Quote Originally Posted by MSUBobcat View Post
What was confusing was you said they could screw over a team that "actually want(s)" to host. What you meant was the system in place screws over a team that "earned the right" to host by play on the field. Two wholly different arguments and no one disagrees. We'd all love to seed the field and play as it falls out (with minor adjustment to avoid conference rematches, i.e. if 1 vs 24 is a conference rematch, swap in #23 instead).

As for the 75% ticket revenue... someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that even with the NCAA taking 75% of ticket revenue, they still lose money on the FCS playoffs as a whole most years. In 2019, total announced attendance (per box scores) was 28,787... for ALL 8 games. And over a quarter was from a single game (Nicholls vs. UND, 7,569). 28,787 x 75% x $20 ave. ticket price (MSUDuo mentioned that even $20 is too steep for a casual fan Springfield so I used that) is $431,805. I don't know what the net revenue for broadcasting the game is, but the ticket revenue doesn't go very far toward paying the travel costs of the 8 visiting teams.
The NCAA's cut is probably less than that because they take 75% of the net rather than the gross so the host schools take out their expenses before they divvy up the pie. The value of these games to the media partner (ESPN) is what really isn't known. The FCS playoffs go into the same TV contract as a boatload of other NCAA championships. I believe the latest contract was signed back in 2011 and was for 12 years and $500M (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-e...7BE2FM20111215). How much of that $40M+ annually can be attributed to the FCS playoffs? I don't know but I'd bet it's not insignificant since ESPN does give the FCS playoffs 5 spots on their national networks each year... it would be interesting to see what the deal would be if the NCAA ever bid out the TV contract for just the FCS playoffs.

Quote Originally Posted by MSUWineGuy View Post
Ohhh, okay, that makes more sense. I thought you had to pay 75% AND whatever you bid.
Nope, it's whatever the higher number is between those two amounts.