Mississippi State will shell out the big bucks for its three non-conference home football games in 2024, paying its opponents a combined total of $2,125,000, according to a public records request obtained by The Dispatch.
The Bulldogs will open their season at Davis Wade Stadium on Aug. 31 against Football Championship Subdivision foe Eastern Kentucky in what will be Jeff Lebby’s first game as MSU head coach. After traveling to Arizona State for their lone non-conference road game on Sept. 7, the Bulldogs return home to take on Toledo on Sept. 14, then close out non-conference play on Nov. 2 against Massachusetts.
MSU has never played Eastern Kentucky, Arizona State or Toledo and is 2-0 all time against UMass, having defeated the Minutemen in Foxborough, Mass., in 2016 and in Starkville the following year.
The Dispatch broke down MSU’s payouts for the three home non-conference games below:
Eastern Kentucky
The Bulldogs will pay the Colonels $550,000 to come to Starkville — the same amount they paid last year’s FCS opponent, Southeastern Louisiana. The game contract was signed on Oct. 31, 2017 by the two athletic directors at the time, John Cohen of MSU and Stephen Lochmueller of Eastern Kentucky, neither of whom are still in those respective posts.
MSU will also allot the Colonels 2,000 tickets for sale, as well as 300 complimentary tickets. A Southeastern Conference crew will officiate the game.
Toledo
The contract for the game between the Bulldogs and Rockets was finalized just this past September after MSU’s originally-scheduled game against Utah State fell through. The Bulldogs are paying Toledo $1.2 million to make the trip, an increase over the $1 million they paid fellow Mid-American Conference program Western Michigan to visit Davis Wade Stadium in 2023.
The agreement was signed by the schools’ current athletic directors, MSU’s Zac Selmon and Toledo’s Bryan Blair. MSU is allotting the Rockets 400 complimentary tickets — any band members Toledo brings down will eat into that amount — while also giving them the option to purchase up to 1,500 tickets for their fans. The game will be officiated by an SEC crew, with the Bulldogs responsible for compensating the officials.
Massachusetts
The Bulldogs’ game against the Minutemen completes a three-game contract originally signed in 2015. The teams played a home-and-home series in 2016 and 2017, with the final game initially scheduled for 2020. In 2018, though, the schools agreed to postpone the 2020 matchup until 2024 — a fortuitous decision, as it turned out, given that the SEC played a conference-only schedule in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2019, the date for the 2024 game was pushed back two weeks, from Oct. 19 to Nov. 2. MSU was to pay UMass $200,000 within 10 business days of the original 2020 game date, and will pay the Minutemen an additional $175,000 when the game is actually played this year for a total of $375,000.
The Bulldogs paid UMass $325,000 for the 2017 game in Starkville, while the Minutemen did not pay MSU to make the trip to Gillette Stadium — technically a neutral site — in 2016.
For this year’s game, the Bulldogs will allot UMass 3,000 tickets for sale and 350 complimentary tickets. The SEC will assign the game officials.
Former MSU athletic director Scott Stricklin and UMass AD Ryan Bamford signed the original three-game agreement, and Cohen and Bumford signed an addendum to move the 2020 game to 2024.
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