How much Mississippi State football is paying for its 2023 nonconference schedule
STARKVILLE — Mississippi State football opens its season on Saturday (3 p.m., SEC Network) at Davis Wade Stadium against FCS foe Southeastern Louisiana, but it comes at a cost. As is the case with most non-Power Five nonconference matchups, the Bulldogs have to pay the Lions to put the game together.
Such is the case when Mississippi State hosts Western Michigan and Southern Miss, although there’s an asterisk with the latter.
Here’s a look at how much Mississippi State is paying for its nonconference schedule, according to records obtained by the USA TODAY Network. The Sept. 9 matchup with Arizona isn’t included as the Pac-12 school exchanged a home-and-home with Mississippi State.
Sept. 2: vs. Southeastern Louisiana
Cost: $550,000
The programs agreed in 2017 to schedule this matchup. Along with the fixed sum MSU is giving SELA, the Lions were allotted 2,000 tickets for sale. Sales from those tickets were to be retained by SELA with all unused tickets being returned to MSU by Aug. 1, 2023.
Oct. 7: vs. Western Michigan
Cost: $1,000,000
Western Michigan was added to Mississippi State’s schedule last year while John Cohen was still athletics director. The Broncos also had the option to purchase up to 2,500 tickets to sell at face value. This marks the second straight year MSU will host a MAC school after beating Bowling Green 45-14 last season.
KEEPING NOTE: Here's how Mississippi State football's Will Rogers regards the skeptics
Nov. 18: vs. Southern Miss
Cost: $0*
In 2017, MSU and USM agreed on a three-game series. The first matchup was in Starkville in 2019. That was to be followed by a matchup this year in Starkville and next year in Hattiesburg. Following the 2019 game, Mississippi State paid $1.2 million with no further compensation to come after the remaining games.
Essentially, Mississippi State is paying $400,000 per game or $600,000 per home game against Southern Miss.
This year’s matchup was originally slated for Sept. 23. However, two amendments followed, and the in-state battle wound up as Mississippi State’s Egg Bowl tune-up.
Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @skrajisnik3.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi State football schedule 2023: Nonconference game payouts
