The mess in college football keeps piling up. Real Sports on HBO has a new expose on how the “nonprofit” college bowls spend money like drunken sailors entertaining conference and school officials. We’ll have more on that later.
In the meantime, one of the disclosures from Real Sports involved improper expenditures by the Sugar Bowl for campaign purposes, something that violates tax laws given their nonprofit status.
An HBO “Real Sports” investigation has prompted the Allstate Sugar Bowl to self-report tax law violations it committed by purchasing three $1,000 tickets to fundraisers for then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco in 2004 and 2006.
Under its non-profit charter, the bowl is not allowed to contribute to political campaigns, and such actions also are against bowl policy, according to a release from the bowl.
At the time of the fundraisers, the Sugar Bowl was receiving approximately $1 million annually from the state as a “cooperative endeavor” that helped fund team payouts. The arrangement, which predated Blanco’s term, was rescinded two years ago at the Sugar Bowl’s request.
The release also stated that the money has been refunded from Blanco and those funds have been donated to the National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete fund.
Chief Executive Officer Paul Hoolahan and current bowl president Lance Alfrick declined to elaborate beyond the release, but immediate past president Dave Melius called the violation “an accident.”
“Obviously, nobody had any idea,” Melius said. “You have to understand we have an organization with about a $14 million budget, and we’re spending $14 million a year in about a zillion different ways on a lot of things we’re supporting. There are thousands of checks written, and one check goes out that didn’t go through the correct process.”
This is the same Sugar Bowl that lobbied to have 5 suspended Ohio State players be permitted to play in the 2011 Sugar Bowl.
It’s becoming clear that the “nonprofit” status of these bowls is a complete fraud. They don’t care about college kids – they simply care about money. It will be interesting to see where that $14 million is really going as we get more scrutiny of this corrupt bowl system.
