The Rockets’ storm-shortened football game could end up a financial loss for the University of Toledo.
The university will seek to renegotiate the $325,000 guarantee it owes Stony Brook University under the terms of the contract the two schools signed in March, 2014, after inclement weather kept both teams from completing the game Thursday night.
When thunderstorms made finishing the second half untenable at the Glass Bowl, the University of Toledo asked its opponent to resume the game Friday afternoon, but Stony Brook declined because it did not want to take a bus ride home to New York. The visitors had used a chartered plane to travel to Toledo, and finishing the game Friday would have prevented a return flight.
The cancellation could cost the UT program money down the road. The Rockets have set their sights on a MAC title and a bowl bid. The more wins a team compiles, the more attractive it becomes to bowl sponsors. Last year, UT played in the GoDaddy Bowl with a $750,000 payout to each team. Teams must win six games to become bowl-eligible.
Head coach Matt Campbell has a $2,500 performance bonus achieved for victories. His contract also calls for him to receive a bonus starting with seven victories, a bonus that rises with each win up to 10.
“The real problem is that the charter any of us use on football game weekends — as soon as that plane arrives back, to New York in their case — it’s being used for another team [the next day],” said Mike O’Brien, UT athletic director. “I asked that we make the attempt to resume the game at half, but they did not want to have their student-athletes on a bus for 10, 11 hours.”
Stony Brook would have had to take a 623-mile bus ride back to its Long Island campus following the completion of the game. The Seawolves would not have reached their campus until early Saturday morning, which the program deemed too much to ask.
The season-opening game at the Glass Bowl saw nearly 3½ hours of delays before officials called it off at 12:13 a.m. with the Rockets leading 16-7 at halftime. No statistics from the game will count and UT will travel to Arkansas next week at 0-0.
Because the Rockets were winning at the time of the cancellation, the game could have been counted as a Toledo victory, but the two schools could not reach an agreement on a proposed outcome.
“In order for that to occur, both athletic directors would have to agree that Toledo was the winner,” Mr. O’Brien said. “Of course, you know what my opinion was, but their AD [Shawn Heilbron] clearly did not [agree], and I understand that.”
Stony Brook’s athletic department did not respond to a request for comment.
Toledo will not offer refunds to fans who purchased tickets to Thursday night’s game. Attendance at the game was 18,486. Students get in free with their university IDs.
Mr. Campbell said the Rockets understood Stony Brook’s reservations about missing their charter flight and taking a bus home to play the game.
“I don’t think anybody wants to play a game where there’s no outcome, but I get it,” he said. “Ultimately it’s gotta come down to the welfare and health of the student-athlete, and that’s what had to prevail [Thursday] night.”
There was no other reasonable way for the two teams to meet later in the year, Mr. O’Brien said. Neither team had enough availability to squeeze a new game into the schedule.
Officials called the teams off the field at 7:49 p.m. Thursday with the Rockets trailing 7-3 nine seconds into the second quarter. The teams tried to restart at 9:15 p.m., but lightning flashed as they lined up for a kickoff, delaying the game longer. Play did not resume until 10:51 p.m.
When the game began again, Toledo dominated the second quarter. The Rockets’ defense didn’t allow a point and UT running back Damion Jones-Moore scored two touchdowns before halftime to put the Rockets ahead 16-7 going into a shortened halftime.
“That’s the biggest disappointment: We were on a roll,” Mr. Campbell said.
The weather turned considerably worse while the teams were at halftime. The players briefly came onto the field to resume the second half before lightning stopped the game.
Officials delayed the game again at 11:48 p.m. and called it off at 12:13 a.m.
“It got to the point of not playing for three hours and we still had a full half to play, and who knows how long that would take and whether we would have had even more delays,” Mr. O’Brien said. “So we’re getting into the wee hours of the morning, and then it’s just not appropriate to be playing a football game.”
“There’s no manual for it,” he added.
Mr. O’Brien, Mr. Heilbron, Mr. Campbell, Stony Brook coach Chuck Priore, UT game management director Tim Warga, and the head official met late Thursday night, but all parties could not agree upon a scenario in which the game finished.
Mr. O’Brien said both sides were disappointed the game could not resume, which he said is a first for his career.
A similar situation happened last season at the University of Florida. The Gators’ game against Idaho was canceled shortly after it began because of thunderstorms.
Florida paid Idaho the entire $975,000 guarantee and refunded tickets.
Mr. Campbell said suspended players Kareem Hunt and Allen Covington will return to the field for the Rockets’ third game as planned.
Contact Nicholas Piotrowicz at: npiotrowicz@theblade.com, 724-6110, or on Twitter @NickPiotrowicz
First Published September 5, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
