Money game: UGA-Florida Atlantic pays off for both sides
Florida Atlantic is assured of setting one Sanford Stadium record Saturday night: The Owls will pocket the largest paycheck of any visiting team in Georgia football history.
Georgia will pay Florida Atlantic $1 million for making the trip to Athens — a reflection of the rising cost of scheduling presumed easy victories against FBS nonconference opponents that don’t require a return engagement on their campus.
UGA scheduled the game and agreed to the seven-figure payout after canceling a two-year, home-and-home series with Louisville to accommodate last season’s opener against Boise State in the Georgia Dome.
“We were fortunate [FAU] was available to play on this date,” Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said this week. “But to make the date work, there was an expectation we had to pay a million dollars. That has kind of become the going rate.”
He isn’t complaining. Even after the record payout, UGA will clear about $1.7 million from the game, according to figures in the school’s athletics budget.
The game, which gives Georgia seven rather than the formerly customary six home games this season, is budgeted to bring in about $2.7 million in ticket revenue, $160,000 in concessions profits and $7,500 from novelty sales. After the FAU payout and about $200,000 in other game expenses, the rest flows to the bottom line.
Even for a UGA athletics department that expects to generate $92 million in revenue this fiscal year, the night’s windfall will be significant. It is more than enough, for example, to cover the annual budgets of the soccer ($667,000) and softball ($790,000) programs.
Georgia will have only six home football games next season, when it plays at Clemson in a tradeoff for a 2014 game in Athens. “We’ll have to be creative in the budget next year to make up that difference,” McGarity said.
FAU won’t sympathize.
To help balance its budget, the school is playing road games against highly ranked SEC opponents on back-to-back Saturdays — this one against No. 7 Georgia and next week against No. 1 Alabama, which will pay the Owls another $1 million.
Payouts have increased because of a supply-demand imbalance: fewer mid-major FBS teams looking to play for pay than big-budget teams willing to pay for play. Two seasons ago, Georgia got Louisiana Lafayette to play in Athens for $875,000. But this season’s opener against Buffalo required a $975,000 payout, UGA’s highest until this week.
(Georgia doesn’t pay SEC schools or Georgia Tech for playing in Athens because those games are reciprocated when the Bulldogs go on the road. Also, FCS opponents — such as Georgia Southern, which plays at UGA on Nov. 17 — command much smaller payouts than the likes of Florida Atlantic. Georgia Southern will get $475,000 for the game in Athens.)
Economics may explain why the paycheck games are scheduled, but the scoreboard and the attendance usually reflect the arguments against them.
Florida Atlantic, a Sun Belt Conference team that went 1-11 last season, is a 43-point underdog to Georgia. And although such games occasionally backfire on the home team (see: Appalachian State over Michigan in 2007 and Louisiana Monroe over Arkansas last week), they usually produce unsavory results (see: Oklahoma State 84, Savannah State 0 two weeks ago) and diminished crowds.
“I don’t think it’s good for college football, but I understand the reality of why schools have to play those games budgetarily,” FAU coach Carl Pelini told the Associated Press.
Georgia has sold out 92,746-seat Sanford Stadium for Saturday, selling the last few hundred tickets early this week in the aftermath of the victory at Missouri. It won’t be a surprise, though, if a noticeable number of students and season-ticket holders are no-shows.
McGarity’s scheduling philosophy, which he brought with him when he returned to Georgia in 2010 after 18 years at Florida, generally is to have seven home games, only occasionally dipping to six in order to play a marquee opponent on a neutral field or in a home-and-home series. With eight SEC opponents and Georgia Tech on the schedule each season, McGarity believes that playing the other three games at home against lower-level opponents — two from an FBS mid-major league and one from the FCS level — best positions Georgia to make a run for the SEC Championship game.
It is uncertain if that philosophy will stand in the coming era of a four-team national playoff, where strength of schedule will be a factor in selecting the field. Georgia’s next opening on a schedule is in 2015, and McGarity is awaiting clarity on playoff criteria before filling it.
Money games are nothing new to Florida Atlantic, which has played — and lost to — Florida, Michigan State, Auburn, Texas, Nebraska and South Carolina in the past few seasons.
Pelini wants FAU to find value beyond dollars in the trip to Athens.
