Playing Saturday's game against BYU will save Missouri $750,000 in the short term.
The two schools signed a contract last year that included a forfeiture penalty of $1 million if either side canceled the game for any reason other than war, government restriction or an act of God.
With Missouri's president resigning on Monday football activities, practice and play will resume, and Missouri will still owe BYU $250,000 to come to Arrowhead this week.
The game had been in doubt as black members of the Tigers team on Saturday threatened not to play. The act of solidarity came as a reaction to escalating racial tensions at the Columbia, Missouri, campus. Had the game been forfeited, the $1 million was to be payable within 30 days of when the game was supposed to be played.
The Cougars will pay the Tigers $250,000 to come to Provo for a game in 2020.
In order to make the game in 2015 happen, BYU had to push back its game with UNLV to 2017 and helped the Rebels fill their hole in 2015 with Idaho State, which BYU dumped from its schedule.
Missouri has agreed to split the cost with BYU in order to get Wagner to play the Cougars to fill the Oct. 24 date vacated by Idaho State and pay for Idaho State to travel to UNLV. Those costs include a $95,000 guarantee payment difference between what BYU was giving Idaho State and what UNLV paid.
Both games were blowouts. BYU beat Wagner 70-6, while UNLV beat Idaho State 80-8.