What happens if KU or K-State football games get canceled next season?
If college football begins on time next season, the Kansas Jayhawks and the Kansas State Wildcats will take the field on Sept. 5 with a pair of home games against teams they will be favored to beat.
KU will start against New Hampshire and pay the Wildcats $500,000 for the visit. K-State will begin against Buffalo and pay the Bulls $900,000 for making the trip to Bill Snyder Family Stadium. From there, the Jayhawks will move on to games against Boston College and Coastal Carolina. The Wildcats will play North Dakota and Vanderbilt. Then Big 12 play will begin.
But what happens if some, or all, of those nonconference games get canceled?
As uncertainty remains around the topic of playing college sports during the coronavirus pandemic, it is possible that some leagues will play a conference-only schedule next season. Some have suggested playing just one nonconference game. That would give teams across the country more time to prepare for the return of football and limit travel demands, but it would also create a major headache for schools that long ago contractually agreed to play games this fall.
Will certain teams be on the hook for cancellation penalties? Will much-anticipated games be rescheduled? Will small schools try to collect their guarantee payments, even if no games are played?
A review of upcoming game contracts for both KU and K-State, obtained through a records request, provide some answers.
All three of K-State’s football contracts for the 2020 season include specific language that “relieve” both parties “of any and all obligations” of their agreement if circumstances beyond their control prevent the game from being played. Those circumstances include fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, war, invasion, hostilities, rebellion, insurrection and confiscation by order of the government. But there is no mention of a pandemic.
For KU, all three of its 2020 game contracts contain a less specific list of circumstances that could potentially void the agreements without penalty, including “acts of God.” Again, there is no mention of a pandemic.
Interestingly, pandemic is listed first among the reasons why recently signed game contracts for K-State’s 2020-21 basketball season can be voided without penalty for either team.
It might be reasonable to expect all college football teams to waive cancellation penalties under the current circumstances, but nothing is certain with so much money involved. All three of K-State’s games come with a $1 million cancellation fee next season. All three of KU’s games come with at least a $500,000 cancellation penalty.
And that doesn’t factor in guarantee payments such as the $475,000 North Dakota is expecting from K-State following a game on Sept. 12. Kansas could be on the hook for a $500,000 cancellation fee if it is unable to play a road game against Coastal Carolina on Sept. 26, but the Chanticleers are scheduled to pay KU $200,000 for making the trip as part of their three-game series.
“That is going to be a big issue,” K-State athletic director Gene Taylor said. “The one thing we are trying to do is talk about this collectively beyond just the Big 12 at the FBS level. We all know (certain schools) rely on those guarantees. Not having them would hurt them, but they all know we have to get our season in, in some way or form. Those teams want to have them, but we would have a pretty strong reason not to pay them.”
Another dilemma: what to do with return games?
Kansas will host Boston College at Memorial Stadium in the return game of a home-and-home series on Sept. 19. Having already played BC on the road, the Jayhawks will want to, at the least, reschedule that game for a future date.
K-State is expected to host Vanderbilt on the same day under similar circumstances. The Wildcats traveled to Nashville for a road game against the Commodores in 2017 and want to get revenge in Manhattan, even if it isn’t possible this season.
If nonconference games aren’t played next season, Taylor said K-State will make every effort to play Vanderbilt at home in a future year. But guarantee games against North Dakota and Buffalo are more likely to get scrubbed. K-State’s earliest schedule opening isn’t until 2025, and the Wildcats already have nonconference games slated against Army and Arizona that season.
Consider that another unknown in an offseason full of them.