Each word (except the first few) clues a pair of letters adjacent in the alphabet. After grouping the pairs by whether they're in forward or reverse alphabetical order, reading down suitably chosen columns gives "MORE THAN JUST COIN".
IAP GUIDE SAYS NM NANOMETER FLIP-FLOP JK PO BOX TAN UV CANONIZED ST SR SENIOR WEEKDAY TU FE IRON BRUNSWICK BC UT DO NORWAY NO IH TFP BA BOEING HAWAII HI ON BAALBEK MINNESOTA MN
The first few words in the puzzle hint to look in the MIT IAP Guide. The relevant sentence from the description in the "Umpteenth Annual MIT Mystery Hunt" entry in the 1999 IAP Guide is: "And why does it seem like the loot is more than just the coin?"
So the answer is LOOT.