.Northern Illinois stunned No. 5 Notre Dame final weekend break on a last-second basket to notch college regulation football's initial big distress of 2024. For the Huskies, it is actually a gain they'll be actually commemorating for a long times to find. For the Combating Irish, it's a season-crusher. To lose the home opener to a tiny university coming from an extremely poor conference was actually a humiliation for Notre Dame.Especially because they paid out NIU $1.4 million to accomplish it.This beams a light on among the longest and most pricey heritages in university volleyball: guarantee games. They're likewise contacted "loan games," "paycheck activities," or, as I such as to call them, "acquire weeks." A costly (as well as dangerous) traditionFor many years, in the initial few weeks of the period, significant university football institutions have paid for smaller institutions to come to play them in their house.In Full week 1 alone, greater than $35 million was spent around at the very least 55 promise activities, according to Front end Workplace Sports. Alabama wrote the most significant inspection to its challenger, Western Kentucky, for a monstrous $1.9 thousand. WKU lost that video game 63-- 0, however they probably attacked the trust the bus experience home and also likely will not reconsider it.In Week 2, three institutions-- Western side Michigan, Center Tennessee, and also Utah Condition-- obtained payments greater than NIU's $1.4 million. They dropped by a consolidated score of 156-- 3, yet they take away a total amount of $4.85 million in the process.It's normally a deal for both groups. The little colleges get a paycheck, the large colleges receive an additional home video game to milk gameday income. The little college comes to play on the major stage and acquire national visibility, the major one acquires a cupcake on the routine to start the year in a sporting activity without any preseason. Therefore all's properly and also great till the smaller staff decides to show out as well as pull the trouble.