$1.8 million appears to be the going rate for Group of 5 teams to come to Ohio Stadium to play non-conference football games against Ohio State.
According to game contracts obtained by Eleven Warriors on Wednesday through a public records request, Ohio State will pay $1.8 million each to Arkansas State in 2022 and San Jose State and Western Kentucky in 2023 for future non-conference games that were added to the schedule last month.
Ohio State will also make 5,000 tickets available to Arkansas State, 2,500 available to San Jose State and 2,000 available to Western Kentucky.
The $1.8 million price tag is the same amount the Buckeyes are set to pay for one-off games against Buffalo in 2020, Akron in 2021 and Toledo in 2022, according to game contracts previously obtained by Eleven Warriors.
| Date | Opponent | Total Payout |
|---|---|---|
| Aug. 31, 2019 | Florida Atlantic | $1,400,000 |
| Sept. 7, 2019 | Cincinnati | $375,000 |
| Sept. 21, 2019 | Miami (Ohio) | $1,300,000 |
| Sept. 5, 2020 | Bowling Green | $1,200,000 |
| Sept. 19, 2020 | Buffalo | $1,800,000 |
| Sept. 18, 2021 | Tulsa | $1,100,000 |
| Sept. 25, 2021 | Akron | $1,800,000 |
| Sept. 10, 2022 | Arkansas State | $1,800,000 |
| Sept. 17, 2022 | Toledo | $1,800,000 |
| Sept. 9, 2023 | San Jose State | $1,800,000 |
| Sept. 16, 2023 | Western Kentucky | $1,800,000 |
Ohio State also has home-and-home non-conference games scheduled with Oregon (2020 and 2021), Notre Dame (2022 and 2023), Washington (2024 and 2025), Texas (2025 and 2026) and Boston College (2026 and 2027). For those games, however, the two schools will either make equivalent payouts to each other before the home games at each school, or no payouts will be made.
