Sugar Bowl 2013: Gators trip will cost $2.5 million

Three years after Florida last played in the Sugar Bowl, the cost of the trip to New Orleans has risen 11 percent.

The total expense for the trip is projected to be $2.5 million when you include the cost of flying and housing the team and supporting personnel as well bonuses to the coaching staff for playing in a BCS game.

The school receives $1.825 million from the BCS for all expenses revolving around the game, while the school will allocate money from what it expects to receive in the spring for TV rights to pay for the rest.

It's an eye-popping sum, but Florida, like the rest of the schools in the SEC, will still finish in the black for the post-season. The league office divides out the bowl pay-offs its schools receive to all 14 members: last year, each school received $20.8 million in total.

College football is a big business that gets bigger every year and reaping those types of rewards requires paying out a hefty amount as well.