NC State Buys Its Way Out Of 2014 Road Trip To Central Michigan

Debbie Yow's long 2014 football scheduling nightmare is finally over--NC State decided to buyout the road trip it was scheduled to make to Central Michigan next season, paying the Chips $350,000 for their disappointment. NC State originally signed a two-for-one deal, and CMU made the trek to Raleigh in 2011 in addition to this season.

About that schedule mess. To recap: At one point, NC State had just five home games scheduled for 2014. This is because a nine-game conference schedule--which had been approved, only to be shot down last October--was anticipated, and because non-conference road trips to CMU and South Florida were on the slate.

Yow spoke to The Wolfpacker about the trouble back in June, calling five home games "a formula for disaster financially." To right the budget ship, she had by that point already added home games against Old Dominion and Georgia Southern for 2014, to go with the home contest against Presbyterian. That also meant we had five OOC games scheduled, and thus made today's news only a matter of time. Expect 2015's scheduled trip to South Alabama to get the axe next, because thanks to the late maneuvering Yow had to do, we now have a trip to ODU set for that season.

All due credit to Yow for getting this sorted out, because it was absolutely essential to get the added revenue a couple more home games provide, as she alluded to. She admitted the process was super not fun to work through (with a heavy sigh, I'd guess), and I can't even imagine having to try to re-shape the schedule like this without much lead time.