Game guarantees net payday for Bowling Green

Bowling Green running back Fred Coppet celebrates the 48-27 win over Maryland with fans in 2015.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOWLING GREEN — The start to the 2018 football season brings plenty of on-field challenges for Bowling Green, but they also will come with a hefty payday for the school.

Game guarantees from the Falcons’ four nonconference football games will net $1.33 million for the department of athletics during the fiscal year, even with two of the four games to be played at Doyt Perry Stadium.

Bowling Green will play Oregon and quarterback Justin Herbert in the first game of the season.

This season, Bowling Green will play teams from the Pac-12, Big Ten, and Atlantic Coast Conference outside of its eight-game Mid-American Conference regular season games.

Three Power Five opponents among the first five games will be a major test for Bowling Green, though Falcons coach Mike Jinks said the team is excited for the challenge.

“The schedule is what it is. All that we can do is prepare for our next opponent,” Jinks said last week. “We look at it as a tremendous opportunity.”

The game contract for the Falcons’ season opener at Oregon, obtained through a public records request, comes with a payday of $900,000. The schools signed the contract in 2012 for the game Sept. 1, 2018, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore.

Later in the season, the Falcons will travel Sept. 29 to Georgia Tech, which also will pay BG a $900,000 guarantee for the game. The two schools agreed to those terms in 2016.

BG will also continue its series with Maryland, which is a two-for-one contract under which the Falcons will travel to Maryland twice in exchange for one home game. The athletic departments originally signed the contract in 2007 but amended it in 2010 and moved a game again in 2017. 

The Terrapins’ visit Sept. 8 this season will come with a $150,000 game guarantee from BG, though Maryland will pay BGSU a total of $800,000 — $400,000 each time — for the two games in College Park, Md.

The two schools played the first game of the series in 2015, when Bowling Green won 48-27 on the Terrapins’ home field. The two sides will conclude the series in 2024 with a game in College Park, a game that was scheduled for 2019 but moved last year. 

There also is a Football Championship Subdivision team on the Falcons’ schedule this season, as BGSU will pay Eastern Kentucky a $320,000 guarantee for the game scheduled for Sept. 15 in Bowling Green.

In future years, the Falcons will play additional high-profile opponents on the road.

During the 2019 season, Bowling Green will play at both Kansas State and Notre Dame, followed by a 2020 games scheduled at Ohio State and Illinois, 2021 games at Tennessee and Minnesota, and the 2022 season-opening game at UCLA.

Contact Nicholas Piotrowicz at npiotrowicz@theblade.com, 419-724-6110 or on Twitter @NickPiotrowicz