This may be the "Only Source of Income" for navy or army, but not air force. REMEMBER!!!! We Have a Conference!!!! We get a percentage of the bowl game we're in; plus we get a percentage of ALL the bowls that our OTHER CONFERENCE MATES are in. So for air force, we get "X%" of our share of the independence bow (% of $1.1 Million dollars). We also get a percentage of the $1 million las vegas bowl, the $750,000 new mexico bowl, the $750,000 Poinsettia Bowl, and the $17 million Rose Bowl. (Rose bowl isn't an equal split among Non-BCS teams like TCU and the BCS team like wisconsin - But we still get a pretty decent pay-day. Our conference gets $9 Million shared among 5 non-bcs conference = $1.8 million per conference). If it was Navy or Army in the BCS bowl; you'd get $4.5 million to keep for yourselves.
Basically, when all is said and done, each team in our conference makes about $600,000 per year from bowl games. (The MWC shares their winnings among all conference teams). The teams playing make a little more to cover travel and expenses.
FWIW: Navy and Army also make money for the bowls they are in. They don't have to share, but for Army, they get $750,000 for the armed forces bowl, and navy gets $750,000 for the Poinsettia bowl. Ticket sales are a double sided sword. Your school has to promise "X" amount of tickets sold, or you have to pay for them. Also, you don't get the $50 per ticket. You get a fraction of that ticket. The money goes to the bowl. They pay you from ticket sales, commercials, etc...
Yes, it would be fantastic if all air force fans bought their tickets from the air force falcons website. But that isn't realistic. Unless you're a falcon season ticket holder, chances are you're going to buy them from your local military base if it's local to you; like the Independence bowl; or you're probably going to go online to the bowl ticket center. FWIW: While the bowls require each team to sell "X" amount of tickets, that is usually waived if the total attendance equals "Y" amount of tickets sold. They understand that most people don't buy directly from the school. So, if the stadium seats 50,000; and total tickets sold are 44,000; and air force showed ticket sales of 3,000 instead of the 12,500 they should sell; they won't be held to the other 9500, because it wouldn't even be possible to seat that many. It would be more than the 50,000. Plus, the bowls know the neutral bought tickets are the majority. However; last weekend's bowl game in Boise Idaho (Humanitarian Bowl) only sold 25,000 tickets TOTAL. Not all of them even showed up for the game. Fresno and Northern Illinois would most likely be responsible for not making their allotment. Air Force hasn't had any real problems the last 3 years, because the Armed forces bowl had more than 40,000 tickets sold each year. Each bowl is different.