“I want our players to share my vision, and I want my administration and school administration to share my vision,” he told reporters in Boca Raton, Fla. “To go up and play a team that is perennially a top-20 team and see not just [what’s] on the football field but the organization itself [and] how their players act on the field, how their players prepare, how they execute and how their athletic staff administration as a whole conducts the game-day experience — all those things are positive for a school like FAU [to see] because that’s what my vision for this program ultimately would be.”
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199 comments Add your comment
UGA Football vs. Florida Atlantic: Low Suspense, Big Money
September 14th, 2012
9:17 pm
[...] What the visiting team will be expecting for its trouble, though, is a big paycheck: UGA has agreed to fork over $1 million for the privilege of hosting Florida Atlantic without a reciprocal visit. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that’s the most Georgia has ever paid a visiting team. [...]
DawgNole
September 14th, 2012
9:53 pm
Concerned
September 14th, 2012
12:26 pm
Alabama is a backwards state evidenced by no real culture throught the state . . . The people of that state are still living in the 50s and 70s for the most part.
____________________
What’d they do in the 60s?
Big Crimson 75
September 14th, 2012
10:03 pm
Dawgbite — having spent the majority of my life in both States, your post is spot on. Good & bad people in both States. You get a notch in my book for not following the obvious hate filled agenda the young man presented for dawg nation.
Concerned? Only about his grammar!
DawgNole
September 14th, 2012
10:03 pm
Go Blue
September 14th, 2012
8:06 pm
Scheduling better OOC teams would sure help fill some of those seats. I know if UM was in Athens, my butt would be in one of them lol. When they showed the upper levels of the stadium during the Buffalo game, I was SHOCKED. From about the 30 yard line all the way around the end zone was completely empty. I bet the attendance for that game could not have been more than around 70k. Fill those seats by bringing in better teams and the money situation works itself out.
___________________
You’re right on with this post.
Allowing bigtime football programs to literally buy wins by paying weak sisters to come in and bend over is the most despicable practice in college football.
Tucker’s article also omits the fact that home-and-home series with high-quality OOC opponents not only fill seats, but also generate major publicity and bring in huge network TV revenues for BOTH teams at BOTH locations during the home-and-homes. TV payoffs for garbage like Buffalo, FAU, Coastal Carolina, New Mexico St, Louisianna-Lafayette, Idaho St, Tennessee Tech, Central Michigan, Western Carolina, and Troy (ALL recent UGA opponents) pale in comparison to the money generated when you have two major OOC playing against each other.
Big Crimson 75
September 14th, 2012
10:22 pm
Nole — you won’t get an argument from me.
Everyone is guilty.
I can see 1 maybe 2 cup-cakes, but the overwhelming majority of bcs conference schools play their conference schedule plus usually 1 tough ooc game.
It definitely robs the fans. Let’s face it, half of a good teams conference games are against low ranked teams.
DawgNole
September 14th, 2012
10:41 pm
Big Crimson 75
September 14th, 2012
10:22 pm
Nole — you won’t get an argument from me.
Everyone is guilty.
I can see 1 maybe 2 cup-cakes, but the overwhelming majority of bcs conference schools play their conference schedule plus usually 1 tough ooc game.
It definitely robs the fans. Let’s face it, half of a good teams conference games are against low ranked teams.
________________
Glad we’re on the same page this time. With a 12-game schedule, one or two cupcakes should be he max. What I’d really like to see for UGA is a 9-game SEC slate plus Tech, a DECENT FBS opponent, and a cupcake.
I’m just hoping the new playoff format leads to more emphasis on strength of schedule. Sick of playing these pansies just because “everybody else does it.”
Big Crimson 75
September 14th, 2012
10:47 pm
Nole — the big boys have nothing to gain & everything to lose playing these softies.
The only good thing that comes from playing these teams is seeing the 2nd & 3rd stringers.
That being said, I’m spending my $$ to see my teams best players.
Dawg Fanz for televised scrimmage
September 15th, 2012
7:00 am
We go to the spring game to watch the Dawgs play.
We go to the big games and hope we can pull out a win.
We go to the cupcakes to watch the bench get some time, make enough money to help pay for title IX, help the cupcakes pay for their whole season, help the hotels in Athens fill up one more night, and visit with friends.
We can play the cupcakes or just have an open week.
