions and "very satisfied" to seven. Download Toledo Survey

Armed Forces Bowl

The Wiz of Odds is conducting a comprehensive study of bowl game expense reports. All of the data collected — expense reports for 56 teams and bowl surveys for 40 teams — are being posted on the site. Here is the latest installment. For an overview of the project, click here.

First played in 2003, the Armed Forces Bowl is one of seven postseason games owned and operated by ESPN.  The Dallas-area game is traditionally played at Amon G. Carter Stadium on the campus of Texas Christian University, but was moved to Gerald J. Ford Stadium on Southern Methodist University's campus for 2010 and 2011 because of a renovation of Carter Stadium. 

2010 participants: Army and Southern Methodist.

Army expenses: The high cost of being an independent is evident in the Black Knights' report. The team committed to purchasing 10,000 tickets at $40 each. Although it sold all 10,000, 3,975 were sold at lower prices —from $25 to $33. That amounted to absorbed ticket costs of $159,000. Total reported expenses were $572,817. Army did manage to keep costs down by limiting its official travel party to 188. Only Florida International brought a smaller official party (172) to the postseason among the 56 reports obtained by The Wiz of Odds. Download Army Expenses

Survey: West Point officials redacted the name of the athletic director on documents sent to The Wiz of Odds. Kevin Anderson was Army's athletic director, but moved to a similar post at Maryland last September. Whoever filled out the survey was complimentary throughout and answered "very satisfied" on nearly every question.

They did, however, respond with a "neutral" rating on the number of credentials issued by bowl officials.

The person filling in the survey also noted they were "satisfied" with the ticket commitment and cost of game tickets.

Summing up his experience, they wrote: "The entire event was well organized and executed. Success was achieved through a lot of open dialogue running up to bowl week. The bowl staff were always available for questions and did a great job of aniticipating [sic] our needs." Download Army Survey

Southern Methodist: The private school refused to offer its expense report or bowl survey to The Wiz of Odds.

Bowl Championship Series Title Game

The Wiz of Odds is conducting a comprehensive study of bowl game expense reports. All of the data collected — expense reports for 56 teams and bowl surveys for 40 teams — are being posted on the site. Here is the latest installment. For an overview of the project, click here.

The Bowl Championship Series title game is a stand-alone entity staged by one of the four BCS bowl organizations annually. The Rose, Sugar, and Orange fund the game through their 501(c)(3) organizations. The Fiesta has a special-purpose 501(c)(3) called the Arizona College Football Championship Foundation used to present the title game every four years. Thus, the classification is always 501(c)(3) (or public charity). The first game was played in 1999.

2011 participants: Oregon and Auburn.

Oregon expenses: Tickets to the title game ranged from $200 to $325 and the Ducks reported 1,761 absorbed tickets at a cost of $555,575. Total expenses were reportedly $2.54 million. Oregon's official party — the team, coaching staff, band, cheerleaders, faculty and athletics department personnel — numbered 493. That’s below the norm of 568. Download Oregon Expenses

Survey: Athletic director Rob Mullens indicated he was "very satisfied" on nearly every category. But when asked about location of seats, the number of ticket purchases required and cost of game tickets, he downgraded to "satisfied." Download Oregon Survey

Auburn expenses: The Tigers reported absorbing 2,456 tickets at a cost of $781,825. Total expenses were listed at $2.9 million. Auburn’s travel party of 938 was the largest among the 56 expense reports obtained by The Wiz of Odds. Download Auburn Expenses

Survey: Athletic directors had six choices on the surveys: excellent, very satisfied, satisfied, neutral, dissatisfied and very dissatisfied. Jay Jacobs indicated he was "satisfied" on every question but four. He was "neutral" on the number of ticket purchases required, cost of tickets and the condition of the practice and playing field. He rated the overall bowl experience "excellent." Download Auburn Survey

Independence Bowl

The Wiz of Odds is conducting a comprehensive study of bowl game expense reports. All of the data collected — expense reports for 56 teams and bowl surveys for 40 teams — are being posted on the site. Here is the latest installment. For an overview of the project, click here.

The Independence Bowl, played in Shreveport, La., is operated by the nonprofit Independence Bowl Foundation. It was named in honor of the United States' 200th birthday in 1976, also the year of the first game.

2010 participants: Air Force and Georgia Tech.

Air Force expenses: The Falcons reported to the NCAA total expenses of  $459,648, but according to data on page 2 of the pdf, that figure is incorrect. It appears that Air Force fudged its numbers. Air Force claimed it sold more than its allotted 11,000 tickets by 1,098 for a total of 12,098. But the academy reports it sold each ticket for $25 rather than the agreed price of $45. It then claims to have made a profit of $49,388 on the sale of the extra 1,098 tickets and lists each ticket value at $45. Using the $45 value as a base price throughout, Air Force's total expenses were actually $600,533, not the $459,648 it reported to the NCAA. Under other expenses, the school listed $11,545 for travel expenses for coaches' families. Download Air Force Expenses

Air Force did not complete a bowl survey.

Georgia Tech expenses: The school reported that it absorbed 5,474 tickets at a cost of $235,150 and had total expenses of $1.17 million. Other expenses of $287,258 are listed as "salary supplements & fringe." Download Georgia Tech Expenses

Survey: Athletic director Dan Radakovich is apparently not a fan of the Transportation Security Administration in Shreveport.

"The bowl staff is probably not aware of the most unpleasant experience during departure at the Shreveport Airport," he wrote. "The TSA staff was inadequate in size and provided the most thorough inspection of each passenger ever experienced. It literally took 2 hours to process 190 passengers through check-in and there were no other people in the entire airport. Not a Bowl responsibility but nonetheless relfects [sic] on the final impression of the trip."

Although Radakovich did not rate his level of satisfaction for the overall bowl experience, he expressed satisfaction throughout the survey except for two additional areas. The first was the number of complimentary suites, which he gave a "neutral" rating.

"Georgia Tech could have used more suite rooms in the hotel than were available," he wrote.

He also gave a "neutral" rating to the number of complimentary gifts for athletes.

"The NCAA standard of 125 participant gifts clearly does not cover the needs of the official party," he wrote. "This is not meant to be a criticism of the Indpendence [sic] Bowl, merely an observation for NCAA staff consideration." Download Georgia Tech Survey