.Northern Illinois stunned No. 5 Notre Dame final weekend break on a last-second basket to scratch college football's very first huge upset of 2024. For the Huskies, it is actually a succeed they'll be commemorating for years to find. For the Battling Irish, it's a season-crusher. To shed the home opener to a little university coming from a significantly poor conference was an embarrassment for Notre Dame.Especially because they paid out NIU $1.4 thousand to do it.This radiates an illumination on some of the lengthiest as well as very most costly practices in college football: promise video games. They're also phoned "loan games," "paycheck video games," or even, as I like to contact all of them, "acquire full weeks." A pricey (as well as risky) traditionFor many years, in the 1st couple of full weeks of the season, significant college volleyball institutions have actually paid smaller sized colleges to come to play all of them in their house.In Week 1 alone, greater than $35 thousand was invested across a minimum of 55 warranty activities, depending on to Front end Workplace Athletics. Alabama composed the largest examination to its own rival, Western Kentucky, for an enormous $1.9 million. WKU lost that activity 63-- 0, but they probably attacked the rely on the bus trip home and probably will not hesitate about it.In Full week 2, three colleges-- Western Michigan, Center Tennessee, and Utah Condition-- received payouts bigger than NIU's $1.4 million. They dropped by a mixed rating of 156-- 3, but they took home a total amount of $4.85 million in the process.It's typically a bargain for both staffs. The little institutions acquire a payday, the significant schools acquire another home game to dairy gameday income. The tiny school reaches play on the major phase and also get national direct exposure, the significant one acquires a dish on the schedule to start the year in a sport without preseason. Thus all's properly and also great until the lower crew chooses to reveal out as well as take the distress.