That’s not a typographical error in Baker University’s football schedule.

The Wildcats are indeed scheduled to play Saturday AT Southern Oregon University.

“This will be a great experience for our kids,” BU coach Mike Grossner said. “It’s a no-brainer from that standpoint.”

Baker University football teams have flown to Oregon a couple of times before, but those journeys were for NAIA playoff games against Linfield (1986) and Pacific Lutheran (1993). This will be the first flight to a regular-season game in school history.

Baker will be going to the Pacific Northwest because Southern Oregon was willing to pay a guarantee of $30,000 to add a game to its schedule.

“We kind of have to,” SOU coach Shay McClure said. “We’re an NAIA independent, and for us to find a game is hard. The closest NAIA league is in Montana, and that’s a 24-hour bus ride one-way.”

A state school with an enrollment of about 5,000, Southern Oregon didn’t have $30,000 stashed in a rainy-day fund, so the athletic department made an appeal to the student body.

“Our whole athletic budget is determined by student fees,” McClure said. “We told them it was a one-time thing, that we needed the money so we could have a ninth game. We begged the heck out of them.”

The entreaty worked, so the next step was to find a school with an Oct. 29 opening, and Baker fit the bill. The Wildcats had 10 games scheduled against league foes in the 11-member Heart of America Athletic Conference, and Oct. 29 was their open date.

Southern Oregon made the first contact, Grossner said, and originally wanted to come to Baldwin.

“I looked at our budget,” the Baker coach said, “and I told them we couldn’t offer more than a night in a motel and a meal. So we sat on it for a while. Then they asked if we’d come back there for $30,000, and I said sure.”

The Baker traveling party will consist of coaches, managers, administrators, a couple of alums and 47 players. They’ll depart Baldwin early Friday morning for Kansas City International Airport, then board a flight for Portland, Ore., through Denver.

After arriving in Portland in late morning, the contingent will board buses again for about a 41â2-hour trip to SOU’s home in Ashland, Ore., just a few miles north of the California border. A practice at Raider Stadium is scheduled in the early evening.

“That’s a long day,” Grossner said, “but we’ll have most of Saturday to rest.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. Central time.

After the game, the BU traveling party will make a red-eye bus ride back to Portland to catch at 6 a.m. flight to Denver. The wee-hours bus ride will save the expense of an extra night in a motel.

Grossner estimates the trip will cost close to $26,000 so, barring unforeseen circumstances, the Wildcats probably will make a profit.

Whether they’ll also come back with a victory is another question.

Southern Oregon is riding a 10-game losing streak going back to last season, but the Raiders have played mostly NCAA Div. II schools, and even one Div. I-AA school (San Diego U.).

Baker snapped a long losing skid a few weeks ago and now stands 2-6.