It’s a dollar sign in today’s college football world. Auburn, a college sports “have”, can afford it. Southern Miss, a relative “have not”, can’t afford to refuse it. USM’s 2018 and 2020 game payouts of $1.85 million each are the highest single game guarantees ever. Bill McGillis, USM’s athletic director, says, “The $1.85 guarantee is the largest single-game guarantee I know of anywhere.” USM will not receive $1 million to play at LSU this year. Auburn can still afford it. Nearly 88,000 people can be accommodated at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Tigers often play to full capacity. Season tickets are available for as low as $500. Single-game tickets can be as high as $100. Fans and alumni can make financial donations to the school to purchase better seats. This is real money. This doesn’t account for concessions, apparel sales or parking. It also doesn’t take into consideration the $32.7 million each SEC school earned from TV/radio revenues this past year. A payout that has increased dramatically in recent years. Southern Miss, on the other hand, has a 36,000-seat stadium that rarely sells out. Conference USA’s TV/radio revenues are far less than the SEC. The $2.8 million received by the entire league is less than 10 percent of that each school in the SEC receives. Each SEC school gets significantly more TV money annually than USM spends on its entire $25,000,000 annual athletic budget. This gap is growing. USM prefers to play “home and home” games with schools like Auburn. This means that USM plays at Hattiesburg while Auburn goes to Auburn. The past two seasons, USM and Mississippi State played a home/home match. However, richer programs like Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee, LSU, Florida and Tennessee are happy to pay single-game payments and have an obvious competitive advantage by playing at home. These no-return game are known by many different names. They are sometimes called “money games” or “prostitution.” However, the good news is that USM’s competitive edge is at an all-time high. In 2018, and 2020, USM will receive significant funding from Auburn’s guarantees. McGillis stated that the plan was to play one of these games (no returns) each year. “The truth is that it is necessary.” Jay Hopson, the first-year head coach, is okay with it. Hopson stated, “That’s a lot money.” We want to play these kinds of teams, really great SEC programs that we have in our area. These games have been won numerous times in the past. We are that way. We believe that we can win any time we go out there.” USM has often played multiple of these major pay-day games in past years. In 1990, Brett Favre was leaving USM. The Golden Eagles won at Auburn and Alabama, and lost at Georgia and Virginia Tech by one point. The Larry Fedora coaching period (2008-2011), the decision was made not to play the “money” games but to only play home-and-home. In 2011, it almost paid off. USM won Conference USA with a 12-2 record. If the Golden Eagles had not lost to UAB by three points, they would have been eligible for the Sugar Bowl and a multi-million-dollar payday. It is obvious that $1.85 million is a lot of money for a one-time game. Why not play two or three games? Answer: Your team shouldn’t be at such a competitive disadvantage. McGillis stated that “we would love not have to do this at all.” “But we will keep it to one a year as long as our fans fill the seats in our stadium and do their part.” Rick Cleveland writes a weekly sports column running Fridays at Mississippitoday.org. To support this work, make a regular donation today to celebrate our Spring Member Drive. This will allow us to continue important work such as this story.