USA TODAY Sports used public-records requests to obtain contracts for 297 non-conference college football games scheduled by Bowl Subdivision teams this season. In total, nearly $175 million will be changing hands for those games.
With roughly 30 matchups being between private schools or institutions not required to disclose contract terms, the overall non-conference total greater. Plus, there is the $5 million due Georgia Tech for playing its Atlantic Coast Conference home game this weekend against Clemson at Mercedes-Benz Stadium rather than its Bobby Dodd Stadium orthe money paid to Nebraska and Northwestern for their involvement in a Big Ten game last weekend in Dublin, Ireland.
One of the biggest outlier contracts for non-conference games this season is California’s game at Notre Dame on Sept. 17. The Golden Bears are set to receive $1.9 million, , by far the largest payout to a Power Five school playing at its opponent’s stadium.
While this is not the first contract of its kind between two Power Five schools, there are rarely payouts of this size between those programs for one-off contests at a home site. The second-highest payout between two Power Five programs is for Alabama, which will receive $1 million for playing at Texas but then is set to pay Texas $1 million next season for the teams’ meeting in Tuscaloosa.
The anomalous game contract comes as a result of Cal’s current financial situation. The school is currently in the midst of a six-year plan to gradually reduce the university’s annual financial support of the athletics department, eventually arriving at $13.3 million by the 2025 fiscal year. Beginning in the 2015 fiscal year, the Cal athletics program began running annual operational deficits totaling $65.8 million over a five-year period, according to data compiled by USA TODAY Sports and the Knight-Newhouse Data project at Syracuse University.
Some other interesting facts from this season’s guarantee games.
Big money for LSU and Florida State game
The highest-paying game in 2022 is an alternate-site matchup between LSU and Florida State. Both sides will receive $5.1 million from organizers of the Sugar Bowl for their involvement in the game, which is being played Sunday at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
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