Ah, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat: such is the spirit of athletic competition— or maybe not according to Forbes, since you can lose college football games and earn more money than those so-called “winners.” Many college football teams actually earn a greater profit when they are less successful, because the team necessitates less spending on things like better equipment, facilities, scouting, and all that other stuff geared toward attaining excellence.

Matt Woolsey of Forbes writes:

Imagine you're the University of Washington, who won just two games last year while playing in the Pac-10 conference. That conference's champion, Southern Cal, played in the Rose Bowl, earning $17 million for the conference. After expenses, USC made $15 million for one game, a figure split evenly between the conference's teams. For sitting on the couch to watch just one game, Washington earned $1.5 million.

And that doesn't include television or league championship games. Consider Ole Miss, which plays in the Southeastern Conference and won three games last year. The team's annual expenses measure $7 million, the second lowest of any team in equity conferences. Last year the SEC shared $50.5 million from television, $25.5 million from bowls and $13.5 million from the league championship game.

Add it up and divide by the 12 teams in the conference. That's $7.5 million for just stepping onto the field. Add in attendance, alumni donations, concessions and merchandising, and Ole Miss can buy a lot of ice to recover from the drubbings they receive.

With ESPN recently buying Southeastern Conference TV football rights for $2 billion dollars over the next 15 years, expect losing to become even more profitable. After all, winning costs money--new practice facilities, recruiting expenses, jet charters for the team. Big 10 champ Ohio State spends $32 million a year; SEC powerhouse Auburn spent $23 million and Southern Cal, the class of the Pac-10, dropped $19 million a year.

The question then becomes, should earnings from television be split equally or be based on wins in a graduated earnings system? It may seem cut and dried, but think about famous college rivalries which garner viewers, such as USC and UCLA. Even though one team may be better than another in a given season, the number of viewers each school draws probably vary very little from year to year.

And besides, hasn’t anyone ever heard of a consolation prize?