The practice of paying weaker opponents for a tune-up game is well-documented in college football. Most teams in the Power Four schedule at least one of these games per year. Thanks to an Open Public Records Request, we now know just how much Rutgers is paying two of their future opponents, UConn and LIU.
To start off, the OPRA request revealed that no money is being exchanged for the home and home that Rutgers has scheduled with UConn in 2028-2029. The official wording from the contract states that neither
party is entitled to compensation from the other under this agreement and that both parties are responsible for their own costs under this agreement. It does dive into things like how many tickets are designated for the away team, but nothing in the contract says that either team has to provide the other with any financial assistance for either game.
However, that is not the case for the Rutgers home game against LIU in 2027. According to the OPRA request, Rutgers will have to pay LIU $425,000, along with providing them with 50 hotel rooms for the game.
While this may seem like a lot, it is pretty consistent with what Rutgers has paid FCS teams in the past. For example, according to an article by Mike Vorkunov of NJ.com, in 2009, when Rutgers played two FCS opponents, both games in total saw Rutgers pay their opponents $725,000, which breaks down to $362,500 each. With the rising costs of everything, it makes sense that it has gone up a bit, but it doesn’t seem like an unjustified overpay either.
LIU is allotted 2,000 tickets for the game to sell to its fans.
