Go ahead. Blame Lloyd Carr. It's what everyone else is doing.

With the Michigan football team coming off its worst season in more than 20 years, people close to the University are pointing fingers every which way.

But what about fundraising? Does a winning football team make a difference for development? That's the million-dollar question after a year that saw the football program finish with a 7-5 record and a loss to Nebraska in the Alamo Bowl.

Bob Groves, associate vice president of development at the University, says it is a complex issue. Happy alumni are giving alumni, but whether a winning football season directly affects donations is still up in the air.

"Always, when the team is playing better and people are feeling good, when we're undefeated, those things do buoy up people's spirits and it's a positive effect," Groves said. "But to say that we are hurt by (a bad season), I would say that's too hard of a statement."

How potential donors are affected by the success of the football team might be difficult to quantify, but how many alumni made the trip to Alamo Bowl is not. The number was a lot smaller this year than it has been recently.

Just over 5,000 tickets were sold for this year's bowl game - down from 35,000 just a year ago.

The Alumni Association organized a variety of tours of the city and major landmarks for alumni who made it down to San Antonio. It also held a pep rally, seminars and a tailgate with drinks and food for alumni to mingle in the hours leading up to the game. Separate from the Alumni Association, University President Mary Sue Coleman hosted her own dinner for select donors, as well as a special reception for Presidential Society members - people who have given more than $15,000 to the University in their lifetime.

Turnout was down for all of the activities. This year, only 20 people attended Coleman's dinner and just more than 100 came to the reception. Last year in Pasadena, Coleman held a luncheon with 100 guests, and the pregame tailgate attracted about 500 people, according to Chacona Johnson, the associate vice president for development who helped coordinate Alamo Bowl activities.

The events organized by the Alumni Associate also had a lower turnout than in the past. Kurk Lutz, the event organizer for the Alumni Association, said the week before the game that they were expecting about 300 people for the tour and just over 1,000 for their tailgate - down from the roughly 1,300 and 3,500 who went to the similar events last year.

The year before saw even more guests - 3,500 and 8,000 - probably because it was the first trip to the Rose Bowl in six years, Lutz said.

It's the relative size of these events that might make fund raising more difficult.

"Obviously, it's different if it's the Rose Bowl and 10,000 people are there and if it's the Alamo bowl and several hundred will be there," Groves said. "The same kinds of activities occur. It's just a matter of size and scale.

"There have been studies over the years. You can see a correlation, but it's not a direct cause and effect," he added.

Former Athletic Director Joe Roberson, who was a vice president for development before he was appointed athletic director by then-University President James Duderstadt in 1994, said he never saw a correlation between winning and donations when he worked for the University.

"The only thing I ever saw that did have some affect on development was not winning and losing (but) scandal," Roberson said.

Whether it is the Alamo Bowl or the Rose Bowl, the bowl game is not generally a stage for gathering donations anyway, especially for the Alumni Association, which sells tickets and organizes most of the activities.

"We are not involved in fund raising; we are involved in friend-raising," Lutz said. "We've been offering the official bowl game and tailgate for many, many years."

But development officers use the bowl game and the surrounding events as an opportunity for "cultivation," a term Groves described as a courting process between the University and donors.

"Larger gifts really require a stronger emotional bond," Groves said. "The term cultivation is how we do multiple things to remind people how strongly they feel about the University."

During the planned events leading up to a bowl game, alumni in attendance get the chance to meet the University's president, Board of Regents and deans. Groves said these introductions are part of the process of creating stronger bonds.

Groves was quick to add that cultivating donations is not a nefarious activity. The University just wants to be a part of the lives of alumni and be one of the top few things that they think about, he said.