The University of Hawai'i has played defending national champions and No. 1-ranked teams in football before. It has teed it up against Heisman Trophy winners, too.

But this year, at the University of Florida, it opens its season against a different entity entirely.

The Gators have been, in the words of CNN and Fortune magazine, college athletics' "most admired corporation."

When the teams meet in The Swamp Aug. 30, recently released financial details paint a picture not so much of a Bowl Championship Series school vs. a non-BCS member, or even a Southeastern Conference power against the Western Athletic Conference, but of Walmart vs. a mom-and-pop shop.

The athletic department budget UF has announced for the upcoming fiscal year is a record $84 million, according to an executive summary. Or, about three times what UH is expected to operate on.

It is a sign of UH's current financial plight that, currently occupied by the furious bailing of red ink, the Warriors have yet to release a forecast for the fiscal year that starts Tuesday. But estimates are that the Warriors will come in at about $28 million to $29 million, a record by UH standards.

Clearly, the North American continent isn't the only thing that separates them. Football is credited with producing $54.6 million in revenue for the Gators, or nearly 65 percent of the total budget. At UH, football might do $11.5 million all things considered, or about 41 percent.

Florida projects a $1.39 million surplus. UH, at last report, was staring at a $1.1 million deficit for the upcoming fiscal year. Even after the $600,000 guarantee, from which they might hope to bank half.

UF reports an athletic endowment of $39.3 million; UH is at $4 million.

Florida isn't the nation's most cash-flush athletic department, though it is definitely among the upper crust, usually trailing just Ohio State, Texas, Virginia and Michigan in the depth of its bank account. But the Gators, as recent national championships in football and men's basketball suggest, do a lot with what they have.

Whatever happens on the field, that might be one of the most valuable underlying lessons for UH to take from this whole adventure.

That and, of course, not putting themselves in this kind of a position so far from home again.

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