http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/sports/12317608.htm

Florida Atlantic date will cost USC $600,000

USC will pay Florida Atlantic a guaranteed $600,000 when the two schools meet for the first time in the Gamecocks? 2006 opener, USC senior associate athletics director Shawn Eichorst said Friday.

Eichorst said the contract with the Sun Belt Conference school in Boca Raton, Fla., is a one-year deal. USC?s two-year deal with Central Florida has a $500,000 guarantee. But Eichorst said the move to a 12-game schedule among Division I-A schools in 2006 has inflated the guarantees that schools from BCS conferences must pay midlevel opponents to play home games without a return date.

Florida Atlantic announced the USC matchup last month, but USC officials would not discuss the game until they received a signed contract. Eichorst said FAU?s location and its coach, former Miami coach Howard Schnellenberger, made the Owls an attractive opponent.

?The appeal obviously is that we recruit in Florida,? Eichorst said, ?and the fact that FAU has a legendary coach who is trying to build a Division I-A program from the ground up.?

USC still has one vacancy on its 2006 schedule.

I think this is great, hopefully it will be on TV, we will get even more exposure and continue to expand our name. Not to mention we are gettn paid $600K. All i have to say is Remember Hawaii - we got a nice check and a win on that deal.

As long as we make Spurrier throw down his visor in disgust a few times.