For the very reason you suggest, UC and Marshall find themselves playing every few years. UC is often able to get a two-for-one agreement, and travel expenses to Huntington are light.
One of the biggest challenges UC has is their geographically regional schools are either P5, who rarely agree to one-and-one deals (Purdue and IU are two recent exceptions) or MAC-level who don't help the strength of schedule.
UC is in a position where if they're going to travel non-conference, they need to collect a paycheck or stay within a few hours radius (ND happened to be both). I expect their non-conference scheduling will begin to look different once they're in the Big XII and their budget has a bit more freedom.