Dawg Fanz for televised scrimmage
September 15th, 2012
7:07 am
Attendance only effects concessions and novelty sales – local merchants sales.
If they sell 97,000 tickets who cares if they show up. More elbow room for the rest.
I go to Tech games too. They can’t get 50K unless the away team fanz caravan.
Louis from Cherry Log
September 15th, 2012
9:03 am
meanwhile, LSU will be playing in the Cowboys Classic vs. TCU…they also have home and home vs Oklahoma, AZ State and NC State on upcoming schedules…UGA has rising power LA-Monroe!…and Southern U…if you want respect, you have to earn respect…and no one respects UGA.
Marlon Brown proving to be quite a catch for Bulldogs | UGA sports blog
September 15th, 2012
9:34 am
[...] Money game: UGA-FAU pays off for both teams [...]
Backwudz
September 15th, 2012
10:00 am
How much did L-Monroe have to pay Arkansas, obviously they didn’t know it was a tune-up game….lol
Erk
September 15th, 2012
10:23 am
Can we quit using the term “scheduling philosophy?” I want to play 1/4 of the schedule against bs teams is not a philosophy, it’s crap. Also, SEC does have cupcakes. They are called vandy, UK, Ole Miss, and Arkansas grew some icing last weekend.
David Granger
September 15th, 2012
10:41 am
This is a game that Georgia should have solidly in hand by the end of the first half. That way we can let our second string start the second half and play all the third quarter…and then give our third stringers some playing time in the final quarter. Trouble is, Georgia always seems to “play down” to the level of its opponent over the last several years. We’ve even had to hustle to beat some of these tune-up games against the smaller “thump-a-chump” teams. There were times when we needed to let D.J. Shockley run the offense for an entire quarter, without looking over his shoulder every time he threw the ball away or took a sack. There were times when we needed to let Tereshinski get some playing time, there were times we needed to let Joe Cox run the offense for an entire quarter or two. Yet, we always had to leave our first stringers in there because we couldn’t seem to deliver the knockout blow, even against a team that should have been put away. I hope those days are long gone, but I wonder. This would be a good time to PROVE it.
DawgNole
September 15th, 2012
11:25 am
haters can’t pinpoint this argument on one school, although they stupidly try
September 14th, 2012
3:32 pm
ALL schools do it….Thanks Tim for pointing out some of the schools that also have paid FAU to play them. And that’s just FAU. There’s a cupcake for every big time school on their program.
_____________________
All schools may do it, but that doesn’t justify it. And UGA has more than “a cupcake” on the schedule; it’s THREE cupcakes, which is three too many.
sturm
September 15th, 2012
11:32 am
Season Ticket Holder, Ga Southern put up the most points against Alabama last season than any other team. Cupcake, they surely are not. Not very bright are you?
DawgNole
September 15th, 2012
11:33 am
Big Crimson 75
September 14th, 2012
10:47 pm
Nole — the big boys have nothing to gain & everything to lose playing these softies.
__________________
That’s almost true. They could lose their bought-and-paid-for W, as Arkansas did last week. But that’s an extremely rare occurrence–although it’s one a program NEVER lives down. Just ask Michigan, which paid several hundred thousand bucks a few years ago to lose to App St.
sturm
September 15th, 2012
11:35 am
and Ga Southern runs the triple option much better than Tech. Paul Johnson can credit anything he knows about the triple option from his days at Ga Southern. It’s their bread and butter. I can tell you for a fact they’ll score at least two touchdowns, if not three, off the triple option alone. cupcakes don’t typically do that.
Ex 50 + yr long time ticket holder
September 15th, 2012
11:37 am
I hate these games and I gave my tickets up this year after being a ticket holder for over 50 years. the reason I gave up my tickets was because of these games and the 12:00 and 7:45 kickoffs. They don’t give a rats a$$ about the fan it is all about $$$$$ so I will watch the games on TV and occasionally go to a game and save my $$$$$$ for other things like a big TV to watch UGA games and other games. Michael Adams has ruined the tailgating and the game day experience. Do we have to have something going on every second of every game to keep the fans interested – ie the helmet mixer on the big screen. $$$$$ is ruining college football. Plus on the 7:45 games you get back to Atlanta at 1 or 2 in the morning and the DUI’s I count coming home is crazy. The revenue collectors have to love these games. Have fun against FAU and go dawgs.
