Why did Drum and Bugle not go to the bowl game?

shiner

shiner

USAFA Grad, Faculty 3yrs, ALO 7yrs
10-Year Member
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Apr 16, 2010
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In a prior life, I was on staff in the USAFA athletic department and was responsible for portions of college football bowl games. Colleges that accept bowl bids are contractually obligated to bring cheerleaders and their band. In the event you are unable to bring your group, you can hire replacements. At the end of the bowl game this year, I noticed the team and fans were singing to a recording of the Air Force Song. That was weird and it got me looking where I found this article. The language of the article suggests maybe this was a last minute change, and I was wondering if anyone knows the backstory?

 
My roommate is D&B and he said it was a funding issue unfortunately.
 
Where does funding for D&B normally come from? Does D&B have any sort of supporting foundation, like AFAAC is to the athletic department?
 
tornadowarning33 said:
Where does funding for D&B normally come from? Does D&B have any sort of supporting foundation, like AFAAC is to the athletic department?
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Their funding comes from Cadet Clubs, which trickles down from Commandant's office. AOG does contribute to Cadet Clubs. Bowl games are always a money losing affair for SA. We simply can not sell the number of tickets needed to be profitable. While the financial number often shown about monies paid to football teams for participating in bowl games sounds glamorous, the reality is much less. Each team is committed to sell a specific number of tickets to the event. The school is financially committed to the number and unsold tickets are paid for out of the revenue split. My guess is that the economics of the trip actually made it high enough up the chain for someone to put a stop to it. This is interesting because it is the first of its kind in my experience. Based on the event date, cadets would have been home. The expense would have required round trip plane tickets for each band member, and then the logistics of multiple hotel nights and food.
 
I was in DFW that night and flew right over the game. It was very cold and windy, you might have dodged a cold night!
 
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