Denver ? The Colorado football team spent nearly $35,000 to give each player an electronic organizer as a reward for making it to a bowl game last month, even as other programs at the school say they are strapped for cash.

CU bought 100 Dell Axim hand-held computers at $349.22 each, according to university spending records reviewed by the Rocky Mountain News. They were a reward for playing in the Houston Bowl, a game CU won against Texas-El Paso.

Men’s basketball coach Ricardo Patton has cut the use of chartered airplanes for his team, saving money but forcing them to miss many more classes. Women’s basketball coach Ceal Barry also is cutting costs in her budget so she can keep using chartered flights.

Interim athletic director Jack Lengyel said he didn’t favor taking away gifts from athletes in one sport to help solve financial woes elsewhere.

“That’s why we exist, is for student-athlete opportunities, and to deny them full access to their successes with regards to championships to me is not a way to solve a financial problem within the athletic department,” Lengyel said Monday.

Big 12 Conference spokesman Bob Burda says giving electronic gadgets to athletes is common around the conference.

“I know it’s not uncommon to get DVD players, iPods,” he said. “It’s generally electronics, things the kids can use, things they wouldn’t normally have.”

Colorado’s athletic department is now more than $3 million in debt this year, a deficit driven in part by the school’s struggle to lease luxury boxes and club seating at Folsom Field. Last year, the school asked the men’s and women’s basketball teams and the volleyball teams to stop flying on chartered planes to save money.

Patton complained publicly last week that his players were missing class because commercial flights offer less flexibility. He met with Lengyel on Monday.

“Both of us mutually have the same concerns regarding the academic concerns about the basketball team,” Lengyel said. “We’re working to resolve that as quickly as possible.”

Patton and Barry both said they didn’t support taking away gifts from the football players. Patton, however, said he had “cut as many corners as I think we can cut.”

Barry decided her assistant coaches didn’t need to attend an annual convention, and she has cut back on expenses for the annual senior banquet.

“You have to make some hard choices,” she said.