When word first surfaced that Ohio State and Colorado were in talks regarding a one-off game in 2011, the Buckeyes denied reports that they would pay the Buffaloes $2 million to be MACrificial lambs come to Columbus.
Technically, their protests were correct. But CU will still pad their athletic coffers for taking part in the contest.
OSU athletic director Gene Smith has confirmed to the Associated Press that Colorado will travel to Columbus and take on the Buckeyes Sept. 24 next year. That game will be played one week after OSU travels to Miami to take on the Hurricanes and one week before they open Big Ten play.
For their one-game effort, Colorado will rake in $1.4 million, an amount that’s double or more what Ohio State normally pays non-conference opponents for games with no return visits. For Colorado and their financially-strapped athletic department, it’s a necessary money grab ahead of their move to a more lucrative deal in the Pac-10.
“That’s just a single,” Smith said of the ’11 game. “It worked out to be a good deal. Mike Bohn, the AD there, had an interest in coming this way, so we were able to lock that down.”
Ohio State holds a 3-1 edge in the series, and the two schools have not faced each other in football since 1986.
It could be worse…. they could be playing Florida Atlantic…or UAB…or Furman.
An ass whoopin is a small price to pay for 1.4 mil
….or Florida State….. or Alabama, @LSU, and @Auburn in consecutive weeks.
Nice job cherry-picking the weak teams to make Florida’s schedule look worse than it is.
@ BrownsTown
The sad part is Colorado couldn’t beat those 3 on consecutive weeks…it sounds and looks good though…….but in the end a cream puff is a cream puff is a cream puff……
All three of those are UF opponents? What are the odds that three random, mediocre schools I selected would all be on UF’s schedule in one year? I need to stop on the way home and buy some lottery tickets.
Florida St is as challenging of an opponent as Notre Dame. Unless Jimbo Fisher has used some athletic dept funds to buy a time machine and turn over his roster with real talent, FSU is a challenge in name only.
@ BrownsTown
FSU will beat Oklahoma in Norman 9/11. OU is a #7 team at home.
Also, will bet you UF’s strength of schedule is higher than Ohio States by the end of Oct when all the polls/computers are in use……..
blitz4848,
No way Oklahoma loses in Norman to FSU. Why do you keep saying that?
Betting on SOS is circular logic. The SEC is puffed up by perception and, for the most part (Bama excepted), only plays big opponents in conference play. So how can the net “strength” of the SEC be diminished when there’s never a chance of that happening until the bowl games? That’s why I like to defer to the .500 bowl record vs. the Big Ten over the last decade. It’s a better comparative measure.
However, for the sake of argument, how does playing Iowa (#9 AP/#10 USA Today), Wisconsin (#12/#12), Miami (#13/#13) and Penn St (#19/#14) compare to Florida playing Bama and three teams in the 20s of the top 25? Granted those are preseason rankings, but a lot of the talk this year is how the SEC has two powers followed by a pack of mediocre programs. Hmmm, sounds like what people say when they’re trying to deride the Big ten.
The big ten sucks for themselves, they do not need outside acknowledgement of the truth.