University of Minnesota football Coach Tim BrewsterâÄôs bonuses will depend highly on how the Gophers do in the next two weeks, but the University will earn some cash regardless of what bowl they play in. The Big Ten Conference has an agreement with seven different bowl partners, Big Ten spokesman Scott Chipman said. The bowl payouts are given to the conference office, and that money will then be split 11 ways and distributed to each school, Chipman said. This year, the Rose BowlâÄôs payout for the Big Ten Conference is $17.5 million and the University will get a chunk of that regardless if it plays in that game. Bowl game payouts to the Big Ten this year will total a minimum of about $31.6 million, according to the Big Ten media guide. Split 11 ways, it equates to about $2.87 million per school. Athletics Director Joel Maturi said the University gets the anticipated bowl game payouts from the Big Ten each spring and the money is included in the athletics budget as revenue. Outback Bowl spokesman Mike Schulze said the payouts to each conference increase each year, regardless of the revenue earned the year before. âÄúThat number is solid,âÄù Schulze said. âÄúIt doesnâÄôt matter how many tickets were sold last year, merchandise purchased or anything like that. ItâÄôs part of the contract and it goes up every year.âÄù Schulze said Outback Bowl representatives have come out for Gophers football games to check out the atmosphere. None of the representatives have individual power to select a team to play in their bowl game, he said. The decision is ultimately made by their board of directors after the regular season is over. Every game in the Big Ten this year is critical, Schulze said, but bowl selections are similar to draft choices, and there is an order in which each bowl chooses its participants. Choices are not based solely on records. The Gophers will travel to Wisconsin this weekend and host Iowa next week to make their case for a top bowl game. Maturi said coaches at the University all have performance-based incentives as part of their respective contracts, but the departmentâÄôs policy wasnâÄôt always that way. âÄúWhen I came to Minnesota, most coaches were included under a department-wide policy,âÄù Maturi said. âÄúWe have worked to develop individual coach and sport packages as we believe it more appropriate.âÄù If the Gophers were to reach the Rose Bowl this year, Brewster would earn $200,000 in incentives. âÄúI think a bonus payment is the last thing on Coach BrewsterâÄôs mind,âÄù Maturi said. The chance to play in a non-Bowl Championship Series bowl game held on New Years Day or later, which include the Outback Bowl and the Capital One Bowl , would earn Brewster a $100,000 bonus. The University looks at contracts around the Big Ten and other comparable coaches in the league to determine bonus packages, Maturi said. The bonuses are not only based on athletic success but academic performance as well. Maturi also qualifies for a bonus when the UniversityâÄôs teams do well in the DirectorsâÄô Cup , a competition among athletics directors in the NCAA that measures the success of each institution in a wide variety of sports, and for student-athlete graduation rates, he said.