LSU has sold all "25,000 seats allotted" to the school for its game against BYU on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Superdome, according to Christopher Dabe of the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE. The schools and AdvoCare Texas Kickoff organizers "moved the contest" from Houston's NRG Stadium "due to the devastating floods throughout the city and along the Texas Gulf coast." Per the game contract, LSU was "given 25,000 seats to be sold through the school box office." The school also will be due a $4M payout "no later than 30 days after the game" (New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE, 8/31). The Baton Rouge ADVOCATE writes a press conference held yesterday by New Orleans officials "served as an opportunity" to "reassure potential visitors that the city, which was spared any damage or flooding from Harvey, would be ready" for the game. LSU officials said that before the game was moved, the school had "sold about 23,000 of its 25,000 allotted tickets." BYU had "sold out its allotment of 9,400, but it's unclear how many tickets the school has sold since the game was moved to New Orleans" (Baton Rouge ADVOCATE, 8/31).
BREAKING IT DOWN: USA TODAY's Steve Berkowitz reported by the end of the '17 CFB season, around $150M in so-called "guarantee games" will have "moved through the college sports financial system." Eight schools affiliated with the Big Ten, SEC or Pac-12 are "paying at least" $1M to a season-opening opponent from an FBS conferences outside the Power Five. Altogether, there are at least 26 games this season in which a Power Five school is "set to pay" $1M or more to an opponent. These types of games "can benefit underdog schools’ coaches." Appalachian State's Scott Satterfield "gets a $10,000 bonus if his squad plays a Power Five team at that team’s stadium," which ASU will do Saturday at Georgia in exchange for $1.25M. At the "much higher end of the scale, Michigan and Florida are each scheduled" to get $6M for participating in Saturday’s AdvoCare Classic at AT&T Stadium, while Alabama and Florida State will get $5M for Saturday's Chick-fil-A Kickoff at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl President & CEO Gary Stokan said that there will be a "proliferation of such agreements in the future between high-profile teams." He said that ADs "like the financial deals, coaches like boosting their schedule strength" for the CFP selection committee, fans "like games unlikely to be blowouts, players like the elite competition and TV executives like the prospect of high ratings." Stokan: "There’s not a downside. Everyone wins in this type of format" (USA TODAY, 8/29). In Reno, Chris Murray reported Nevada will "get a financial windfall" from its season-opener at Northwestern. Nevada will get a $1.3M payout, the "second largest in school history for a single game." The record of $1.5M was earned in '15 when Nevada played at Texas A&M (RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL, 8/29).
GO BIG OR GO HOME: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Laine Higgins wrote the move to the CFP in '14 has "quickly prompted teams with big ambitions to wean themselves off the longtime habit of scheduling patsies for pre-conference games." CFP Exec Dir Bill Hancock said, "If a program wants to be in the playoff it’s going to have to give its players a chance to show what they can do against the best competition." Games in week one and two of the season are "increasingly high stakes contests, not snooze-worthy blowouts" (WSJ.com, 8/29).
