The cost of doing scheduling business in big-time college football has gone up significantly.
The latest example? Late this past week, Marshall announced that it has reached an agreement with South Carolina on a future game. The Herd will travel to Columbia to take on the Gamecocks on Sept. 15, 2018.
And, according to the release, the athletic program will receive a $1.4 million guarantee for the one-off game with USC.
“We’re excited to play an SEC school, especially one that is in a fertile recruiting ground for our program and within driving distance for our fans,” said athletic director Mike Hamrick in a statement. “We had an opportunity to play a game of this caliber in 2018 and it was too good to pass up.”
The two football programs have met just once previously in football, a 24-21 Herd win over the Gamecocks in Columbia in 1998.
The week after the USC game, Marshall will play host to North Carolina State in the back-end of a home-and-home series. MU also has agreements for future home-and-homes with Boise State (2019-20), Cincinnati (2017, 2019) and Navy (2021-2022).