A deal will give Rainbow Warriors $1.9M to play against Michigan in 2022
DAVID G. MCINTYRE / SPECIAL TO THE Star-Advertiser/ 2016
Hawaii head coach Nick Rolovich, left, and Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh shook hands after the Wolverines’ 63-3 win over the Rainbow Warriors in Ann Arbor, Mich., in 2016.
The University of Hawaii football team will play at Michigan in 2022 for the largest single-game financial guarantee in school history, $1.9 million.
The Rainbow Warriors received $1.2 million for a 2015 game at Ohio State and $1 million for a 2016 game at Michigan.
The Sept. 10, 2022 visit to the 107,601-seat “Big House” in Ann Arbor, Mich., comes as a result of a series of scheduling changes that have been in the works for several years.
Western Kentucky had earlier asked to move its 2021 game at Aloha Stadium to 2022 and Wisconsin had sought to move its 2021 game to 2024 before deciding to add Alabama in 2024. So, earlier this year UH mutually agreed to cancel their home-and-home agreement for 2022 and ’24.
The trip to Madison in 2022 was to have paid UH $400,000, the same amount the Badgers would have gotten to come to Aloha Stadium in 2024.
“Playing at the Big House is a great opportunity for our student athletes as well as great exposure for the University of Hawaii and our football program,” UH athletic director David Matlin said in an email. “We have tried to focus on scheduling more guarantee games and playing at Michigan is a great game for us.”
UH coach Nick Rolovich said, “When we can go play somebody for that ($1.9 million) kind of money, I think that’s what you go do.”
To accommodate the Michigan game and avoid a November trip to the East Coast to play Army in the same season, UH moved its game with Duquesne back a week to Sept. 17, 2022 and also cancelled its Nov. 19, 2022 game at Army. As a result, Army will not be coming to Aloha Stadium in 2024.
More difficult for UH had been filling out the 2021 schedule, which had the potential of five home and eight road games. UH is to play UCLA (Aug. 28), Oregon State (Sept. 11) and New Mexico State (Sept. 25) on the road in 2021 plus four Mountain West Conference games.
To avoid the eight road contests, UH will also play New Mexico State at Aloha Stadium on Oct. 23, marking a rare but no longer unheard of home-and-home series with the same non-conference foe in the same season.
“Scheduling of football games is happening at least five and up to 10 years in advance these days. After five years of trying to fill the 2021 home puka we were fortunate that New Mexico State had an opening,” Matlin said. “While not ideal to play a team twice in one year it has been happening more in recent years. We are glad that this game will complete our home schedule in 2021.”
