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Sugar Bowl 2012: Michigan And Virginia Tech Bring A Financial Windfall To Their Conferences

In the Big Ten a second BCS berth is almost taken for granted. The conference normally gets two teams into the big money games, and this season is no different with the Michigan Wolverines earning a second BCS bid in addition to Wisconsin's trip to the Rose Bowl. The ACC has not been so lucky, so when Virginia Tech got a surprise bid to be Michigan's opponent in the Sugar Bowl it meant quite a bit to the conference as a whole according to SB Nation's Virginia Tech blog, Gobbler Country:

By placing two teams Bowl Championship Series games for the first time in its history, the ACC will receive approximately $41.3 million in bowl money from eight games, based on published reports regarding bowl payouts. The conference receives $22.3 million for Clemson's appearance as an automatic qualifier, $6.1 million for the Hokies' at-large appearance and approximately $12.9 million from the other six bowls.

That $6.1 million works out to a little more than $500,000 extra to each school within the ACC. The Big Ten, of course, receives a similar amount of money. The Big Ten also gets a slight bonus from Illinois making it to the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco as an at large bowl team. With a payout of just under $1 million per team, Illinois' addition means an additional $80,000 to the 12 schools of the Big Ten.