.Northern Illinois stunned No. 5 Notre Dame final weekend on a last-second field goal to mark university football's initial big trouble of 2024. For the Huskies, it's a gain they'll be actually commemorating for years ahead. For the Fighting Irish, it's a season-crusher. To lose the home opener to a little college coming from an extremely substandard conference was an awkwardness for Notre Dame.Especially since they paid out NIU $1.4 thousand to carry out it.This sparkles an illumination on one of the lengthiest and also very most pricey traditions in college football: warranty games. They're additionally phoned "amount of money activities," "salary video games," or even, as I such as to call them, "acquire weeks." A costly (and also dangerous) traditionFor decades, in the 1st handful of full weeks of the time, significant college volleyball organizations have actually spent much smaller universities to follow to play all of them in their house.In Week 1 alone, greater than $35 million was invested across a minimum of 55 warranty games, depending on to Face Office Sports. Alabama created the biggest inspection to its enemy, Western Kentucky, for a monstrous $1.9 million. WKU lost that video game 63-- 0, yet they most likely struck the rely on the bus flight home and also probably won't hesitate about it.In Week 2, three schools-- Western side Michigan, Middle Tennessee, and also Utah Condition-- got payments much bigger than NIU's $1.4 thousand. They dropped by a bundled rating of 156-- 3, yet they take away a total of $4.85 million in the process.It's commonly a bargain for each groups. The tiny colleges receive a payday, the major schools obtain an additional home game to milk gameday profits. The tiny college reaches play on the large stage as well as receive nationwide visibility, the big one obtains a dish on the schedule to begin the year in a sporting activity without any preseason. Therefore all's well and really good until the smaller team determines to show out and also take the distress.