As a comparison, the $500,000 check that Rutgers is cutting for UCLA to terminate a two-game series in 2020 and 2021 represents 57.5 percent of the program's $870,000 recruiting budget.

Five-hundred grand is also exactly how much

It's 76.9 percent of Rutgers' $650,000 annual naming-rights take from High Point Solutions.

It will

And it's the bonus for Chris Ash if Rutgers wins the College Football Playoff championship game under his watch.

It's a lot of money no matter how you slice it, but giving UCLA $500,000 to not play them begs the question: Is it worth it?

To answer that, one might have to go back to the week leading into Ash's first game as Rutgers coach in 2016. As the Scarlet Knights prepared to travel 3,000 miles to play Washington in Seattle, Ash was asked how he'd like to see the non-conference schedule set up in the future:

"(Washington) is not a game that I would probably set to open up on the road clear across the country,'' he said. "But it is what it is and it's set and we're going to play it. I guess we're turning this thing into a positive rather than a negative.''

For context, Rutgers scheduled the two-game Washington series for the 2016 and '17 seasons in March 2014. Kyle Flood was the Scarlet Knights' head coach at the time. Sources familiar with the decision-making process told NJ Advance Media that scheduling Syracuse to open the 2016 and '17 seasons was an option, but Flood allegedly nixed that idea because losing to the Orange would be bad for recruiting.

As it turned out, Rutgers lost both season-opening games to Washington, falling 48-13 in 2016 and 30-14 in 2017. While the Huskies were 9-4 the season before Rutgers agreed to the series, they morphed into a program that advanced to the College Football Playoff in 2016 and finished No. 16 nationally in 2017.

For the Washington trip, Rutgers returned the bulk of its visiting-team tickets allotment. For the game in Piscataway, High Point Solutions Stadium was at 87.9-percent capacity as Rutgers announced its attendance at 46,093.

While Washington compiled a 22-5 record the past two seasons, Syracuse finished 4-8 both years under a coach, Dino Babers, who, like Ash, inherited a rebuilding project.

"Regional rivalries -- if we can find one -- would be great," Ash told NJ Advance Media in July 2016. "The travel out to Washington isn't necessarily a preference because it's a big trip, a hard trip. ... If we could find a non-conference Power Five rivalry game that we could play that would excite fans and players, that would be great. Especially if it does not require long-distance travel like clear across the country does, I would be all for things like that.''

It's no secret that Ash and Rutgers Athletics Director Pat Hobbs, as they evaluated Rutgers' future-season schedules, had long desired to get out of a UCLA series that was executed by then-AD Tim Pernetti and ex-Scarlet Knights coach Greg Schiano in 2009.

In fact, NJ Advance Media reported a likely exit-plan with UCLA in mid-September 2017. It took months to execute, but Rutgers officials were willing to pay top dollar to not go through the Washington-series debacle again. The $500,000 buyout is five times more than what the school paid Miami in January 2017 to cancel 2018 and '19 games.

The Scarlet Knights will face Syracuse instead, hosting the Orange in 2020 before playing at the Carrier Dome in 2021.

From a financial perspective, the schools will trade $400,000 checks as the visiting-team guarantees. Rutgers officials say some of the cost of the UCLA cancellation penalty will be offset by the decreased travel expenses associated with traveling to central New York instead of Los Angeles.

In a statement Thursday, Ash noted the "long history'' of the Rutgers-Syracuse series and said the matchup is "exciting for both fan bases.''

"With our non-conference schedule,'' the Scarlet Knights coach added, "we have focused on adding games that showcase great football in this region.''

Because Rutgers earned an average of $1.43 million per home game over the 2014-16 seasons, the $900,000 combined UCLA/Syracuse payout means the football program stands to earn approximately $500,000 for hosting Syracuse in 2020.

Of course, Rutgers will likely clear even less for non-conference games this season, since Texas State is receiving a $1.2 million guarantee and Buffalo is drawing a $900,000 guarantee.

If that sounds like a lot, keep in mind that seven-figure payouts is industry standard for major-conference schools desiring one-and-done opponents that figure to arrive as decisive underdogs.

Because Rutgers plays a nine-game Big Ten schedule, finding lesser-quality teams takes on added importance since it takes six wins to earn a bowl berth.

Considering the Scarlet Knights have yet to win more than three conference games in any of their first four Big Ten campaigns, anything less than a 3-0 non-conference record makes the likelihood of a bowl bid slimmer.

"When we look at non-conference games," Ash told NJ Advance Media in August 2016, "there are two things I'm looking at: How do we schedule to get wins? And also games that challenge us and prepare us for the Big Ten.''

The bottom line?

Syracuse will likely be a bigger attendance-draw than UCLA considering the Central New York-based school has a huge alumni base in New Jersey.

And while Syracuse could morph into an ACC contender by 2020, there's a better chance that UCLA will ascend into a national power as Chip Kelly -- who turned Oregon into a Pac-12 power not so long ago -- takes over the Bruins this year.

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.