The price of bowling

This is a plea. We're down on our knees, begging that our point be seen. Purdue: It would be in your interest to let the IU football team beat you Saturday. \n"That bucket is ours, you damn Hoosiers!" you might reply. But before making such a hasty claim, please hear us out.\nPurdue's football team has a record of 7-4 and is most likely bowl-bound this postseason. Admittedly, this is no reason to let an archrival win. But with IU at 5-6, Purdue might consider the financial implications of letting us take home the Old Oaken Bucket and becoming bowl-eligible. \nThe Big Ten Conference operates on a shared revenue basis -- the bowl revenue earned by each team goes directly to the Big Ten Conference. Each bowl team is allotted a budget for which to pay for trip expenses, including airline tickets, lodging and other necessities. Going over the budget entails that additional expenses be covered by the individual university. The rest of the revenue is distributed among the 11 institutions that make up the Big Ten Conference and the league itself. \nWe think you can see where we're going with this. Last season, the Big Ten pulled in an unprecedented $35 million dollars in revenue, which, after expenses, amounted to about $3 million to each of the conference's schools. If bowls began today, the Big Ten would most likely receive six bowl bids (Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Penn State, Purdue and Iowa, in order of best record), including two of 10 Bowl Championship Series teams (Michigan and Ohio State) that receive higher payouts for their prestigious games. This would bring the conference a pretty penny.\nBut consider if IU wins on Saturday. Previously, the NCAA mandated that each team be paid a minimum of $750,000 per bowl but now allows conferences to negotiate payouts with bowls individually. And the Big Ten is pretty good at negotiating. Last season, the lowest amount the Big Ten conference received for any of its bowl games was for the Music City Bowl, in which Minnesota pulled in $780,000. If IU receives a bowl bid, that's almost a guaranteed $750,000 for the conference, and the conference's seventh bowl-eligible team. If Minnesota can somehow beat Iowa on Saturday, rendering both teams an overall record of 6-6, that would give the conference eight bowl-eligible teams. \nDo you hear that? Cha-ching! The Big Ten would be rolling in dough with each extra bowl team. We know that Purdue is smart with its money. Purdue's Krannert School of Management graduate program is ranked by U.S. News and World Report as the nation's No. 21 business school (two spots above IU's Kelley School of Business). So, Purdue, use that business sense we know you have. Put winning and pride behind you. Screw tradition, and do the smart thing: Take the money and run. Then everyone is happy. We'll even let you keep the bucket. We're not used to having it anyway.