A group of Western Athletic Conference football coaches sat around having a few drinks at the conference preview in Boise, Idaho this summer when closing time came and the bill was presented.

"There," Louisiana Tech head coach Jack Bicknell is reported to have suggested to the waitress, "give it to one of those guys who can afford it," nodding in the direction of Fresno State's Pat Hill and Hawai'i's June Jones.

We're told it drew a knowing laugh for a couple reasons. For one thing, at $200,000, Bicknell is the lowest paid head coach in the WAC, making less than a third of Hill's $900,000-plus. For another Bicknell and his football team have been picking up the heavy checks for the Tech athletic department for years.

That the Bulldogs limp into Aloha Stadium Saturday against UH at 3-6 with three times as many starters out as victories should be of little surprise when you look at their schedule. There is a reason they opened as 40-point underdogs. The Bulldogs play eight of 13 games this season on the road including this game, which is the third road appearance in a row. They are one of only two NCAA teams that will play a road game in every time zone. But it is also where they go and why they do it.

In the first five weeks of the season, the Bulldogs played at Nebraska, Texas A&M, Clemson and Boise State. Presumably, the Chicago Bears were unavailable.

Since Bicknell arrived at Louisiana Tech in 1999, the Bulldogs have played Alabama, Auburn (three times), Clemson (twice), Florida, Florida State, Kansas, Kansas State, Louisiana State, Miami (three times), Michigan State, Nebraska, Penn State (twice) Tennessee, Texas A&M (twice), Southern California...

Well, you get the idea. And, believe it or not, it is not to run the football program into the ground. Fresno State's Bulldogs follow the "anybody anytime anywhere" credo for national recognition. These Bulldogs do it because, well, they have to. Which is to keep Louisiana Tech athletics solvent, no easy task when you're on the extreme eastern flank of the nation's most geographically distant conference and football is the only one of 16 sports that pays for itself, much less turns a profit. While football, men's basketball, men's volleyball and women's volleyball all pay their own bills at UH, football is left to pull the load alone at Tech.

It does so by playing "guarantee" games, contests at more powerful opponents for the hefty paychecks they bring. Something UH has been largely able to avoid. This year, for example, officials said Tech got $750,000 for its 49-10 loss at Nebraska. Overall, Nebraska, Clemson and Texas A&M put $1.75 million in the Tech treasury, or nearly 20 percent of what it takes to operate the athletic department.

"It is a situation where, as a head coach, they tell me who I'm playing and I go play 'em," Bicknell said. "As simple as that."

Still, you get the feeling that despite his good soldier posture Bicknell must wonder about the dollars and sense of sending Tech's baseball or soccer teams to Hawai'i every time they lose a lineman. Especially when he has a young, rebuilding team as is the case this year. You'd like to be a fly on the wall of the office when the athletic director says, oh, bye the way, we just added Auburn to the schedule again.

"I mean, he (the AD) doesn't want to do it, either," Bicknell said. "But we have to do it for financial reasons."

Under such conditions last year's 7-4 Bulldog finish was amazing.

If the Bulldogs come close to a break-even record this year, everybody in the athletic department at Louisiana Tech should be buying Bicknell drinks. After he gets back from Hawai'i, they might want to do it anyway.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.