The University of Hawai'i's Saturday football game with Washington State, which was to have been the second of a three-game series, will instead be the finale after the Cougars bought their way out of a 2011 meeting, UH athletic director Jim Donovan said.

The Cougars will pay $300,000, the amount due under a cancellation clause in the contract, Donovan said.

Donovan said UH was notified by letter last week the Cougars were canceling, citing "changes in the Pac-10 schedule."

WSU athletic director Jim Sterk did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.

Under a contract initially agreed to in 2006 and later amended and added to, WSU played at UH in 2008 and UH plays WSU in Seattle Saturday. The Cougars were scheduled to play at Aloha Stadium Nov. 26, 2011.

UH receives $300,000 for its appearance Saturday at Qwest Field and the Cougars were contracted to receive the same amount for their 2011 game in Honolulu.

Until the cancellation, UH's 2011 schedule had been complete. The Warriors' non-conference games in 2011 are against Colorado at Aloha Stadium, and Washington and Nevada-Las Vegas on the road.

Donovan said he has begun seeking a replacement for the Cougars but didn't know if he could match another team from a Bowl Championship Series conference in that slot.

"It is not impossible (to find a quality replacement), but it is operating in a short time frame," Donovan said. "Most football games are scheduled four to five years out and, now, we're looking at two years."

Donovan said he believes the $250,000 to $300,000 "buy-out" clauses in the contracts UH had in place before his arrival were not a sufficient deterrent to teams canceling games. "Since I started on the job, we've raised the amount teams will have to pay if they want out," he said.

UH's contract with Army for games in 2010 through 2019 lists a $500,000 cancellation fee.

Two years ago, Michigan State bought its way out of a scheduled 2007 game for $250,000