The kick sails through the uprights and an entire state goes bananas.

The UConn Huskies, a Division I team for about a decade, had somehow found its way to a BCS bowl, the pinnacle of college football.

All is right in the world, right, Husky fans?

Not so fast.

The most sobering part of UConn's unexpected berth in the January 1 Fiesta Bowl should be its odds of winning - pretty slim, given it is a 17-point underdog against perennial power Oklahoma.

But it looks like the bowl experience will be a financial albatross for UConn, a public university that, like many, has faced financial struggles in recent years thanks to the weak economy.

Welcome to big-time college athletics, where gridiron glory and financial prosperity don't always match up.

As the New Haven Register reports, the University of Connecticut stands to lose money on the deal, even with a guaranteed $2.5 million payment for making the bowl game.

The main culprits here are geography, ticket sales, and perhaps, a fan base reluctant to travel across the country to watch a game that may get out of hand quickly.

Universities headed to bowl games are routinely obligated to buy large chunks of game tickets and hotel rooms. In UConn's case, it is on the hook for 17,500 game tickets - of which it has sold about 4,000 so far - and 550 hotel rooms.

It's a long way from Storrs, CT to Phoenix. The weather's better, for sure, but the airline tickets are costly.

So ticket sales lag.

And the university's expenses are many. Factor in the cost of transporting a team, cheerleaders, band, administrators and the like all the way across the country, and you've got problems.

In North Carolina, the local teams are in better situations.

N.C. State takes on West Virginia in the Champs Sports Bowl Dec. 28. Tickets are selling briskly and campus officials expect to sell all 13,500 they were alloted.

And UNC has already sold all 10,000 of its tickets for the Dec. 30 Music City Bowl against Tennessee.

Here's another financial football sob story: The University of Nevada, which cost itself a cool million bucks by upsetting Boise State in the last game of the regular season. Yes, this is another case of a team costing itself a bunch of money by succeeding on the field.

Try to follow along:

Boise State was the nation's darling all season long, David to the many Goliaths from major football conferences like the SEC.

Undefeated heading into its final game against Nevada, it needed only to win to make a BCS bowl and snare $10 million that would be shared among the rest of the teams in the Western Athletic Conference.

Teams like Nevada.

But Nevada pulled the upset, jettisoning Boise State from a BCS bowl and with it, losing the estimated $1 million it would have netted simply by being in the same conference as a team having a great season.

Whoops.

Earlier this year, a decision by UNC-Chapel Hill to close campus a few hours early to accommodate Thursday night football traffic raises some eyebrows.

If that decision offended you, I suggest you hide your eyes as I tell you about the University of Alabama, whose Crimson Tide football team will be taking on Texas for the national championship in January.

At Alabama, campus leaders expect so many faculty, staff and students to make the trip west to Pasadena for the game that they are canceling classes.

For three days.

Here's more.

GREENSBORO — Even after two Congressional hearings and a plea from President Barack Obama, the Bowl Championship Series won't be changing any time soon.

ACC commissioner John Swofford, who is also the chairman of the BCS, said Sunday college football's postseason format is unlikely to change in the next five years.

C-SPAN showed today's hearing (10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) on the fairness of the Bowl Championship Series before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee.

ACC Commissioner and BCS Coordinator John Swofford testified before the subcommittee.

• 2008 ACC results and BCS results
• 2007 BCS records
• 2006 BCS records

It wasn't great but it was better. After the 2008 college football season, the ACC can at least claim progress.

While the SEC won its third straight national title, the ACC can claim more wins (17) against teams from the Bowl Championship Series than the SEC or any of the other major conference during the 2008 season.

Bowl games in red

SEC (6-6)

Wake Forest 23, Vanderbilt 10
Wake Forest 30, Ole Miss 28
Clemson 31, South Carolina 14
Duke 10, Vanderbilt 7
Georgia Tech 45, Georgia 42
Georgia Tech 38, Mississippi State 7

Bowl games in red

SEC

ACC (6-6)

Florida 45, Florida State 14
Florida 26, Miami 3
South Carolina 34, N.C. State 0
Alabama 34, Clemson 10
Vanderbilt 16, BC 14
LSU 38, Georgia Tech 3

FOX Sports' telecast of Florida's 24-14 victory over Oklahoma on Thursday night in the Bowl Championship Series title game drew a a 15.8 household rating and was seen by an estimated 26.8 million people — 16 percent more than watched last year's BCS game, according Nielsen Media Research.

It was FOX's highest-rated of three BCS games. The most-viewed national championship game, dating to 1991, was Texas' Rose Bowl victory over Southern Cal in 2006, with a 21.7 rating and 35.6 million viewers.

This year's Rose, in which USC defeated Penn State on ABC, was second among this year's bowl games, seen by 20.6 million people. FOX's coverage of Texas' win over Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl was third this year with 17.1 million viewers. The viewership for the Rose and Fiesta increased 8 and 40 percent, respectively, over last year's figures.

The Orange Bowl, in which Virginia Tech defeated Cincinnati on FOX, experienced a decline of  22 percent — to 9.3 million viewers. It was the sixth-highest-rated bowl game this year, following the BCS game, the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Capital One bowls.

Dr. Jerry McGee, president of Wingate University in North Carolina, worked the BCS title game between Florida and Oklahoma last night as a field judge. ESPN The Magazine senior writer Ryan McGee followed his father for the day to chronicle the experience.

The 3D showing of college football's BCS title game last night at the Marquee Wakefield 12 in Raleigh — one of about 80 theaters nationwide to offer it — had almost no technical glitches and offered an incredibly crisp view. But those moments of a ball or player jumping out of the screen at the audience? Not too many. Here's what they got right and, well, not so right.