1. College Football Bowl $eason
By the numbers…

2. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers39
The college football bowl season featured 39 bowl games (down two from last year) played in locations from Hawaii to the Bahamas

3. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
Compare that to 1968, when there were 11 bowls, or even 1984, when there were 18 — a total that would remain more or less static for more than a decade

4. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
In the late 1990s the bowl field began expanding rapidly, reaching 20 games in 1997, 25 in 2000 and 32 in 2006

5. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
87%
Of the 39 bowl games, ESPN (and its affiliates including ABC and ESPN2) has the broadcast rights to 34 of them (representing 87% of all the bowl games)

6. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
33%
Of the 39 bowl games, ESPN Events actually owns and operates 13 of them (representing 33% of all the bowl games that were played in the college football bowl season)

7. 10 College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
In 2000, there were 25 Bowl Games played and each participating team had a winning record. Last year, 15 teams competed with records of .500 or worse (down from 20 teams in ). This year, there were no teams with a losing record and 10 teams with a .500 record.

8. $35 million College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
Industry experts estimate title sponsors for the “New Year’s Six” bowl games (Capital One, Allstate, Goodyear, Northwestern Mutual, Chick-fil-A, PlayStation) are paying around $35 million each for their title sponsorships in a package that includes advertising spots throughout the college football regular season)
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9. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
$80 million
College bowl game season is a big event for the Central Florida's sports industry, bringing in $80 million in economic impact (according to a story published in the Orlando Business Journal)

10. $50 million College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
The ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC each will draw a baseline amount of approximately $50 million in the second year of a 12-year contract. The other five FBS-level leagues will split $75 million – but that's more than five times greater than their combined payday from five years ago (according to a USA Today report)

11. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
$5.6 billion
ESPN has a lot at stake with ratings for the College Football Playoff…the network invested $5.64 billion in a 12-year deal to televise the 4-team playoff in 2012

12. 25% College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
The 16.8 and 19.1 million viewers who tuned in for the New Year’s Eve semifinal games on ESPN this year were a major drop from 26.8 and 21.2 in last year's CFP semifinal games.

13. 23% College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
Games played on New Year’s Day this year paint a rosier picture, with The Rose Bowl Game and Sugar Bowl games delivering record ratings, achieving their highest non-CFP Semifinal rating in the College Football Playoff five-year history, according to ESPN (Rose Bowl viewership was up 23% from 2016).

14. January 1 College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
The difference? Last year’s semifinal games were played on New Year’s Day and generated high ratings. College football viewership has historically struggled with games broadcast on New Year’s Eve (as they were this year).

15. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
$1.2 million
ESPN’s asking price for an advertising slot increased from $1 million three years ago to $1.2 million for this year’s semi-final games

16. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
38,206
Just over 38,000 fans watched this year’s TaxSlayer Gator Bowl (NC State vs. Texas A&M) at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, the lowest attendance for the game since 1957 (in a venue that holds over 67,000)

17. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
$1.5 billion
According to a report published in December, the economic impact of the nation's college bowl games is $1.5 billion annually

18. $200 million College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
Economic impact studies have shown the Sugar Bowl generates $175 million in economic impact for host cities each year. Last year, event organizers suggested the game’s economic impact on the New Orleans area would surpass $200 million.

19. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
$710 million
Since its inception in 1993, the Valero Alamo Bowl (played 22 times) has combined to generate an estimated direct visitor spending of $430.6 million and total impact of more than $710 million for San Antonio

20. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
40%
This year, Alabama will play Clemson in the national championship game for the third time in the last four years. As a result, demand for tickets has plummeted with tickets selling on the secondary market for 40% less than last year’s game.

21. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
1 million
Three years ago, straight simulcasts (ESPN’s “Megacast” broadcast feature) of each College Football Playoff semifinal was under 100K viewers on ESPN2. This year, they drew nearly 1 million viewers per game.

22. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers9
This year, the Holiday Bowl was called the San Diego County Credit Union Bowl, the game’s ninth different identity since it became the SeaWorld Holiday Bowl in 1986

23. $450,000 College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
The Idaho Potato Commission recently agreed to a five-year extension of its sponsorship of the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl at $450,000 annually. The potato commission asserts the “media value’’ of the sponsorship is worth $13 million annually.

24. $300,000 College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
Last year, Popeye’s opted out of the naming rights deal with the Bahamas Bowl, leaving the game without a sponsor. This year, the rights were sold to Elk Grove Village, a community in Suburban Chicago, at a discounted rate of $300,000 and the game was re-named the “Makers Wanted” Bahamas Bowl.
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25. $550,000 College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
The Birmingham Bowl had gone without a sponsor the last two seasons. This year, Jared agreed to a naming rights partnership. In addition, the city of Birmingham agreed to pay ESPN $550,000 to insure the city “Birmingham” will continue be included as part of the event name (Jared Birmingham Bowl instead of just Jared Jeweler Bowl for example).
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26. College Football Bowl $eason
Discussion Questions

27. College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
What are broadcast rights? Why do you think ESPN invested so much in the rights to the college football playoffs? 1
What are ratings? Why are they important to sponsors and advertisers? 2

28. 3 4 College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
What is economic impact? Why is it an important concept when it relates to mega events like the Super Bowl, Olympic Games and NCAA Tournament? 3 4
What factors influence economic impact?

29. 5 6 College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
Why do you think there are so many bowl games being played? Do you think there are too many bowl games? Why or why not? 5
Why do you think companies invest millions for the naming rights to bowl games? Why is sponsorship important to organizers of a bowl game? Can you name 10 sponsors of this year’s bowl games? 6

30. 7 8 College Football Bowl $eason by the Numbers
Do you think attendance is important to bowl game organizers? Why or why not? What can college football bowl organizers do to increase attendance at games? 7
Why do you think attendance is on the decline for bowl games? What are some promotional ideas you would implement to help sell more tickets? 8