What do Lane Kiffin and a $1.75 million check have to do with the Fresno State Bulldogs’ season-opening game on Friday at USC?

As college football stories go, this is far from the zaniest about two teams finding a way to meet up on the field. Still, the game has been brewing for a decade, and one change in the game contract years ago not only impacted a bunch of teams across the country, but it also gave the Bulldogs a substantial future payday.

And, yes, Kiffin, the former Fresno State quarterback, Bulldogs’ assistant and USC head coach, makes a cameo.

The matchup originally was scheduled in 2016 as part of a three-game series, each to be played in Los Angeles and each with a $1.1 million guarantee to be paid to the Bulldogs, according to the game contract.

Fresno State and USC played the first game In the series in 2019, and the Bulldogs were in it to the end of a 31-23 loss. They were at the USC 15-yard line late in the fourth quarter, but the Trojans picked off a pass in the end zone to squash the Bulldogs’ shot to tie the score with a touchdown and 2-point conversion.

The Bulldogs were in the second game, too, in 2022, before quarterback Jake Haener went down with an ankle injury that for a time was believed to be a season-ending blow. Fresno State was down by 21-10 at the start of the third quarter, but had possession of the football and was driving. On a first-down play from the USC 47-yard line, Haener was sacked and fumbled, his final play for seven weeks. The Trojans went on to win, 45-17.

The third game was scheduled to be played in 2025, the season-opener, on Aug. 30. But a few weeks after that first game in 2019, Fresno State and USC quietly amended the game contract to move the 2025 game back a year to Sept. 5, 2026.

In the amended contract, Fresno State got an additional game to be played in 2028 that comes with a $1.75 million guarantee. At the time, it was the largest guarantee the Bulldogs had ever booked.

After that change, Fresno State moved quickly to fill that hole in its 2025 schedule, agreeing to a home and home series with Georgia Southern with the first game to be played Aug. 30 at Valley Children’s Stadium.

USC lined up a home and home series with Ole Miss, just a few months after the Rebels had hired Kiffin, who when coaching the Trojans in 2013 had infamously been fired at the airport when returning to Los Angeles after a blowout loss at Arizona State. That series was to start on Aug. 30, 2025, the scheduling hole created when the Trojans and Bulldogs pushed their game back.

With the home and home series with Georgia Southern, Fresno State was locked in on that Aug. 30 date, but there was a lot of movement around that game. The Bulldogs’ added a 2 for 1 series with Kansas, with the first game played on the road in 2025. A game to be played at Oregon State in 2024 as part of a home and home series was pushed back a year into 2025. Brigham Young was part of the mix for a while, too. The Bulldogs and Cougars scheduled a home-and-home series to start in 2025, but that first game was moved to 2023 and the series eventually was scrapped before a game was even played when BYU joined the Big 12.

The Bulldogs completed their 2025 non-conference schedule with FCS Southern, which brought its acclaimed marching band known as the Human Jukebox to the San Joaquin Valley.

USC and Ole Miss eventually cancelled their home and home series due to shifting conference scheduling requirements, and the Trojans ended up playing Missouri State in their 2025 opener. USC also added a 2025 game against George Southern and another of its former coaches, Clay Helton, to round out a non-conference schedule highlighted by a game at Notre Dame.

The Bulldogs and Georgia Southern ended up playing last season at Valley Children’s Stadium, and the Eagles spent the week practicing in Oxnard at the site used for training camp by the Dallas Cowboys before playing at USC the following week.

The only game remaining on the Fresno State-USC game contract, scheduled for Aug. 30, 2025 and then moved Sept. 5, 2026, was moved again, to Friday from Saturday, to accommodate a national television broadcast on FOX and will kick off at 6 p.m.

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