AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Longhorns athletics will pay the Ohio State Buckeyes $500,000 for Saturday night’s game at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. The money covers the visiting team’s travel. Ohio State paid Texas the same $500,000 last season for the first half of the two-year series in Columbus, Ohio.
Kirk Bohls obtained the game contract records for the Houston Chronicle through a Freedom of Information request and reported the figure Friday.
Across the two years, the payments cancel out. Ohio State wrote the check in 2025. Texas writes it in 2026, and the number did not move.
“We just trade $500,000 to cover their charter and hotel expenses,” Texas deputy athletic director Rob Novak said.
Both schools settled on the nominal number because the host keeps the rest of the money the game generates, including the home gate, concessions, and parking.
Texas is paying more for the two nonconference opponents that will not host a return trip. The Longhorns paid the Texas State Bobcats $1.4 million for the Sept. 5 season opener in Austin and will pay the UTSA Roadrunners $1.7 million when they visit Royal-Memorial on Sept. 19.
The Texas State contract, signed in 2019, obligates Texas to pay the $1.4 million whether the game is played or not. Texas Tech board of regents chairman Cody Campbell offered during the offseason to cover that buyout if Texas would drop the Bobcats and open at Lubbock or at AT&T Stadium in Arlington instead, according to contract documents obtained by Inside Texas. Texas did not take the offer.
Ohio State Pays Ball State And Kent State $1.9 Million Each
Ohio State owes the Ball State Cardinals $1.9 million for the Sept. 5 opener at Ohio Stadium. The Kent State Golden Flashes get $1.9 million for the Sept. 19 game in Columbus. Both figures come from contract copies obtained by Eleven Warriors through public records requests.
Ball State and Kent State do not host return trips. Ohio State’s home-and-home nonconference series are structured the way the Texas agreement is, with each school making an equal payment to the other in the year it hosts. The Buckeyes have run that arrangement with Notre Dame in 2022 and 2023, Washington in 2024 and 2025, and Texas in 2025 and 2026. Alabama is scheduled for 2027 and 2028, and Georgia for 2030 and 2031.
That $1.9 million lands against a Kent State football budget of roughly $9 million as of 2024. Golden Flashes athletic director Randale L. Richmond called the trip to Columbus an opportunity for his program when the two schools announced the game in April 2022.
“There is so much passion and excitement for football within our state,” Richmond said. “An opportunity to travel to Columbus presents a great opportunity for our program.”
Ohio State’s guarantee bill reached $4.05 million in 2024 for home games against Akron, Western Michigan, and Marshall. Ohio State football generated $127 million in revenue in 2023. Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork told The Associated Press in September 2024 that the department was carrying more guarantee games than he would prefer.
“I think we have to put it under review to see what is the future of those kind of games,” Bjork said.
Texas gave Ohio State 3,800 tickets for Saturday. The Buckeyes allotted Texas the same number for the 2025 game in Columbus.
Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium Attendance Record
Saturday’s crowd is expected to pass the stadium’s all-time high of 105,215, set in the Longhorns’ home loss to Georgia in 2024. That mark topped the 105,213 who watched Texas nearly upset Alabama in 2023.
Offseason construction left Texas with a net gain of about 250 seats. The school replaced the press box with 10 luxury suites priced at $10 million apiece, each holding between 24 and 48 seats. Texas then had to build a booth on the seventh floor for the national television broadcast and went to wider seats in the club level in the south end zone.
Ohio State leads the series 3-2. The Buckeyes won 14-7 in last season’s opener at Ohio Stadium and 28-14 in the Cotton Bowl playoff semifinal at AT&T Stadium in Arlington in January 2025.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian hired Will Muschamp as defensive coordinator in the offseason. Ohio State coach Ryan Day said this week that Muschamp is the unknown heading into Saturday. Former Buckeyes quarterback Cardale Jones picked Texas to win on his podcast this week.
Texas opened the season with a 59-7 win over Texas State on Sept. 5. Ohio State beat Ball State 56-3 the same day. Kickoff at Royal-Memorial is set for 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC, and ESPN’s College GameDay broadcasts from the Texas campus from 8 to 11 a.m. CT.
