.Northern Illinois stunned No. 5 Notre Dame final weekend break on a last-second basket to scratch university regulation football's 1st significant upset of 2024. For the Huskies, it's a succeed they'll be actually celebrating for several years to find. For the Battling Irish, it is actually a season-crusher. To drop the home opener to a small institution coming from an extremely poor conference was a discomfort for Notre Dame.Especially due to the fact that they paid for NIU $1.4 million to do it.This sparkles an illumination on some of the lengthiest and also most pricey heritages in university soccer: warranty games. They are actually likewise phoned "cash games," "paycheck activities," or, as I just like to call all of them, "purchase weeks." A pricey (as well as dangerous) traditionFor decades, in the initial couple of full weeks of the period, significant university football organizations have paid for much smaller schools to follow to play all of them in their house.In Week 1 alone, more than $35 thousand was actually spent across a minimum of 55 assurance video games, depending on to Face Workplace Athletics. Alabama wrote the biggest check to its own challenger, Western Kentucky, for a tremendous $1.9 million. WKU shed that video game 63-- 0, but they probably struck the count on the bus experience home and also likely will not think twice about it.In Full week 2, three schools-- Western side Michigan, Middle Tennessee, and also Utah State-- got payouts much bigger than NIU's $1.4 thousand. They lost through a consolidated score of 156-- 3, yet they took home a total amount of $4.85 million in the process.It's generally a bargain for both groups. The little colleges receive an income, the significant colleges acquire an additional home game to dairy gameday revenue. The small school comes to play on the significant phase and receive nationwide exposure, the significant one gets a cupcake on the routine to begin the year in a sport with no preseason. Thus all's effectively and great until the minimal group decides to show out and pull the upset.