Forbes reported that Florida State paid out $1.4 million to New Mexico State for the programs’ Week 0 game, and that Ohio State paid $1.9 million (!) to Ball State for their game in Week 1.
Also, quite famously, Rutgers paid $1.55 million to UMass for their Week 1 game, which UMass won, 37-21, and the game was not as close as the score indicated.
I couldn’t track down how much Rutgers spent on the postgame fireworks show that went on as scheduled after the beatdown.
Your Econ 201 professor would refer to that as a sunk cost anyway.
Against this backdrop, I think we need to give Carla Williams, the athletics director at Virginia, some credit for what she was able to do with the two guarantee games that she was able to arrange for the UVA Football program in September.
It only took us forever, but we finally got our hands on the contracts for the Norfolk State and Delaware games.
The damage:
- Norfolk State: $420,000
- Delaware: $700,000
Details
UVA and Norfolk State first agreed to the 2026 game in way, way back in 2019.
The 2026 inflation-adjusted value of the $420,000 that the schools agreed to 2019 would be: $550,313.90.
The contract was amended twice, in 2023 and again earlier this year, just to amend the date of the game.
The contract for the Delaware game is more recent, dating to Jan. 3, 2024.
Inflation-adjusted value in 2026 of the $700,000 agreed to in 2024: $747,511.07.
Analysis
Williams was able to get two guarantee games for a lot less than other schools paid for one.
Raising the question: what are those other ADs paying through the nose for?
Even assuming that the likes of FSU and Ohio State draw more fans, they don’t draw that much more, to justify paying two to three times what we’re paying.
And then, Rutgers.
Seriously.
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Chris Graham
