How much is a University of Hawai'i football game worth?

Some, such as UH's 10-game losing streak-ending 56-14 victory over Brigham Young in 1989, or its Western Athletic Conference title-clinching double overtime 31-24 triumph over Fresno State in 1999, are part of lore and hard to put a price on.

Others, such as if a Bowl Championship Series appearance were to come to pass, come with very real, megabucks-like potential payouts.

An unbeaten Warrior team making a BCS appearance could be worth approximately $4.5 million to UH in straight cash before expenses, people involved in the process say. That would amount to about a fifth of UH's overall 19-team athletic budget.

A Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl appearance would be worth approximately $400,000, before expenses.

Boise State received approximately $4.2 million as its share of a Fiesta Bowl appearance against Oklahoma. After expenses, the Broncos netted about $3 million, enough to help underwrite some campus building projects.

The BCS is due to award the five non-guaranteed conferences (WAC, Conference USA, Mountain West, Mid American and Sun Belt conferences) nearly $9.5 million this year, a figure slightly above last year's payout. That group designates approximately $6 million to the conference that receives a BCS bid. Under WAC revenue-sharing formulas, the representative teams gets 70 percent before expenses.

But how much the loss of one game from the schedule, as is the case this year with UH playing 12 instead of 13 games, amounts to is open to debate.

While the NCAA limits teams to a maximum of 12 regular season games, an exemption to the rule gives UH — and teams that travel to Hawai'i — the option of playing a 13th game.

In 2006, the first year of the 13th game, UH took advantage of the option. This year, unable to fill its schedule by the start of June, UH has elected to play 12.

Athletic director Herman Frazier said the absence of a 13th overall and possible eighth home game "wasn't a huge" setback for UH.

Had the missing game been an away game — the most likely scenario — Frazier estimated UH would have received a guarantee of "$250,000-$350,000." Frazier, who had negotiations with Mississippi State, among others, said, "that's all they were going to give up."

But, Frazier said, "we already received that much money from Michigan State anyway, so that's 1-2-3, half a dozen of another."

The Spartans paid UH $250,000 in January — the penalty for cancellation under terms of the 2002 contract — to get out of a game that had been scheduled for Nov. 24, 2007.

In the unlikely chance UH had found a home opponent at a late date, Frazier said UH would only have realized income from sales of individual game tickets and pay-per-view sales, since it had already been announced the game would be included free in the season ticket packages.

Season tickets were put on sale in March based on a seven-game home season package, and UH announced at the time that any game added would be free of charge to season ticket holders.

For Aloha Stadium, which has been the football home to UH since 1975, the difference between the Warriors playing seven and eight home games is approximately $145,938 based upon 2006 figures.

"We definitely would have liked to have had the additional game, like anybody else," said Scott Chan, Aloha Stadium manager. "Parking, concessions — the whole gamut — is affected from a revenue standpoint."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.