BGSU nets record payday with Texas A&M contract
Falcons cancel final game of Maryland series to play at A&M’s Kyle Field.
By Nicholas Piotrowicz / The Blade
Tue, 15 Oct 2019 18:02:48 GMT
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BOWLING GREEN — Maneuvering by senior administration at Bowling Green State University netted the football program a seven-figure payday and a higher-profile game in 2024, public records show.
The Falcons canceled the final game in a two-for-one series with Maryland, which was to be concluded on Sept. 21, 2024 in Maryland. The contract called for the Terrapins’ program to pay a game guarantee of $400,000 to Bowling Green.
Instead, Bowling Green bought its way out of the final game and replaced it with a game the same day at Texas A&M.
BGSU will pay $500,000 to Maryland to end the agreement between the two schools, but ultimately still will collect more than a $1 million from the switch.
The contract agreed to between Texas A&M and Bowling Green, obtained by The Blade through a public records request, comes with a game guarantee of $1.6 million, the most for a game in Bowling Green’s history.
Bowling Green and Texas A&M have never played in football. The contract between the two schools calls for Bowling Green to receive an allotment of 3,000 tickets at Kyle Field, which, at a capacity of 102,733, is the fourth largest in college football stadium and the biggest in the Southeastern Conference.
The series between Bowling Green and Maryland marks the end of a contract that was active for 12 years and amended multiple times. Initially signed in 2007, the original contract features the Atlantic Coast Conference logo — the Terrapins joined the Big Ten in 2014 — and called for games in 2010, 2011, and 2015.
Due to mutually agreed upon changes, the Falcons and Terrapins only played the 2015 game as originally scheduled. Bowling Green won the first game of the series, the 2015 date in College Park, Md., and the Terrapins were victorious in their 2018 trip to Doyt Perry Stadium.
With Texas A&M on the schedule, Bowling Green is now set to visit the five biggest stadiums in the country in future seasons.
The Falcons will open the 2020 season at Ohio State, start 2021 with a visit Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium, play a 2023 road game at Michigan, and travel for a 2024 game a Penn State.
Future game contracts also show that Bowling Green agreed to home-and-home series with Marshall (2022 at BG , 2027 at Marshall) and Massachusetts (2025 at UMass, 2026 at Bowling Green).
BG currently has three road games on the schedule in 2023, with active contracts calling for the Falcons to also play at Liberty and Louisiana Tech in addition to Michigan that season.
The Falcons have set their nonconference schedules for the next two seasons. After starting next year at Ohio State, BG also will play at Illinois and play host to Robert Morris and Liberty.
Following the 2021 season opener at Tennessee, BG has home game against South Alabama and Murray State, plus a road game at Minnesota.
The Falcons also are slated to start 2022 at the Rose Bowl with a game against UCLA.