WE LOST LESS MONEY THAN NORTHERN ILLINOIS. Thus does Ball State explain away the bottom line from their recent GMAC Bowl loss.

Ball State's bowl expenses fell in the middle for Mid-American Conference schools.

Central Michigan University spent less than Ball State - with a net loss of $67,227 for the Motor City Bowl in Detroit. Northern Illinois University spent more than Ball State - with a net loss of $158,792 for the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La.

The University at Buffalo and Western Michigan University did not provide financial records from their bowl games.

The article suggests that Mid-American teams do better with bowl games close to home.

Central Michigan University led the MAC with 12,000 tickets sold for the Motor City Bowl [in Detroit] while the University at Buffalo sold 10,300 for the International Bowl [in Toronto].

Northern Illinois University sold 2,000 for the Independence Bowl and Western Michigan sold 2,000 for the Texas Bowl.

When Ball State played in the International Bowl for the 2007-08 season, it sold a little more than 2,000 tickets.

Perhaps that should not surprise, as the Mid-American universities are regional comprehensives, often serving nearby students with little disposable income.

The article also suggests the arms-race properties of football success.

The extra funds from the bowl payout helped prevent Ball State from losing even more money this year than last year. Without the payout, Ball State would have lost more than $492,000 this year.

The article doesn't spell out what the team would have lost had it not gone to the bowl. The coaches, however, prefer to get a bowl bid, as it means two additional months of (official) practice. Ball State officialdom, perhaps with visions of a mineshaft gap, see spillover benefits from the visibility.

While Ball State spent more than $100,000 to play in the GMAC Bowl, university officials said the cost was well worth the investment."I think the benefits from the visibility well exceed the investment of the dollar figure that you see there," said Tony Proudfoot, associate vice president for marketing and communications.

The bowl game was the eighth nationally televised game of the season for the Cardinals, which greatly increased the university's visibility, Proudfoot said. The added visibility made more prospective students aware of Ball State and renewed alumni involvement, he said.

On campus, the bowl game not only improved the experience for football players, but it also improved the college experience for the student body as a whole and increased institutional pride, Proudfoot said.

The evidence suggests something else.

"I think I can say with confidence that interest in attending Ball State and the quality of students that we are getting that are interested in Ball State and the number of students that are interested in Ball State has grown every year over the past several years," Proudfoot said. "Does our participation in bowl games play a role in that? Yes. Can I quantify exactly how much? No, and I'm not sure that any university could."

From 2002 to 2006, Ball State's applications for admission remained within a consistent range of 9,683 at its low to 10,826 at its peak. Since 2006, though, the university has seen its applications for admission increase almost 20 percent.

However, other universities across the state have seen similar increases regardless of their athletics programs.

From 2006 to 2008, Indiana State University saw its applications for admission increase almost 45 percent - from 5,230 to 7,572. During that span, Indiana State racked up 26 consecutive losses on the football field.

Indiana University, Purdue University, IPFW and IUPUI also have seen a 10 to 25 percent increase in applications since 2006.

"I don't think anybody chooses the college to go to just because they have a football team, although there may be a few, I don't know," [Ball State assistant treasurer Randy] Howard said. "But I do think that maybe a student that hadn't really heard a lot about Ball State and then hears about them, generates some buzz about them and then they started looking and say, 'Wow, they've got a great architecture program,' or whatever.'"

While Ball State's applications for admittance have increased in recent years, the number of students enrolling has decreased.Ball State's enrollment numbers have decreased every year since 2003, according to the Ball State's Fact Book. During the 2003-04 academic year, Ball State had 17,447 full-time students. In 2007-08, Ball State's enrollment decreased to 16,493.

A regression analysis of changes in enrollment would have trouble capturing the effect of the football program in the presence of the recession beginning with the 2008 application season, which induces a substitution toward cheaper institutions, and in the presence of lower birth rates from 1990 onward, which is turning up in college-age cohorts.

Thanks to University Diaries for catching the story.