Game Changer
September 15th, 2012
11:49 am
Well put x50, but a mid level team and program does not get prime time. McGarity is killing the football program by making sure he and richt and others have job security at 500k plus annually. Sad but is the truth. The tailgate issue will hopefully go back to the way it was next season once Adams is gone and joins the republican line my pockets party. UGA tuition cost up 80% since 2007, who is this money going to — YEP
12a10
September 15th, 2012
11:52 am
Owls!
What a joke. They took an amazingly innovative school and turned it into a wanna be …. FAU in the 1970 was an amazing educational experience with virtually no athletics. Today it has some excellent programs, most are average, and a failure of an athletic program. Sad.
DawgNole
September 15th, 2012
11:58 am
sturm
September 15th, 2012
11:32 am
Season Ticket Holder, Ga Southern put up the most points against Alabama last season than any other team. Cupcake, they surely are not. Not very bright are you?
_________________________
Take a look at the UGA-Ga Southern series, dimwit. Even the best of Ga Southern’s teams was manhandled by average UGA’s teams–and it won’t be any different this year. Duh. Play the best to be the best.
Kendell Jones
September 15th, 2012
12:01 pm
What time does the game start? I have not heard or have seen the time of the game anywhere.
o-my dawgs
September 15th, 2012
12:02 pm
Millions of people without jobs and UGA doing this bull Sh*t..whats next?
UGA Alummy
September 15th, 2012
12:04 pm
Another reason why college football is such a fraud. In the NFL, you can’t manipulate a schedule, nor can you pay crumby opponents to take a beatin’ of the week.
Greg
September 15th, 2012
12:08 pm
I hate these games and I see no appeal to make the trek to Athens for this game. I rather stay at home and watch all the other competitive games on tv. Though I will say one good thing about this game is it allows some people and famalies,who normally couldnt get or afford tickets to a Tennessee type game, an opportunity to go to a game and experience a game day
IrishATL
September 15th, 2012
12:10 pm
UGA always puffs up its schedule with cupcakes. I cant remember the last time there was a tough out of conference game against a ranked team.
DawgNole
September 15th, 2012
12:23 pm
Kendell Jones
September 15th, 2012
12:01 pm
What time does the game start? I have not heard or have seen the time of the game anywhere.
______________________
7:45 p.m.
DawgNole
September 15th, 2012
12:25 pm
IrishATL
September 15th, 2012
12:10 pm
UGA always puffs up its schedule with cupcakes. I cant remember the last time there was a tough out of conference game against a ranked team.
___________________
You don’t have much of a memory then. It was last season against Boise St.
DawgNole
September 15th, 2012
12:28 pm
o-my dawgs
September 15th, 2012
12:02 pm
Millions of people without jobs and UGA doing this bull Sh*t..whats next?
____________________
Perhaps you could explain to us what unemployment has to do with UGA playing garbage teams.
Georgia vs. Florida Atlantic: Low Suspense, Big Money
September 15th, 2012
12:36 pm
[...] What the visiting team will be expecting for its trouble, though, is a big paycheck: UGA has agreed to fork over $1 million for the privilege of hosting Florida Atlantic without a reciprocal visit. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that’s the most Georgia has ever paid a visiting team. [...]
dreammaker
September 15th, 2012
12:42 pm
UGA IS AN OVERATED SCHOOL WITH AN OVERATED HOLIER THEN THOUGH COACH THAT MAKES MILLIONS..THE CONTIUED DUMB DOWN OF AMERICA FOR SPORTS AT ONE OF THE MOST RACIST UNIVERSITIES IN THE COUNTRY THAT ONLY CELEBRATE BLACKS IF THEY HAVE A BALL IN THIER HANDS RUNNING FOR THIER SATURDAY ENJOYMENT ONLY
toad
September 15th, 2012
12:55 pm
What a crock. Need to close down college football.
theight
September 15th, 2012
1:39 pm
they could have paid Savannah State 600,000 to play in this game. They are in to making money for the future so it would have been a no brainer and probably the toughest schedule in the country.
VFP42
September 15th, 2012
2:02 pm
I like Georgia playing cupcakes. It was not so long ago that Georgia WAS the cupcake in games.
