No matter the final score of its road game against the Ball State University football team, the University of New Hampshire is guaranteed to profit from this game - at least financially.
Ball State will pay New Hampshire $300,000 for playing Saturday's game at Scheumann Stadium, the most it has paid an opponent for a home game in more than five years.
Agreements like this are common in college football, but the details are rarely made public. This agreement with New Hampshire is detailed in documents obtained through the Indiana Access to Public Records Act.
Despite the high amount for this home game, it is the new going rate to play a non-conference home game against a team from a small conference, Athletics Director Tom Collins said.
"That's part of the cost of being Division I football," Collins said. "$300,000 is a pretty reasonable rate when you look at what some of the other teams are getting around the country."
The amount a Football Championship Subdivision team receives for these non-conference games has significantly increased in the last five years, Collins said.
For the Cardinals, this cost has increased by more than $100,000 since Collins became the athletics director in December 2005.
Earlier that year, Ball State signed an agreement with Northeastern University, another FCS team from the East Coast, to play a home game last season for $175,000. The $300,000 for this game against New Hampshire was from a contract signed after the 2008 season.
Collins said most FCS teams like New Hampshire will search to play Football Bowl Subdivision teams so it can get that big payday, which can get even larger if the team has to travel across the country.
"Those schools will shop games," he said. "They may call three or four places."
Similar to the Northeastern contract, the amount Ball State is paying New Hampshire also increased because it is a one-game contract, Collins said.
Unlike a one-game agreement, signing a one-and-one contract - when each team gets one home game - or a two-and-one contract is cheaper for both schools.
When Ball State played Western Kentucky University at Scheumann Stadium in 2007, it paid $85,000. This contract with team transitioning from the FCS to the FBS also had the Cardinals play a road game against the Hilltoppers last season for the same price. In addition, Ball State paid Indiana University $150,000 for a home game during the 2006 season because it was part of a three-game contract. The other two games were played in Bloomington.
Collins said New Hampshire and Ball State were not interested in scheduling an additional game at New Hampshire to reduce the cost because of his scheduling philosophy to have six home games each year. He also said this game benefits both teams.
"Our philosophy is to play the non-conference games early to get you ready for the conference," Collins said. "Our preference was to look at that and it happened they were one of the schools looking to come to the Midwest and play someone, which is different for them."
This is the fourth consecutive season New Hampshire will play a road game against an FBS team. The Wildcats also enter this game on a four-game winning streak against FBS teams, including wins against BCS conference teams Northwestern University and Rutgers University.
Starting this season No. 8 in the FCS poll, New Hampshire defeated St. Francis University 24-14 in its season opener last week.
Collins said he has a lot of respect for New Hampshire. He also said he feels good about the Cardinals' chances of winning the game, despite Ball State losing its season opener to the University of North Texas last week.
"We signed New Hamsphire, a very good [FCS] program," Collins said. "Hopefully we correct some of the mistakes we made last week and have a good showing."
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