Middle Tennessee State will be getting a hefty paycheck for playing Mississippi State next season.
A release from the schools states that the Blue Raiders will bank $930,000 for a trip to Starkville next October.
“With the uncertainty of NCAA legislation surrounding the cost of attendance and wanting to move forward with some on-campus projects, we felt a guarantee game in 2012 was necessary,” said MTSU AD Chris Massaro. “We now have non-conference games with Mississippi State, Memphis, and Georgia Tech, which is the final game of a three-game series. We are currently in negotiations for a home game with another non-conference opponent.”
It’s interesting to see Massaro mention the NCAA’s stipend legislation for athletes. Earlier this week, the NCAA suspended the rule allowing individual institutions to grant upward of an extra $2,000 to student-athletes on top of their athletic scholarship.
A primary concern for just about every of the 125 schools who signed the override was the inability for some programs to afford the extra costs associated with the stipend, thus putting them at what they felt was a disadvantage.