Toledo rolled into Starkville and put a beatdown on Mississippi State during the third week of the 2024 college football season. The Rockets also got paid a lot of money from two different schools!
It really could not have worked out any better for Jason Candle’s program.
This unique financial saga actually began four years ago when Maryland and Toledo scheduled a non-conference matchup in College Park for Sept. 21, 2024. However, the Terrapins decided last September to bump the game from this year to 2029. They paid out $575,000 to do so.
Not only did the Rockets get more than half of a million dollars not to play the Big Ten opponent, it left them with an opening on their 2024 college football schedule and gave them an opportunity to add another buy game. A “buy game,” for those who don’t know, is when a bigger school pays a smaller school money to travel to its city/town and — hopefully – lose. Those kinds of agreements typically cover a large portion of the smaller school’s entire athletic budget for the year.
Toledo got PAID!
Toledo, already up $575K, announced the game against Mississippi State shortly after Maryland bailed. The latter agreed to pay the former a sum of $1.2 million to make the 750-mile trip from Ohio to the Magnolia State— regardless of the outcome.
There was only one problem for the host team.
The Bulldogs are in their first year with head coach Jeff Lebby and will be lucky to make a bowl game. The Rockets are in their seventh season with Candle and expect to compete for a MAC Championship.
Despite what the on-paper brands might suggest, there was actually a clear talent gap in favor of the visitors.
Toledo put up 454 total yards of offense in a 41-17 win. Mississippi State got embarrassed at home. It was the ugliest performance from any SEC team on Saturday.
If the loss wasn’t bad enough, the Bulldogs paid more than a million dollars to get blown out. Meanwhile, the Rockets walked away with $1,775,000 from two different schools and a 3-0 record.