How big a hit is it if Bulldogs’ Power Five opponents play only conference games?

Fresno State is not all that close to playing football in 2020, well behind other schools across the nation that have had student-athletes on campus for voluntary workouts, some since June 1.

That now includes San Diego State, which this week had about 50 student-athletes return to campus, while the Bulldogs wait on clearance from the California State University system and state officials.

But with the Big Ten announcing on Thursday that it would play a schedule of only conference games this season and the Pac-12 and other leagues possibly to follow, what happens if the Bulldogs are ready, set and have nowhere to go on Sept. 12 when they are scheduled to play at Colorado?

Or, on Oct. 10 when they have a big-money guarantee game at Texas A&M?

That would be another big blow to an athletics department budget that already has been hit hard by COVID-19 related reductions in institutional funding through student fees and university support, as well as an NCAA distribution due to the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournament in March.

Fresno State’s guarantee games

Fresno State is to receive $600,000 to play at Colorado and $1.3 million to play at Texas A&M.

Fresno State is paying Idaho State $350,000 and New Mexico State $250,000 to play non-conference games at Bulldog Stadium – and could be playing in a venue limited to 25% or 50% capacity with less revenue coming in from parking and concessions sales, impacting its ability to cover the cost of those guarantees.

But Fresno State, which struggles to support its 21 sports programs, could be looking at another budget hit more than $1 million with the loss of the guarantee games against Power Five opponents.

That is a healthy chunk of revenue that does not come from university support – in 2019, institutional support accounted for $20.9 million of the department’s $49.8 million.

Clauses in game contracts

The game contracts include unexcused non-performance and failure to perform clauses with hefty compensation for a breach of contract not attributable to any number of forces.

For example, in the Texas A&M contract – acts of war, riot, strike, civil disorder or other work stoppage, fire, flood, acts of God, or any other act not within the control of the party whose performance is interfered with and which by reasonable diligence such party is unable to prevent.

But with everything there is to lose sleep over while trying to navigate through a pandemic, Fresno State athletics director Terry Tumey is not overly concerned about force majeure only because the Bulldogs and every other FBS or FCS department are staring down the same financial issues.

“I would hope that institutions would be considerate of the current situation and we’d work out some amenable resolution,” Tumey said.

“We’re all in the same situation, all in the same game. This is an occurrence none of us would have forecast when many of our contracts were completed. We never would have thought we’d be in this situation.”

This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 5:26 PM.