PASADENA, Calif. >>

The contract tells us the University of Hawaii is guaranteed a check of $600,000 for today’s appearance against UCLA in the Rose Bowl.

The amount on the dotted line suggests that the motivation for signing it was as much about opportunity as money.

Because while the $600,000 (before expenses) is a fair hunk of change and figures to help relieve a small fraction of the financial pressure on the athletic department’s deficit, it is not, as so-called “guarantee” games go, a huge amount.

Consider, for example, that UH got twice that two years ago for its visit to Ohio State and $1.1 million for absorbing a beating at Michigan last season. Those were strictly cash deals.

Eleven years ago UH got more, $650,000, for the trek to Alabama.

If UH got a home-and-home series with the Bruins — or even a two-for-one in which UCLA put in an appearance at Aloha Stadium for the Rainbow Warriors to reap the box office rewards — it would be one thing. But it didn’t.

So while the moolah the Rainbow Warriors take home from this one is not inconsiderable or unappreciated, this was set up to be as much an opportunity game as a pay day. Which is presumably why then-athletic director Ben Jay agreed to it in 2013 when the contract was signed.

Whatever stage Jay imagined the ’Bows would be setting foot on back then suddenly got a whole lot bigger over the weekend when UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen guided the Bruins to a 45-44 comeback victory over Texas A&M.

The 34-point comeback was the second largest in NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision and has elevated the Bruins way above their 4-8 status of last season and middle-of-the-division pick for this season. In the process it also has made Rosen, the architect of the rally, a Heisman Trophy front-runner in many eyes. Surpassing even Lamar Jackson of Louisville, the defending Heisman Trophy winner.

A 292-yard, four-touchdown fourth quarter will do that.

Never mind that we’re barely past Labor Day on the calendar, Rosen is tabbed as an 8-1 Heisman pick on some betting lines. ESPN’s Heisman Watch lists him as the early leader.

As the nation looks on this week to see if Rosen and the Bruins are the next hot team — or merely a September aberration — UH, a 23½-point underdog on the consensus Las Vegas line, finds itself in the reflected light.

As the Orlando Sentinel put it in its Heisman Watch, “Rosen will look to add to those numbers against a Hawaii defense that ranks No. 91 in the nation in passing defense but leads the nation with 10 sacks. With Rosen’s Heisman odds rising to 8-1, he’ll have some added confidence heading into the Bruins’ matchup with Hawaii, a game in which Rosen shouldn’t have too many problems.”

This week the ’Bows are in a position to say something about themselves and make it heard far and wide. Hardly a week in and week out occurrence for the NCAA’s most far-flung Division I team in a mid-major conference.

You may remember how UH roughed up Brigham Young’s Ty Detmer right after he received the Heisman Trophy on the final regular-season game of the 1990 season.

Or how USC’s Reggie Bush, was haunted by safety Leonard Peters in 2005. The Trojans won the game 63-17 and Bush managed 86 yards and two touchdowns. But Bush (before they eventually took his Heisman away) saluted Peters as the toughest defender he faced that season. “Every time I got tackled, he was there,” Bush would say.

So, if the ’Bows play well, there can be more than a check awaiting them here at the Rose Bowl today, there also can be an opportunity.