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Nearly a decade ago San Diego State and Cincinnati agreed to a home-and-home in football and the first game was fulfilled all the way back in 2007 when the Aztecs hosted the Bearcats. The return trip by San Diego State has yet to be pay up on their end due to various delays after initially being scheduled in 2012.
There were various options to fulfill the agreement which included in buying out the contract for breaking it, or playing a three-game set in basketball with only one game being played at Viejas Arena. Ultimately the two sides agreed to this unusual agreement to finish up the contract which has San Diego State traveling to Cincinnati for just one basketball game, likely to be played in the middle of December of this year.
This deal was set up by a prior athletic directory, but Jim Sterk felt he needed to find a way to honor the deal:
"It wasn't a deal I had signed, but we owed them a return football game," SDSU athletic director Jim Sterk said. "Coach (Rocky) Long has done a lot of things for the overall athletic program, taking on games like at Ohio State last year. That was $1.2 million, and that helped us balance our budget. Coach (Steve) Fisher was willing to do that as well."
This game was actually canceled at one point since San Diego State was to join the Big East with Cincinnati, but when the Aztecs backed out of joining the East Coast league the game was added back on the schedule for 2016.
As Fisher said, he is willing to help the football team out with this very different arrangement to fulfill this agreement. This move actually helps both teams since it gives the basketball team a quality non-conference opponent, and the football team can either schedule another home game or go out and try to schedule a one-off road game against a power league team and possibly earn a seven-figure deal.