.Northern Illinois stunned No. 5 Notre Dame final weekend on a last-second field goal to scratch college football's initial huge trouble of 2024. For the Huskies, it's a succeed they'll be commemorating for many years to follow. For the Dealing with Irish, it's a season-crusher. To lose the home opener to a tiny college coming from a significantly substandard event was a humiliation for Notre Dame.Especially because they paid for NIU $1.4 thousand to perform it.This beams a lighting on among the longest and also very most pricey practices in college football: promise video games. They are actually also called "amount of money games," "paycheck activities," or even, as I such as to contact all of them, "acquire weeks." An expensive (and also dangerous) traditionFor decades, in the 1st couple of weeks of the season, major college volleyball organizations have paid smaller sized colleges to find to play them in their house.In Week 1 alone, greater than $35 thousand was actually devoted throughout a minimum of 55 promise activities, depending on to Front end Workplace Athletics. Alabama created the most significant inspection to its own rival, Western Kentucky, for a tremendous $1.9 million. WKU lost that game 63-- 0, but they most likely attacked the bank on the bus flight home as well as probably will not hesitate about it.In Full week 2, 3 universities-- Western Michigan, Middle Tennessee, and Utah Condition-- received payouts greater than NIU's $1.4 million. They shed by a bundled score of 156-- 3, however they take away a total of $4.85 million in the process.It's normally a good deal for each crews. The small institutions acquire a salary, the major universities obtain another home activity to milk gameday earnings. The tiny university comes to play on the huge stage and receive nationwide exposure, the large one gets a dish on the schedule to start the year in a sport without preseason. Thus all's well and good till the lower group chooses to show out and draw the trouble.