Michigan State said it wants out of its football game with the University of Hawai'i for next season, a development that could leave the Warriors scrambling for a marquee opponent and with as many as four pukas to fill on the 2007 schedule.

"We notified (UH) in January in writing that it was not in our institution's best interests to play that game," said John Lewandowski, an associate athletic director at MSU. He said MSU did not want to play an NCAA-permitted 13th game and chose to drop UH.

Herman Frazier, UH athletic director, maintained through spokeswoman Lois Manin yesterday, "There have been on-going conversations with Michigan State regarding this game for some time and we're hopeful that everything will be resolved in the very near future."

Lewandowski reiterated yesterday, "this isn't anything new. We informed them back in January that it wasn't in our best interests to play 13 games."

The game, which was contracted for Nov. 24, 2007, was signed in 2002, the last meeting in a three-game series between the schools. At the time the NCAA allowed Mainland schools to play a maximum of 11 regular-season games unless coming to Hawai'i, in which case a 12th was permitted. UH was allowed 12 also.

But in April 2005 the NCAA Board of Directors permitted a 12th game for all Division I-A schools beginning Aug. 1, 2006 — or 13 for UH and teams playing here.

"Obviously, when we signed the contract there was no way to know about new NCAA legislation approving a 12th game," Lewandowski said. "And, we don't feel like it is in the institution's best interests to play 13 games with the time element that our student-athletes already have, so we were not interested in playing a 13th game."

In addition to eight Western Athletic Conference games for 2007, UH has announced a non-conference game at Nevada-Las Vegas. Without MSU, that could leave the Warriors with as many as four games to fill in the intervening 10 months.

Frazier said: "We have a host of teams that want to play us in 2007, home and away. We have not determined how we will do it, home or away, but it will be balanced."

Frazier said one of those teams won't be last Saturday's 44-9 victim, Eastern Illinois, a Division I-AA school. "We are not looking at Eastern Illinois for a return in 2007," Frazier said. UH is contracted to play Oregon State in Corvallis, Ore., in "2007 or 2008."

The UH-MSU contract contains a "cancellation/forfeiture" clause that states, "in the event that (the visitor) cancels or forfeits, any unavoidable financial costs and/or losses incurred by UH shall be paid by (the visitor) a $250,000 cancellation fee."

Lewandowski said MSU has given UH ample warning and has "offered them (UH) our assistance in trying to identify a (replacement) opponent."

Lewandowski said he wasn't aware of which schools MSU might have suggested as replacements.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.