Cincinnati announced this morning that its 2012 meeting with Virginia Tech is moving from Nippert Stadium to FedEx Field in Landover, Md.

The match-up is a return game from Cincinnati’s 2006 trip out to Blacksburg, Va. (the Cincinnati administration agreed to move it from this year’s original date when the Hokies found a chance to play Alabama), it’s a rematch of last year’s FedEx Orange Bowl and on its face, it seems like an odd decision to both give up home field advantage and move to a supposed neutral site in the opponent’s backyard. But then I did a quick check:

For moving its 2010 home game against Penn State to FedEx Field, Indiana’s getting a cool $3 million. No one at Cincinnati could tell me its payout, but it has to be at least that, right?

Nippert is the fifth-oldest college football stadium in the country and it only seats 35,000. I’m still searching for Cincinnati’s average take for a home game there is, but just by comparison, Rutgers Stadium – which seats nearly 20,000 more and has the amenity-laden club seats that Nippert doesn’t – pulls in $1.5 million per home game. So as a conservative estimate, playing one weekend where the Redskins play could net the Bearcats three times as much as a usual home game would.

This news interestingly enough comes on the same day as a report that UC is going to borrow $9.7 million to build practice fields on campus. And with Cincinnati sitting at 10-0 and no. 5 in the BCS rankings, Brian Kelly’s name isn’t coming off hot-coach lists. Lest anyone forget, Kelly signed an expansion this off-season that includes as one of its provisions a pledge to find Cincinnati an indoor practice facility if the Bearcats get to a BCS game.

Losing the campus gameday experience hurts. But a coach walking, and facilities that can’t compete, ultimately would hurt more.