Indiana, looking to make its 2015 non-conference schedule easier, paid $750,000 to cancel a home-and-home with USF and replace that series with a home-and-home against Florida International (via the Indianapolis Star).
The main goal for Indiana was to get seven home games in 2015 -- the Hoosiers already have a game scheduled at Wake Forest that year, and draw Penn State and Michigan State away as part of their Big Ten schedule. Indiana will travel to Miami to play FIU in 2016.
The move came at a cost -- Indiana paid the AAC $500,000 ($250,000 for each game) to cancel the USF series, and will send $1 million to FIU for the 2015 game. Indiana AD Fred Glass told the Star he expects about $550,000 in additional revenue from a seventh home game in 2015, and the Hoosiers will get $200,000 from FIU for the 2016 game, thus calculating out to that $750,000 net price tag.
That’s a lot of money, it would seem to, to trade a bad team for a really bad team on the schedule. USF finished 99 in 2013’s F/+ rankings, while FIU finished dead last at 125.