As you navigate the 41-game major-college postseason jungle, you won't hear apologies from the participating players and coaches for taking part.
But you may see stories of schools taking a financial hit.
Between being held responsible for selling an unreasonable amount of tickets, incurring unexpectedly large expenses or sharing too much revenue with conference partners, some schools suffer a deficit.
That has happened with Connecticut, Marshall's bowl opponent this week. The last time the Huskies played a bowl game, it was a biggie - as Big East champion, they played in the 2011 Fiesta Bowl.
The Huskies got shelled on and off the field, losing 48-20 to Oklahoma and bleeding $1.76 million on the spreadsheet. That came despite playing in a BCS bowl that paid out a reported $17 million.
Weren't those bowls supposed to "lucrative"?
There were several factors that sacked UConn, which had to eat 14,700 tickets and received only a fraction of the bowl payouts funneled through a short-sighted Big East. That is an extreme example, but several schools in this bowl season will look to donors to cover shortfalls.
To which the members of Conference USA say, "No thank you."
The league's goal is simple: Be sure its members emerge from their bowl experience financially whole, while giving athletes the best experience possible. In Marshall's four previous bowls as a C-USA member, the plan has succeeded. MU has even picked up a modest check at the end of the process.
"We've been fortunate to make a little money each year," said David Steele, MU's associate athletic director for administration and business. "And it's a balancing act. The goal is we can't lose money. Budgetarily, we're not in a position to take a hit on the game."
In simplest terms, the league receives all bowl payouts and other related revenue, and covers all team expenses. The league negotiates terms with bowl partners, travel companies and team hotels, as needed.
C-USA had seven bowl partners this year, but only filled five positions - St. Petersburg Bowl with Marshall, Miami Beach Bowl with Western Kentucky, Bahamas Bowl with Middle Tennessee, Heart of Dallas Bowl with Southern Mississippi and New Orleans Bowl with Louisiana Tech.
The reported payout for those games is roughly $3.5 million. At $1.1 million, the Dallas game's tab is more than twice the size of the other four, but pooling the payouts gives C-USA, its schools, bowls and TV partners more flexibility in setting the matchups.
Pooling the expenses eases the inequity in bowl travel. In some years, the league has a spot in the Hawaii Bowl, an expensive proposition. Sending MTSU to the Bahamas isn't as pricey flight-wise, but you still can't drive an equipment truck through the ocean.
Steele said it cost about $690,000 to send the MU contingent to the 2014 Boca Raton Bowl, and that's not a lavish tab. This football stuff can get expensive, and the logistics are difficult.
On Tuesday, MU's traveling party, including players, coaches, staff members and families have to be transported to the Huntington airport, flown on a charter jet to the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport and transported from there.
The band, cheerleaders and dance team are making the 923-mile trip by bus. The equipment truck will be jammed to its corners, as football operations essentially relocate for the week.
The minute the team lands at 12:30 p.m. or so Tuesday, two captains will head to a children's hospital for one function, while the rest of the team goes to the Vinoy Renaissance hotel for another function.
The team is headquartered on the bay near downtown St. Pete, and the band is 11 miles away on St. Pete Beach. The Herd practices for two mornings at a Clearwater high school 17 miles away, and conducts its Friday walkthrough a mile away at Tropicana Field. The game is 11 a.m. Saturday at "The Trop."
Players will enjoy Wednesday afternoon at Busch Gardens in Tampa and Thursday afternoon at the Beach Bash in Madeira Beach. There's a VIP reception, a ladies' day out and a kids' day for those in the traveling party.
Keeping tabs on everybody isn't easy, and keeping the final tab from getting out of hand is no easier. Conference USA covers "actual and necessary" expenses for the travel party, with limits - for example, the official football traveling party cannot exceed 200, and there are per diem caps.
Bear in mind that the players aren't staying in a Super 8. In 2011, the Herd bunked at the Vinoy; this week, it's the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront.
You can get a room there this week at $180 a night, and the league no doubt has negotiated a discount. Last year, the Herd stayed at the posh Boca Raton Resort and Club for $130 per room per night, a deal bordering on grand theft.
Conference USA officially owns the ticket allocation, and Marshall is not on the hook to sell a certain amount. To the contrary, the school keeps the first $100,000 in sales and splits the rest evenly with the league office.
MU blew past the $100,000 mark in 2013 for the drivable Military Bowl, and made $86,000 in sales from last year's Boca game. That money also covers a bowl expense you might not consider.
"Once school closed on Dec. 11, graduation Dec. 12, we had to feed, house the team up through the bowl game, basically," Steele said. "Ticket sales are important to us because we have that expense to cover. ... That's why it's critical that our fans buy through us."
When the turf granules settle from C-USA's last bowl and the expenses are tallied, any surplus will be allocated to bowl participants on one level, and to all 13 football-playing members on another level.
Last year, MU received a check for the princely sum of $18,000. It was the lowest of the four surplus bowl checks, but it still wasn't a loss.
Steele has seen the dark side, as he was around for the Herd's appearance in the 2004 Fort Worth Bowl. The school essentially played as an independent, with a leg out of the Mid-American Conference and not yet in C-USA, so private donors filled a six-figure gap.
That did not happen in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2014, and it won't happen this time around. This is one of Conference USA's better benefits.