Money Ball

Half a million dollars is a lot of money.

It’s also the answer to the question on the minds of many Aggie football fans this week: Why are we playing Oklahoma?

That’s right, USU will rake in $500,000 for its game against Oklahoma this week, Athletic Director Randy Spetman said.

It could have been more.

“There are offers out there on the table right now that if you want to play Texas next year you can get paid $850,000 to one million dollars,” he said. “So the big BCS schools, in their drive to get home games, are paying incredible dollar amounts.”

And that’s really the long and short of it – big schools want home games, and smaller programs need money.

With stadiums seating between 90,000 and 100,000 people, anyone can see why big Bowl Championship Series schools, like the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, the University of Oklahoma and Ohio State University, would want more home games.

Schools like those mentioned above can net two or three million dollars or more at each home game, Spetman said. So they want to have a minimum of seven home games. And it’s those huge dollar amounts that allow Oklahoma to pay Utah State half a million dollars to come in and play.

“You can imagine if I had eight home games where I netted 1.5 million dollars a game, it would be as much as my whole athletics department budget, approximately,” Spetman said.

But it’s not just Utah State capitalizing on these opportunities. Look at the schedule from the last two weeks: USC played Idaho at home, Fresno State played at Texas A&M and Texas played Arkansas State.

Almost all the teams in the Western Athletic Conference play these big money road games, Head Coach Brent Guy said.

“It’s something, financially, you have to do to help the entire department generate revenue,” he said. “It’s something I knew going into it, taking the job, that I was going to have these games and have to play it.”

Even though the football team is earning the money, it doesn’t necessarily go into their coffers. Instead, it goes into the general athletics department operating budget and benefits all of Utah State’s 16 NCAA sports by financing things like scholarships and airfare, Spetman said.

Although the money from these games is beneficial, there has to be a balance between taking in revenue and not beating up your team too much, Spetman said.

Injuries become a major concern with games like these.

“You play a team that’s big and physical and your concern is you’re going to have some guys that are mismatched, and get guys hurt … because they are bigger and stronger than any team we have in the WAC,” Guy said.

He added: “Would I want to play four of them? No. But Randy and I were both in agreement that one a year is something that we need to do and is feasible for us to do.”

Are there opportunities out there to play more of these games? Sure, Spetman said.

“I guess if you wanted to, if you had enough guts, you’d play 11 money games a year,” he said. “You wouldn’t have much of a program.”

Spetman can be pretty certain about the number of money games the Aggies could play a year.

“Unfortunately, when you don’t have a great record like we do, a lot of people want to sign us up,” he said. “I probably get a call a week from a major school wanting to see, somewhere out in the next few years, if we’ll schedule them.”

This last week it was the University of Georgia who wanted to bring in the Aggies, but Spetman said he turned them down.

The Aggies may not be playing at Georgia anytime soon, but they do have the next few years booked. Spetman said next season Utah State will play at Oregon for $235,000, at Texas A&M in 2009 for $600,000 and back at Oklahoma for half a million dollars in 2010.

Those are all pretty big numbers, considering the Aggies are doing really well if they net $200,000 at a home game, Spetman said.

It would also cost Utah State a lot of money to get out of one of these games. Spetman said to get out of this week’s game at Oklahoma, which has been on the schedule for four or five years, USU would have to pay a $500,000 buyout to the Sooners.

But for the players on the team, it’s not all about the money – it’s about the experience.

“From a player’s standpoint, especially this week, it’s very easy to approach the players with this,” Guy said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. (Oklahoma) is rated No. 3 in the country. You don’t have those chances very often … You get to play against, what is right now, the very best in the country out of 119 teams, and see how you do.”

Spetman added: “This week, our guys are getting to play one of the top three teams in the nation. It’s a huge challenge for our coaches and players, but I think that’s what a student-athlete aspires to do, play at the very top level.”

Many of the Aggies’ juniors and seniors have experienced this the last two years, playing at the University of Alabama and the University of Arkansas, respectively. Judging from the post-game interviews last year, Spetman said, the game at Arkansas was one of their greatest experiences – even though they lost.

The chance to get to play against players in contention for the Heisman Trophy, like Arkansas’ Darren McFadden last season, or have NFL potential, like Alabama’s Brody Croyle – who is now with the Kansas City Chiefs – is another big part of playing these tough road games.

For Spetman, the opportunity to play against Heisman Trophy competition is still fresh in his mind. While he was playing for Air Force, Spetman got to play at Penn State against the 1973 Heisman winner, running back John Cappelletti.

Spetman said he got to tackle Cappelletti a few times and still lives off that dream today. His Air Force team also had a chance to win that game, he added. They only lost 14-9.

As a team, Utah State should also benefit from the experience of playing against Oklahoma’s players because they are bigger, faster and stronger than anyone in the WAC.

The sea of red in Norman, Okla., and the hostile road atmosphere they create should also prepare the Aggies for their road games in the WAC, Guy said.

“If you can execute and perform, you know, if we can get third-and-six and convert in Norman, you can do it in Hawaii, you can do it at La Tech, you can do it at Idaho, you can do it at Boise,” he said.

Numbers:

Good net revenue at USU home game: $200,000.

Payout at Wyoming last week: $150,000 (a net of $100,000 after $50,000 to get team there and back).

Payout at Oklahoma this week: $500,000

Payout at Oregon next year: $235,000

Payout at Texas A&M in 2009: $600,000

Payout at Oklahoma in 2010: $500,000

Total cost to run USU’s 16 NCAA sports: a little over $15 million