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BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football will pay out a total of $3.075 million for its nonconference games this season.
The cheapest of those games comes Friday night against Indiana State, an in-state FCS foe that IU will also face in 2027 and 2030. The game Friday night will cost the Hoosiers $475,000.
Indiana’s only loss to an FCS opponent was to Southern Illinois in 2006. The Sycamores are 0-20 all-time against the current iteration of the Big Ten and haven’t defeated a current Power Four opponent since beating Cincinnati in 1987.
They are 0-7 all-time against the Hoosiers.
Indiana’s nonconference scheduling strategy became a national talking point over the summer after it canceled a home-and-home series against Virginia. The Hoosiers won’t play another Power Four-level nonconference opponent until making a trip to South Bend in 2030 to play Notre Dame, but the athletic director Scott Dolson and coach Curt Cignetti have defended the moves.
They are the only team in the Big Ten without a nonconference game against a Power Four opponent through 2029.
“We want our nonconference schedule to put us in the best position for success at the end of the season,” Dolson told The Herald-Times in June. “What we really want to do is make sure we are competitive in the back half of the season and create meaningful games in the Big Ten because we are really playing for postseason opportunities.”
Indiana could pivot from the strategy depending how the ongoing discussions over the future format of the College Football Playoff shake out. The Power Four conferences are debating a variety of different models — one of them would give the Big Ten four automatic qualifiers while another would feature 11 at-large selections — and Dolson said the school adjust accordingly.
Indiana football future nonconference schedules. What is IU football paying teams it plays?
2025
- 8/30 vs. Old Dominion ($1.3 million)
- 9/6 vs. Kennesaw State ($1.3 million)
- 9/12 vs. Indiana State ($475,000)
2026
- 9/5 vs. Colorado State ($1.3 million)
- 9/12 vs. Howard ($525,000)
- 9/19 vs. Western Kentucky ($1.1 million)
2027
- 9/4 vs. Kennesaw State ($1.3 million)
- 9/11 vs. Indiana State ($500,000)
- 9/18 vs. UMass ($1.25 million)
2028
- 9/2 vs. Austin Peay ($400,000)
- 9/9 vs. Eastern Michigan ($1.3 million)
- 9/16 vs. Miami Ohio ($1.3 million)
2029
- 9/1 vs. Ball State ($1.3 million)
- 9/8 vs. Eastern Illinois ($550,000)
- 9/15 vs. Western Kentucky ($550,000)
2030
- 8/31 at Notre Dame (N/A)
- 9/6 vs. Indiana State ($525,000)
- 9/14 vs. Delaware ($1.3 million)
2031
- 9/27 vs. Notre Dame (N/A)
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