Alabama’s trip to the inaugural College Football Playoff didn’t end how the Crimson Tide hoped. It wasn’t for a lack of spending on the Sugar Bowl, though.

According to a report from CBS Sports’ Jon Solomon, Alabama spent $2.56 million on the trip to New Orleans for its playoff semifinal matchup against Ohio State. That represents the highest total any team spent on traveling to a single bowl game, per Solomon’s report.

Ohio State and Oregon, both of which played two bowl games, had a total of $4.4 million and $3.8 million, respectively, in expenses for their postseason endeavors. Florida State spent $2.32 million to travel to Pasadena, Calif. for the Rose Bowl. Oregon spent $1.71 million on the Rose Bowl and $2.11 million on the national championship game, while Ohio State spent $2 million on the Sugar Bowl and $2.39 million on the national championship.

One of the reasons for Alabama’s high expenses was the size of the school’s traveling party. Solomon report says the Crimson Tide took 908 people to the game, 197 more than the next-highest total and 128 more than the school took to the 2012 national title game.

Here’s how that traveling party broke down, at an average cost of $2,820 per person :

  • Team/staff: 388 people (seven days in New Orleans)
  • Band/cheerleaders: 439 people (four days in New Orleans)
  • Official party: 81 people (four days in New Orleans)

Alabama also sold 11,116 of its 13,250 allotted tickets, taking a $388,600 hit for the 2,134 unsold seats. For comparison, Ohio State, located more than 600 miles farther from New Orleans than UA, brought 711 people to the Sugar Bowl and sold 12,598 of its 13,602 allotted tickets.

For the the two semifinal games, only Florida State spent more per person on traveling to its bowl game ($3,741) than Alabama. Oregon spent $2,675 per person for its Rose Bowl trip, while Ohio State spent $2,816 per person on the Sugar Bowl. Those numbers rose to $3,644 and $3,509, respectively, for the national championship game.

With one of the biggest overall staffs in college football, it shouldn’t be a major shock that Alabama had such a big traveling party at its bowl game. However, the Tide did spend far more on food and lodging as the Buckeyes— twice as much, actually, at $928,789 to $428,458.

Alabama’s expenses and the size of its traveling party might seem a little crazy, but there’s a reason the school was able to afford to bring so many people, as the SEC is set to receive the highest payout from the CFP of any conference.

From Solomon’s report:

The CFP pays out $50 million to each Power Five conference, plus $6 million for each team in the semifinals and $4 million for each team in a CFP access bowl. That doesn’t include additional lucrative payouts from some conferences’ individual contracts with bowls that are part of the playoff.

This year’s projected CFP payouts: SEC — $87.5 million, ACC — $83.5 million, Pac-12 — $60 million, Big Ten — $60 million, Big 12 — $58 million. These numbers can vary depending on which contract bowls are semifinal sites. This year, the Rose Bowl (Big Ten/Pac-12) and Sugar Bowl (Big 12/SEC) were semifinal sites, meaning their contracts didn’t pay out to those conferences.

…Alabama did not identify a bottom-line figure and said it will receive $2,058,400 from the CFP semifinal plus additional postseason money from the SEC in June.