By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer
The numbers grow every year: 35 bowl games, 70 teams – the morphing of what was once a New Year’s Day tradition into one that kicks off in mid-December and finishes closer to Martin Luther King Day than Jan. 1.
And if those bowl-season stats seem bloated, try this: Ohio State and Alabama each spend more than $31 million a year to run their football programs, while nine other teams closing out the season at one of those 35 bowl games spend $20 million plus.
The cheapest bowl-bound program? That would be Troy, winner of the New Orleans Bowl on the first postseason weekend, at just a shade over $5 million. That’s nearly $23 million less than they spend an hour away at top-ranked Auburn, where the Tigers are playing for the national title this season. Auburn’s opponent in the BCS game, Oregon, spends $18 million – 16th among the bowl-bound schools.