Shama: Fbschedules.com reported the Gophers will host Eastern Illinois for a game Thursday, September 3, 2026. Minnesota will pay the Panthers $500,00

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Shama:

Fbschedules.com reported the Gophers will host Eastern Illinois for a game Thursday, September 3, 2026. Minnesota will pay the Panthers $500,000, per the contract obtained by the website. Following that opener, the Gophers host Mississippi State Saturday, September 12.


Go Gophers!!
 


Don't care about the numbers. Not a fan of Thursday games.

Is this Shama guy's deal to just throw out numbers assuming they mean something?
 

guarantee games are what they are. P5 teams paying smaller schools to serve as cannon fodder.

"Please come to our stadium and get your butts kicked, and in return, we will give you money."

And in relative terms, I don't think $500-K is out of line. I think some of the helmet schools are paying out more than that. did a little searching - saw some guarantee games approaching $1-million. also found a lot in the $400-K to $500-K range. so locking in a game for $500-K five years from now seems like a reasonable amount.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
guarantee games are what they are. P5 teams paying smaller schools to serve as cannon fodder.

"Please come to our stadium and get your butts kicked, and in return, we will give you money."

And in relative terms, I don't think $500-K is out of line. I think some of the helmet schools are paying out more than that. did a little searching - saw some guarantee games approaching $1-million. also found a lot in the $400-K to $500-K range. so locking in a game for $500-K five years from now seems like a reasonable amount.
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IIRC even the Gophers have paid out more than 500k (depending on the deal).

For some of these smaller schools this is a big chunk of their athletic department's budget.

B1G said last year with cancelling their OOC game they would somehow help out / keep their previous deal in some way for those schools. I think they recognized the financial impact on the smaller schools having them cancelled suddnely. I never heard what they worked out.
 


A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
IIRC even the Gophers have paid out more than 500k (depending on the deal).

For some of these smaller schools this is a big chunk of their athletic department's budget.

B1G said last year with cancelling their OOC game they would somehow help out / keep their previous deal in some way for those schools. I think they recognized the financial impact on the smaller schools having them cancelled suddnely. I never heard what they worked out.
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True.

I prefer Saturday games as anyone in Mn with a high school football commitment has potential issues with Thursday or Friday games.


Not that I matter, but by nature people in high school football are natural potential gophers fans. And you freeze out everyone when you host a Thursday game on Labor Day weekend. Much of the state plays Thursday instead of Friday that week
 

I thought that the B1G said no more FCS games?
 





Taji34 said:
That got reversed after a year or so. I was sad about it, but apparently it's hard to find FBS teams that don't want a ton of money, and/or a home and home deal.
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Yup.

It created scheduling issues. You get in a spot where only a few teams are available and the prices demanded reflected that.
 



Taji34 said:
That got reversed after a year or so. I was sad about it, but apparently it's hard to find FBS teams that don't want a ton of money, and/or a home and home deal.
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Then maybe P5 teams should just play 12 games against each other!

How much total net profit are we talking about for a program like the Gophers, to play some garbage team on a Thurs night for the 7th home game? I say the 6th away game is Iowa/Wisc, with minimal travel costs.

Six home games is plenty.
 



MplsGopher said:
Then maybe P5 teams should just play 12 games against each other!

How much total net profit are we talking about for a program like the Gophers, to play some garbage team on a Thurs night for the 7th home game? I say the 6th away game is Iowa/Wisc, with minimal travel costs.

Six home games is plenty.
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We once paid more than this to NOT play a game.
 


Taji34 said:
That got reversed after a year or so. I was sad about it, but apparently it's hard to find FBS teams that don't want a ton of money, and/or a home and home deal.
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I'd love it if our out of conference schedule every year was three games that were all part of a home and home with P5 opponents. As a season ticket holder, I'd gladly have one less home game every other year if it meant that none of the home games were FCS or low-level G5 games.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I'd love it if our out of conference schedule every year was three games that were all part of a home and home with P5 opponents. As a season ticket holder, I'd gladly have one less home game every other year if it meant that none of the home games were FCS or low-level G5 games.
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One of those things that we fans want ... but I'm not sure we imagine taking those extra losses / are forgiving at the end of the season about it + revenue issues and etc either ;)
 

We are STILL complaining about Thursday night opening games?
Our last non-pandemic, non-Thursday opener was in 2011 at USC.
I just don't see that changing anytime soon, folks.
 

jonnyganas said:
We are STILL complaining about Thursday night opening games?
Our last non-pandemic, non-Thursday opener was in 2011 at USC.
I just don't see that changing anytime soon, folks.
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I don't like stubbing my toe, done it a lot ... going to do it again ... still gonna say something about it...
 



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