(USA Today Sports Images)For years we've heard about teams going to bowl games, having bad ticket sales and being dealt a large financial blow for what should be a rewarding trip.

Now, apparently, teams can double up that postseason money-burning fun, as Florida State reported a nearly $500,000 loss from its trip to the ACC Championship Game.

Warchant.com had the story with the financials, which came from the school's income statement from the ACC title game. FSU's exact loss from the game was $478,954.20, and more than 90 percent of that loss was from unsold tickets.

(USA Today Sports Images)The downside to the Big Ten's apparent plan to stop scheduling FCS games is what happens to the FCS teams that gain a large payday from those often lopsided games.

The "guarantee games" give FCS teams a huge budget boost. FBS teams, who are getting a big crowd regardless because their season-ticket packages include the game against the smaller team, pay out handsomely to the FCS squad that is most likely coming to lose big. But, the FCS teams get enough money to boost the entire athletic department budget. It's worth it for them.

Northern Iowa made about $950,000 in guarantees from Iowa and Wisconsin last season, according to The Gazette in Cedar Rapids. Not surprisingly, there's some concern at UNI that the window may be closing.

(AP)For the regular students on campuses who think athletes get preferential treatment, Maryland's latest gesture for its athletes might not be too popular.

Maryland is going to give iPads to all 500 of its athletes, according to the Baltimore Sun. The cost of that is an estimated $300,000, and the Sun and the excellent Bylaw Blog says the money will come out of the Student Assistance Fund (SAF), which is supposed to be "used to assist student-athletes in meeting financial needs that arise in conjunction with participation in intercollegiate athletics, enrollment in an academic curriculum or that recognize academic achievement." The Bylaw Blog estimated Maryland got about $325,000 to $350,000 from the fund, so the school is blowing most of that money on the fancy tablets. The preference of the SAF is to give assistance to athletes "who display a financial need for assistance," and it's hard to say giving athletes an iPad falls under that.

As John Infante of the Bylaw Blog points out, it's legal, just not the intended purpose of the fund (and Maryland can't use general budget money to buy iPads for athletes). And the recruiting draw is pretty clear.

(USA Today Sports Images)On this Valentine's Day, the Cleveland Plain Dealer delivered a touching story of true, unconditional love.

Ben Pike is a defensive lineman at Toledo. Or, he was on Toledo's football team. He has a year of eligibility left, but he's giving it up to tend to his fiancee, a former Toledo basketball player who battled with leukemia last year and found out on Jan. 25 it had returned.

[Also: Katherine Webb thanks Brent Musberger for her overnight fame]

Pike has plans that are far more important than Division I football. He is going to graduate after this semester. He is going to marry Ashlee Barrett on June 15. He is going to see her through a bone marrow transplant and her second battle against leukemia.

"I know in some people's terms, he's giving up things," said Ben's mother Becky Pike told the Plain Dealer. "But he's really not giving up. He's not giving up anything. He's really fighting for life. And he's just turned his forces to he's going to win a battle for life instead of winning on the football field."

It's a beautiful story by the newspaper, one with a happy ending that will be written when Barrett has beaten her cancer.

(USA Today Sports Images)The issue of Boise State not being able to wear all-blue uniforms on its blue turf is a really big deal in Idaho. When the Mountain West banned it for the 2012 season, MW commissioner Craig Thompson spent way more time than you'd expect at the conference's preseason media days answering questions about it.

Part of the negotiations for Boise State to remain in the Mountain West and not go to the Big East was that the uniform restriction be lifted. Seriously.

So just when Boise State was ready to go back to the all-blue uniforms at home, the NCAA has rained on the Broncos' party.

(jailbase.com)

Samuel Jurgens is the Alabama student who was allegedly beaten and robbed by members of the Crimson Tide football team. He told The Crimson White, a student newspaper, about the ordeal which included him being knocked unconscious and being covered in blood.

And even after the report, which he says was unprovoked, the sophomore still plans to root for his school's football team in the fall.

(Richretyi/Instagram)

The advertisement featuring Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez modeling a Wildcats-themed Tommy Bahama shirt, posted by richretyi on Instagram, is simply fantastic. Soak it in.

(@JJWatt)I saw Yao Ming up close in person one time, at the NBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas a few years back. And even among the NBA's best players, Shaq and Dwight Howard included, Yao was the only one who was so big you couldn't help but stop and stare as he walked by. He looks like he's riding on someone else's shoulders. It was amazing to see.

And if you want proof that Yao is not in proportion with a normal human being, he made the NFL's defensive player of the year look like he was a little kid bothering the former Houston Rockets star for an autograph in a restaurant.

If you saw J.J. Watt on the street, you'd probably do a double take even if you didn't immediately recognize him, just because he's such a large human being. He's 6-foot-5 and 295 pounds. By any reasonable standard, that's enormous.

Next to Yao, in a cool picture of two Houston sports icons, just look at how small a 6-5, 295-pound man looks.

[Also: Matt Barkley, Geno Smith and Ryan Nassib will throw at combine]