table{border-collapse:separate;border-color:blue; border-style:ridge;}caption {caption-side:bottom}Graphic by Adam Larck/The Daily Eastern NewsCash from FBS schoolsYearTeamAmount2001San Diego State$275,0002002Hawaii$30,000*2002Kansas State$250,0002003Missouri$180,0002004Eastern Michigan$150,0002005Brigham Young$225,0002006Illinois$300,0002006Hawaii$140,0002007Purdue$250,0002008Illinois$300,0002008Central Michigan$225,0002009Penn State$450,0002010Iowa$400,0002011Northwestern$325,0002014Minnesota$400,0002014Ohio$325,000Total amount earned:$4.225 million* Does not include travel expenses.In 2003: Eastern paid $20,000 to play California (Penn.), a Division II school.Add Minnesota to the list of Big Ten schools the Eastern football team will play.

The Golden Gophers and the Panthers will clash on Aug. 30, 2014, at TFC Stadium in Minneapolis to the tune of $400,000, according to Minnesota associate athletic director Marc Ryan. The game is the season opener for both squads.

Football Championship Subdivision teams, like Eastern, schedule Football Bowl Subdivision teams, like Minnesota, nearly every season.

Eastern has also scheduled a second FBS “money game” in 2014. It will play Ohio from the Mid-American Conference Sept. 27, 2014. Eastern is receiving $325,000 to play the Bobcats.

With Minnesota, the football team continues its schedule around the Big Ten. By 2014, the Panthers will have played Northwestern in 2012 and Iowa in 2010, to go along with Penn State, which the Panthers lost 52-3 Saturday in State College, Pa. The Panthers also played Illinois in 2008 and 2006 and Purdue in 2007.

Eastern’s last win against an FBS team was in 2004 when the Panthers defeated Eastern Michigan 31-28.

Eastern sports information Rich Moser said both Minnesota and Ohio made cold calls to the athletic office during the summer.

“It’s not an easy process,” Eastern athletic director Barbara Burke said. “It’s really just a network.”

Burke said a combination of finding open dates, talking to athletic directors of schools that are interested and looking at Web sites to see which schools have open dates go into the process of scheduling these games.

Ryan said the Golden Gophers try to schedule regional Midwest opponents. The Golden Gophers are playing Western Illinois in 2013 and Indiana State in 2016.

Ryan also said the goal of Minnesota scheduling is to fit a team into the rotation of non-conference games every six to eight years.

While Penn State’s game on Saturday was the largest payout in Eastern’s history ($450,000), Eastern is getting paid at least $400,000 from at least two Big Ten schools, both Minnesota and Iowa in 2010.

Ryan said Minnesota paid South Dakota State $300,000 this year, and sometimes it works out for FCS schools when the Golden Gophers lost to North Dakota State in 2007.

The Panthers lost to MAC opponent Central Michigan 31-12 in 2008. Eastern’s previous FBS win before Eastern Michigan was when it beat Western Michigan in 1996.

Moser said Eastern is trying to schedule an FBS school in 2012 and has had contact with several schools.

Eastern can play an FBS school in 2012 because the Panthers do not play Tennessee State as part of their OVC rotation. They are already playing Southern Illinois, Central Arkansas and Illinois State as parts of their non-conference schedule.

“In 2013, we can play 12 games, so they will play two FBS opponents,” Moser said in an email. “We have a tentative contract with one school and are working on the second opponent. Since the school we are playing has not released the date, I cannot name them for 2013.”

The Panthers played two FBS schools in 2006 (Hawaii and Illinois) and 2008 (Central Michigan and Illinois).

Eastern played three FBS schools in 1999 and lost all three games. They lost to Central Michigan, Hawaii and Central Florida.

“It’s more of a challenge,” said Eastern associate head coach and defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni of scheduling more than one FBS team. “It’d be one thing if you’re balancing with an easier opponent or a non-scholarship FCS or a Division II (school). It’s what came first: The chicken or the egg? Are you going to get kids to come here to play schools like that? I think if you polled our kids, they’d want to play the good teams.”

Northwestern, Eastern’s opponent in 2011, cannot release its numbers because it is a private institution, but Moser said Northwestern is paying $325,000.

Brad Halburt, Northwestern’s senior associate athletic director of operations, was in charge of scheduling the game.

“They liked the idea. (We were) in need of a game and we had a mutual open date,” Halburt said.

Halburt reached out to Burke last year to see if Eastern was interested in a one-game series in Evanston.

From 2001 to 2014, Eastern will have received about $4.34 million to play FBS schools.

“Sometimes it works out, … and sometimes it doesn’t work,” Ryan said.

Kevin Murphy can be reached at 581-7944 or kjmurphy@eiu.edu