Tulane will no longer take its scheduled trip to Starkville in 2016, numerous outlets report.
The game was slated to bring to an end a seven-game pact between the schools. The scheduled date for the contest was September 24.
InsideMSUSports.com reports that Tulane will owe $350,000 for the cancellation.
Tulane associate athletic director Brandon Macneill had some interesting thoughts on the cancellation, as referenced in a report by the Clarion-Ledger:
“I think when you see there will be other teams not only on the road but also in Yulman Stadium of the larger-scale schools I guess you could say,” Tulane associate athletic director Brandon Macneill told the Times Picayune. “We’re going to bring in attractive opponents here. We’re going to continue to play attractive opponents.
“In this case, again, it’s a contract that dated back to ’98, the game has been pushed and pushed and pushed multiple times for different reasons and it just didn’t make sense to keep pushing this thing out forever. It made more sense. If we push it out then you’re trying to schedule other teams five years out and it’s just a challenge. It’s just easier and cleaner to just say, okay, instead of keep doing this, we’ll just agree to cancel it. To do that, we had to formally inform them of that.”
Macneill continued:
“There is a lot of positioning out into future years that come into play so it’s not really just to fill that spot,” Macneill said. “It’s a domino effect of a bunch of different things moving out. Hopefully now that this has happened, those dominos will start falling very fast and then I can speak about (the future opponent). I just can’t speak (about) other schools (until details are finalized), (so) they don’t get blindsided by it.”
The most recent game between the two was a 31-point Bulldog victory in New Orleans in 2007.
More on the two schools’ future plans will be posted as it becomes available.