Nebraska to pay $1 million to Arkansas St for a one-game no return series

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It is interesting how the football landscape has changed. It used to be that BCS schools (or the equivalent, I realize the BCS didn't exist in the past, but there were major conferences) didn't even play these schools. I did some digging in the media guide, and found some interesting stuff. The Gophers didn't play ANY non-BCS schools from 1946 when the U played Wyoming until 1967 when the U played Utah. (Utah wasn't in the equivalent of a BCS conference at the time)

After that, non-BCS opponents appeared on the schedule pretty regularly, but always at home. It wasn't until 1993, when the U played San Diego Statem, that the U played a non-BCS game on the road. The costs to get an FBS team to play a guarantee game keep getting higher and higher. Games against FCS teams have gotten a lot more expensive, I think Savannah State got $350,000.
 

Due to these increasing guarantees, I would expect to see more games at home versus the Dakota Schools.
 

Arkansas State gets $1M from Nebraska to play one game in Lincoln.

Colorado gets $1M from Ohio State to play one game in Columbus.

How the once-mighty Buffaloes have fallen....
 


RodentRampage said:
It is interesting how the football landscape has changed. It used to be that BCS schools (or the equivalent, I realize the BCS didn't exist in the past, but there were major conferences) didn't even play these schools. I did some digging in the media guide, and found some interesting stuff. The Gophers didn't play ANY non-BCS schools from 1946 when the U played Wyoming until 1967 when the U played Utah. (Utah wasn't in the equivalent of a BCS conference at the time)

After that, non-BCS opponents appeared on the schedule pretty regularly, but always at home. It wasn't until 1993, when the U played San Diego Statem, that the U played a non-BCS game on the road. The costs to get an FBS team to play a guarantee game keep getting higher and higher. Games against FCS teams have gotten a lot more expensive, I think Savannah State got $350,000.
Click to expand...

They only played a 9 game schedule until 1964 I believe.
 

We're paying Western Michigan $750,000 for today's game according to the "MAC Attacks The Big Ten with a chip on it's shoulder" story in today's Strib"
 

That was part of it, there weren't as many opening for non-conference games, because there were 9 total games, and 6 or 7 conference games. The Gophers played 6 conference games in 46, 49, 50, 51, 52 and 54.
In 58, the Gophers played 8 conference games, but otherwise, the Gophers played 7 conference games until an 8th conference game was added in 1971. We had the 9-game conference schedule from 79-84, and then it was back to 8 games. Now we're looking at going back to 9-games.

Games against FCS opponents, which used to be uncommon now are just about an every-year reality. OF course, they don't have to be the Dakota schools, we could play Savannah State.
 

There is a big cost incurred in sending a team by air to an away game. If that game is an OOC game against a lower FBS or an FCS school that is only going to have 18K fans through the gate, you could be six figures in the red for that trip. That's one reason why big FBS schools won't do a home and home. Paying $1MM is just a portion of the gate receipts from 80,000 home fans.
 



North Dakota State College of Science, Wahpeton ND, would send their team anywhere against a big-time school's 3rd/4th team for $50,000, they pay for their own buses and travel costs, and include that game in the season ticket package for $5 a ticket. We'd draw at least 30,000 fans to watch the players that are up and coming and part of our future. Kind of like a JV game between High Schools. I think that would work if the beer tents were open too.
 

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