Win, lose or draw, NDSU gets paid
Minnesota paying NDSU $300,000 for Saturdayís game
As long as the Bison step on the field at the Metrodome Saturday, it will be an extremely successful weekend for NDSU athletics.
Of course, if the Bison pull off the highly improbable, probably-not-going-to-happen feat of winning against the University of Minnesota, it will be regarded as the greatest victory in the school’s history.
But, as long as the Bison make it down there in time for the opening kickoff, there will be many happy folks around the athletic administration offices at NDSU.
That’s because for playing the game, Minnesota will pay NDSU $300,000.
For 60 minutes of football, NDSU earns $300,000.
Do you know how many pairs of football cleats the team can buy with $300,000? About 2,900.
The two schools were originally scheduled to play in 2007, but when Minnesota needed to add another game this season, they went knocking on NDSU’s door.
Both NDSU head coach Craig Bohl and athletic director Gene Taylor had reservations about scheduling the Gophers a year earlier than expected.
Taylor and Bohl said they would’ve rather scheduled another home game instead of traveling to Minnesota to play the Gophers.
“ Our initial reaction was we wanted to play six home games,” Bohl said of trying to schedule another home game at the Fargodome. “We exhausted all options to play a game at home, so we thought that this was the very best option.”
Best option, indeed.
Minnesota was originally going to pay NDSU $275,000 for the 2007 game, but after some discussion with NDSU, they bumped that up, along with this season’s game to $300,000.
“ I knew that we would either stick with 10 games, or go out and play Minnesota and make some money on the deal,” Taylor said of contemplating scheduling the game.
Although both Taylor and Bohl wanted another game at home, financially, it makes perfect sense to play at Minnesota.
At an average home game, NDSU only (comparatively speaking) nets around $90,000.
This way, NDSU will be earning an extra $210,000 to help fund a hefty budget.
Money guarantees – when bigger schools pay smaller schools to play them – are very common in Division I athletics.
They give smaller schools a reason to travel to play bigger schools and get slaughtered in front of tens of thousands of people.
Since moving to Division I, the Bison have done well in money guarantee games. When the football team defeated I-A school Ball State this season, they received $150,000.
It’s not just football either. Last season, when the men’s basketball team upset Wisconsin, NDSU was paid $40,000.
Before that game, Minnesota paid NDSU $35,000 for a men’s basketball game.
This school year, NDSU has an athletic budget of $9,529,237.
By playing two games, the football team will cover nearly five percent of that.
“ When you’re talking about a nine and a half million dollar budget and $500,000 of it coming from two games, it pays a lot of bills,” Taylor said. “It is extremely important.”
So even if the game gets ugly on Saturday, rest assured, because no matter what the outcome is, the NDSU athletic department will benefit greatly.