How to make $100,000 go up in smoke

Hello and welcome to another fun FOIAball. At least, I think it’s a fun one. This post is packed with records from tons of schools on a topic I bet you’ll love.

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When Virginia Tech went into halftime down 28-0 against Old Dominion in Week Three, pretty much everyone in Blacksburg was okay with paying the $6 million it would take to get Brent Pry off the sidelines. 

But he wound up costing the Hokies a few more bucks on his way out. 

With just 19 minutes to go in his head coaching career, Tech finally found the end zone. In the fourth quarter, they strung together three more touchdowns. 

The final score? A slightly more respectable 45-26. 

Not enough to save his job. But score during a college game in 2025, and no matter the deficit—yes, we’ll get to that one incident—the home team is shooting off fireworks. 

Pry’s garbage time rally added $4,000 to the Hokies’ tab, a grand for each inconsequential touchdown. 

Heading into that game, VT was already reeling at 0-2. But it was still an in-state, sunset showdown at Lane Stadium. Which merits a full production. 

As the team charged through the tunnel while Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” blared, fireworks ringing the stadium blasted into the sky. On the field, towers shot out flames as CO2 cannons spewed cold fog. 

The cost for one of college football’s most iconic intros? $25,500.

The total pyrotechnic bill that night: $31,740. 

This season, the Hokies went 2-5 at home. Across those seven games, the school spent a total of $120,620 on fireworks. 

That sum was good for third-most… in its own state. Up I-81, JMU dropped $124,850. Further down I-64, UVA paid $128,737.

To see whose pre-game and post-score fireworks displays cost the most in 2025, FOIAball obtained spending for teams across the country, ranging from playoff contenders to bottom-feeders. 

The biggest tab? We could give you two dozen guesses. You won’t get it. 

But we’ll give you a hint: It may explain a ton about the state of their athletics department. 

The Hokies contracted with Pyro Shows, which does fireworks displays at schools across the South. 

The bid documents detail the full scope of scene-setting for modern college football. At night games, the Hokies are shooting off over 600 fireworks as the team walks out. 

Even when they don’t, the school still spends $6,500 before every kickoff, just to take the field in flaming, smoky glory. Which, to be fair, every team is doing these days. 

That cost is about the same across the industry. With a more restrained fireworks display, whenever Texas A&M storms onto Kyle Field, they are out almost $9,000. 

I don’t want to be a hater. It does look cool.

I just want to let you know how much it costs. The fog alone runs $2,600 per game, while those flame boxes are almost $4,000. 

For the 2025 season, the Aggies spent a tad more than Virginia Tech on fireworks, just over $126,000. That doesn’t even put them in FOIAball’s Top Five.

Okay, now to be a hater. Just for a bit. A few fireworks displays this year totally bombed. 

UMass put forth one of the dreariest seasons in recent memory. But there was one bright spot, fired into the evening sky. In Week 11, the Minutemen were 0-9 and down 45-0 against Northern Illinois. With six minutes to play, they kicked a 44-yard field goal to cut the lead to six scores. 

The pyrotechnic team pulled the trigger. 

A few fireworks for a field goal isn’t that much. At Virginia Tech, a three-point celebration runs just $350. The school probably earned that back in media coverage about the incident. 

What’s more egregious was the season total. The university right now is making up for big budget shortfalls in the athletics department. 

Across six home games that resulted in zero wins, the school spent $32,000 on fireworks. That’s what mid-tier P4 schools like Maryland and Oregon State spend. 

Most teams UMass lost to kept costs much lower. Kent State spent just $5,025 and Bowling Green $11,500. Not Buffalo, though. They shot $38,500 worth of product into the air. 

At least U-Mass escaped without almost burning down its stadium. The same cannot be said for Clemson. 

The Tigers got a bit of foreshadowing of how their season would play out right from the jump. Taking the field in Week One, a malfunctioning mortar set the scoreboard ablaze. 

We can’t say for sure if Clemson got a refund and a credit for the mishap, but in documents provided to FOIAball, the school did not have any fireworks expenses for Weeks One and Two.

Paying for just five games, Clemson still managed to crack six figures with $107,476. 

Big schools were understandably big spenders, but weird teams popped up. Texas dropped the third-most of every team FOIAball obtained data for, at $137,467. Right behind it, with $135,500, was … Illinois. 

A few slots down from the Illini was Colorado State at $123,395. The Rams were the only other G5 team to join JMU in the Top Ten. 

In the P4, teams typically cracked $50,000. Still, there were big differences between similar schools.

Iowa paid $49,000 across seven home games, a flat $7,000 fee for each. We’re guessing the contractor wasn’t worried about going over budget in blowouts.  

Nebraska often doubled that every game. The Cornhuskers spent $13,400 hosting the Hawkeyes in a losing effort. Their overall bill was $117,452. That included a single-game tab of $22,027, the price for hanging 68 on Akron.

High-flying offenses certainly add to the cost. Arizona paid $5,900 for each intro and $400 at the start of every fourth quarter. But when they dropped 48 against Weber State, they were hit with an extra $3,100. And 41-point games against Oklahoma State and Baylor added $2,780 to each bill. The Wildcats’ grand total was $60,185. 

Scoring a ton doesn’t automatically break the bank. Texas Tech put up 174 points in its first three home games. It ended the season at $70,247. Louisville spent a grand more than that. 

If you would like to view all the data, you can see it here. But clicking now will ruin our reveal. So maybe wait a minute. 

We have to admit, we had a great concluding paragraph for all this. Sitting in our Google Doc for over a week.

FOIAball was all set to declare that 2025’s biggest spender on the field was the school that had the most fireworks off the field. 

UNC was at the top of our list, with $147,511. That’s $10,000 more than Texas. Think of the headlines. Such an incredible waste of money in a wash of a season.

But last night, we received one final figure that ruined our plans. Which is okay, because it also blew us away. It sure blew the Tar Heels away. By $44,000.

It was a surprise, but given the school’s issues with its budget, it also totally tracks. 

Last year, Rutgers athletics department lost $78 million. We can say that 0.25% of that literally went up in smoke, with the Scarlet Knights spending $191,159 on fireworks. 

College football. It really is a Dril tweet. 

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Lane Stadium via ESPN/YouTube