College Bowl Games = ATM Machines

 Waited patiently for someone to bring up the topic of money during the college football bowl season.

Still waiting...

Have seen this information come out in the past. The payouts that 42 college bowls put out are, well, pretty amazing. While I never really saw any totals put out there per school, have gotta admit there's curiosity about what the Wisconsin Badgers and the Ten Schools added to their coffers.

So I took it upon myself to do a little digging, and some math. Eight Big Ten schools, out of 14, played in bowl games. That includes a pair in the College Football Championship games, Michigan and Ohio State.

Taking the total of six bowl games, dividing that by two as the money is split between schools; Adding in what the NCAA allots each conference for 1) travel, 2) per team combined  and 3) per conference for the national playoff.

All of that and the math leads to the Big Ten raking in just over $96 million, giving each school nearly $6.87 million for income.

Remember, this is ONLY money that football teams bring into the school. The other big chunks of cash come from the March Madness basketball tournament, as well as television contracts (both with conference affiliations, like the Big Ten Network) and national contracts.

Is your head spinning yet? Mine is.

SPEAKING OF MONEY, it's time the NCAA, which is pretty toothless most of the time, did something to regulate the NIL (name/image/likeness) train. Am totally in favor of ALL college athletes being able to make a buck on their own NIL, but something has to be done about this Wild West atmosphere. Too often the big school haves seem to be using NIL opportunities as a recruiting tool.

Any suggestions? Well, maybe a cap limit -- mostly so that, when, say, football players leave the likes of an Alabama, they don't take a pay cut to turn pro in the NFL.

CHOOSE LOVE is across the back of many player helmets in the NFL. Pretty clear on most televised games. That just seems to be pushing for teams to trade for the Packers' Jordan Love. (Am being facetious here, folks!)

THE MILWAUKEE BREWERS, with the reporting day for pitchers and catchers about a month away, settled arbitration with a number of players. Among them pitcher Brandon Woodruff ($10.8 million) and infielders Willy Adames ($8.7 million), Rowdy Tellez ($4.95 million) and Luis Urias ($4.7 million).

No word at this point on the contract status of pitcher Corbin Burns, but you know that keeping him on the staff is a key to any success the Brewers have as they battle to get back to the playoffs.