Deepdiver
September 15th, 2012
2:04 pm
This shows what a joke that college athletics is. It’s all about money, yet they won’t pay anyone, but coaches, administrators, and ncaa officials. The players bring in the money. The players are adults. Pay them planatation owners.
12a10
September 15th, 2012
2:47 pm
Am I the only one who knows that Mark R is amhraduate of Boca Raton High Schoolmwhixh is a spit away from FAI
University of Georgia Football vs. Florida Atlantic: Low Suspense, Big Money - Georgia News Feed
September 15th, 2012
3:00 pm
[...] What the visiting team will be expecting for its trouble, though, is a big paycheck: UGA has agreed to fork over $1 million for the privilege of hosting Florida Atlantic without a reciprocal visit. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that’s the most Georgia has ever paid a visiting team. [...]
12a10
September 15th, 2012
3:15 pm
Ler’s try that again …
Am I the only one who knows that Mark R. is a graduate of Boca Raton H.S. which is a spit away from the FAU campus?
University of Georgia Football vs. Florida Atlantic: Low Suspense, Big Money
September 15th, 2012
3:17 pm
[...] What the visiting team will be expecting for its trouble, though, is a big paycheck: UGA has agreed to fork over $1 million for the privilege of hosting Florida Atlantic without a reciprocal visit. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that’s the most Georgia has ever paid a visiting team. [...]
DawgsWinAgain80
September 15th, 2012
3:32 pm
Cupcakes are a part of the game when you are a dominant SEC team. UGA is a top tier team in the nation along with the likes of USC, Bama, etc. That’s how the cookie crumbles. Speaking of cupcakes, Georgia Southern isn’t in that category. I would put money on it that they give us a run for our money this year. They run an offense that gives us fits. They will no doubt put up 300-400 yards of offense on us. We just gotta be ready and outscore them like the last few times we played.
DawgNole
September 15th, 2012
3:50 pm
DawgsWinAgain80
September 15th, 2012
3:32 pm
Cupcakes are a part of the game when you are a dominant SEC team. UGA is a top tier team in the nation along with the likes of USC, Bama, etc. That’s how the cookie crumbles. Speaking of cupcakes, Georgia Southern isn’t in that category. I would put money on it that they give us a run for our money this year. They run an offense that gives us fits. They will no doubt put up 300-400 yards of offense on us. We just gotta be ready and outscore them like the last few times we played.
_____________________
Oh please. Spare us the puffing up of an FCS opponent that will be such a huge underdog when they play UGA that there won’t be a line on the game. They’ve played UGA four times and lost all four–badly! So quit defending coward schools that play weak OOC schedules and buy Ws by bringing in marshmallows to bend over and take the money.
And UGA is NOT “a dominant SEC team”–or “a top tier team in the nation along with the likes of USC, Bama, etc.” Far from it. You need psychiatric help.
Deepdiver
September 15th, 2012
3:50 pm
DawgsWinAgain80, Get real! I don’t care what kind of offense Georgia Southern runs. They do not have nearly the caliber of player Georgia does. Please be realistic here and do not blindly support Georgia and try to make cupcakes look like real opponents. No one is buying it.
catlady
September 15th, 2012
4:22 pm
When I think of FAU, I don’t think of football powerhouse. Maybe they thought they were getting FSU?
catlady
September 15th, 2012
6:56 pm
If one of FAUs athletes gets seriously hurt, how much will the 1 million be worth?
aborduccarm
September 15th, 2012
7:12 pm
منتدي نادي تعليم الفوركس يقدم قسم خاص للعملات
محول العملات
Season Ticket Holder Staying Home
September 16th, 2012
12:27 am
Appears the Miami fans understand the difference between real football and farce football and sent their AD a message today about scheduling cupcakes.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/thanks-showing-miami-fans-photo-175408799–ncaaf.html
RunninWithTheDawgs
September 16th, 2012
6:50 am
Concerned — You need to ease on down to Gulf Shores Al. and get a room on the beach for a week during the Alabama Song Writers Festival. Play some of the greatest golf courses around, enjoy your favorite beverage while admiring the beautiful scenery on the beach, and just enjoy the laid back atmosphere. I think that will change your opinion of the great state of Alabama —– Home of Luke The Drifter ! GO DAWGS !
tommy almand
September 19th, 2012
7:47 pm
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