University of Maryland football coaches got $1.8 million in bonuses during a three-year period in which the team never posted a winning record in Big Ten Conference games, according to financial records obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

The bonuses — tied to the team making and winning mid-level bowl games — steadily increased during each of the three fiscal years ending in 2024: from $434,408 to $671,063 to $735,236, according to annual Athletics Department budget reports obtained using the Maryland Public Information Act.

The team’s record during those years was 11-16 in Big Ten games and 23-16 overall. The reports came out too soon to include the most recent season, in which the Terps went 1-8 in the Big Ten and 4-8 overall.

The Athletics Department says bowl games — some of which are net money losers for the school— excite the fan base, provide national exposure that helps with recruiting, and give the team a head start on the next season by allowing postseason practices that wouldn’t otherwise be permitted under NCAA rules.

The bonuses are essentially part of the price of admission of playing in the Big Ten, an elite conference Maryland joined in 2014 with the goal of stabilizing Athletics Department finances and elevating the football program.

“We’re in one of the two premier conferences in all of college athletics, along with the SEC (Southeastern Conference),” Athletics Department spokesman Jason Yellin said Sunday in an interview.

But, even with such bonuses, Maryland struggles to keep pace — in spending and won-loss records — with conference powerhouses like Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State that have much larger stadiums and can afford to spend much more on coaches and other football priorities.

Maryland won all three bowls: the Pinstripe Bowl, Music City Bowl and Duke’s Mayo Bowl, which is best known for its tradition of drenching the winning coach in mayonnaise.

According to Yellin, the bonuses have increased because they are tied to coaches’ base salaries that have also been rising.

The bonuses, split among head coach Michael Locksley, 10 assistant coaches and numerous staff members, came as the value of second-tier bowl games has been diminished by the expanding College Football Playoff, which is played in the postseason and commands far more attention.

The high cost of travel, lodging and other expenses — plus the coaches’ bonuses — meant that two of Maryland’s bowl games were net money losers.

For example, the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, which was played in front of 37,228 fans in Charlotte, North Carolina, in December 2022, cost Maryland $176,302, according to the budget figures, which appeared in one of the annual reports.

The NCAA requires the annual reports, and this year’s was dated Jan. 15.

The Terps defeated North Carolina State in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, but the university spent $1.1 million — plus the $671,063 in bonuses to coaches — and made $1.6 million on the game, resulting in a net loss, according to the budget figures, which appeared in one of the annual reports.

The Music City Bowl was also a net loser for the school, while the Pinstripe Bowl netted about $642,000, the reports showed.

The single-elimination College Football Playoff recently expanded from four teams to 12, culminating with Ohio State winning the national championship. Now, there is talk of expanding it to 16 teams, which would put the future of some of the other postseason bowl games in doubt.

“What do we have? Like, 44 bowl games? It’s insane,” said Karen Weaver, a college athletics financing expert and author who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. “I think it’s a little too early to tell how many of them survive if they go to 16 teams.”

In the meantime, Weaver said Maryland and other universities — even those that appear far from making the national playoffs — are doling out large bonuses to keep pace with their rivals.

“It’s what the marketplace almost requires,” Weaver said. “If you don’t say to the head coach that ‘We’re willing to help you attract the best [assistant] coaches,’ then that coach is like, ‘Well, why am I here?’”

Hefty bonuses are increasingly part of the college sports landscape. The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, a watchdog group, has expressed concern in recent years about “exorbitant spending” on football coaches relative to expenditures for scholarships and other needs of student-athletes.

The Maryland athletics program receives no state government subsidy. However, students must contribute at Maryland and many other schools. Maryland undergraduates’ athletics fee is $399 a year.

That fee resulted in $12 million for the program in the fiscal year ending last July, up from $11.7 million in the prior year, the records showed.

Maryland’s budget reports did not show which Maryland football coaches received bonuses.

According to the university, Locksley received the biggest chunk — $220,000 per bowl — of the Duke’s Mayo Bowl and Music City Bowl bonuses split among coaches and staff.

Locksley made $5.5 million in 2023 — $600,000 in salary, plus $4.9 million in supplemental annual income, according to recently available figures. That included a raise he received in early 2023 after the team won eight games in 2022 for the first time since 2010 and won back-to-back bowl games.

Maryland left the Atlantic Coast Conference and joined the more lucrative Big Ten in 2014, two years after budget constraints forced it to eliminate seven sports teams.

Maryland’s athletics budget will need to increase next year because the school, like many others, has agreed to begin sharing revenue with its athletes following a national antitrust case settlement. The school has committed to paying $20.5 million to student athletes beginning in the 2025-26 season.

Maryland’s record in Big Ten Conference football games is 28-65. But the school receives far more in revenue sharing from the conference than it did when it belonged to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Its distribution was $59.7 million in the last fiscal year, the latest report said, which was up from $57.1 million the previous year. Maryland gets less than other Big Ten schools — which received more than $60 million — because it front-loaded its shares when it joined the conference.

Have a news tip? Contact Jeff Barker at jebarker@baltsun.com.