UF will collect at least $1.8 million for canceled Idaho game

The University of Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley estimates that UF will get between $1.8 million and $1.9 million from the canceled Idaho game that was originally supposed to be the season opener, Local 6 news partner Florida Today reports.

"Each game before our season starts you give them a figure," Foley said of the insurance policy, which UF has taken out for all home games for decades. Florida is in the process of refunding tickets to the Aug. 30 game that was called off.

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Foley said UF sold a little over $1.8 million in ticket sales, which is what the policy covers. The guarantees for the visiting team, which was $975,000 for Idaho, is not part of policies. But the money was already budgeted.

Foley said the two schools almost immediately agreed they did not want to try to play on Oct. 25 -- the common open date for both.

He also said there was never any consideration to try to negotiate a smaller payout for the Idaho visit even though the game was stopped after the opening kickoff.

"In our opinion, the University of Idaho fulfilled the terms of the contract," Foley said. "They came here, they came all the way across country their team was here. They had the expense for the airplane, they had the expense for the hotel, their meals. I don't what grounds you would have given them less. It would have been a hard conversation to have, also next time you're trying to schedule a game with somebody they'll be like, 'Well, what kind of a place are you?' "

Foley added "The first time I talked to the University of Idaho they made it clear they had no interest in playing nine weeks in a row."

He said moving it to the end of the regular season was not even a possibility. He noted the second week of December was exam week at UF and there was no way he would even consider rescheduling a game the same week as final exams were being given.

The game couldn't have been played the first week of December because it would have conflicted with the SEC Championship Game week.

If weather had called off Eastern Michigan last Saturday — or any other game from here on out — it's certain all will be made up however. An 11-game season is the minimum UF will play.


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