The Division I-AA Charleston Southern football team could very well get pounded when it plays the I-A University of Hawai'i Sept. 22, but the Buccaneers are emerging as the big winners in the Warriors' on-going scheduling fiasco.

While UH fans, players and coaches continue to wait on a completed 13-game schedule for a season due to open in less than five months, Charleston Southern has made out like, well, Buccaneers.

The tiny school (enrollment 2,800) will receive the largest payday of any I-AA UH opponent the Warriors have played. Contract details paint a picture of UH's desperation to fill the schedule with a package exceeding that of what Division I opponents Oregon State or Purdue earned for appearances at Aloha Stadium just months ago.

With UH's 11th-hour struggle to fill the final three pukas on its 2007 schedule, the Buccaneers apparently leveraged the situation well to their advantage to look at the terms of the contract. Charleston Southern will receive roundtrip airfare for 75 people, 45 hotel rooms for three nights, bus transportation, $15,000 for incidentals and a $125,000 post-game check.

Moreover, the Buccaneers will also get a second game here in 2011 to recruit to and be guaranteed the same terms or better, according to the contract.

"They were motivated — and so were we," as CSU athletic director Hank Small put it.

Indeed, UH's lone I-AA opponent last season, Eastern Illinois, received 110 roundtrip fares, hotel rooms and a $30,000 check. Meanwhile, Oregon State got 120 roundtrip fares, 70 hotel rooms for three nights and $40,000 while Purdue received 125 roundtrip fares, 85 hotel rooms for four nights and $50,000. In 2005, two-time defending national champion Southern California received airfare for 175, 95 hotel rooms and $40,000. USC is scheduled to receive similar terms but $50,000 in 2010.

Had UH not been in such desperate straits this season, you wonder if the Buccaneers could have commanded more than a third of the cash or secured the 2011 return appearance? But with UH athletic director Herman Frazier staring at three openings on his schedule in late February and mounting public criticism, Charleston had cards to play.

For without a home opponent for Sept. 22, the Warriors were looking at consecutive road games on Sept. 8, Sept. 15 and Sept. 29 sandwiched by open dates for Sept. 1 and Sept. 22. As it stands now, UH will play only one home game against a Division I-A team (Utah State, Oct. 6) in the season's first eight weeks and two (New Mexico State) in the first 10.

The Charleston game gave UH 11 games with, officially, two more spots to fill. A likely 12th game, Division I-AA Northern Colorado in the Sept. 1 opener at Aloha Stadium, has been announced by UNC but not yet been confirmed by UH. Terms for that game have yet to be announced.

A possible 13th game at Mississippi State eluded UH this past week when the Bulldogs, who had Nov. 3 and Sept. 22 openings, chose to play Gardner-Webb on the latter.

Meanwhile, Frazier has declined to say whether UH will definitely play a full 13-game schedule as it did in 2006, saying through a spokeswoman only that he continues to pursue scheduling opportunities.

In the meantime, though the Buccaneers, who have 63 players on scholarship compared to UH's 85, could take a licking on the scoreboard, they can smile all the way to the bank for years.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.