.Northern Illinois stunned No. 5 Notre Dame final weekend break on a last-second basket to mark university football's first huge upset of 2024. For the Huskies, it is actually a win they'll be actually celebrating for years ahead. For the Fighting Irish, it is actually a season-crusher. To shed the home opener to a small college coming from a vastly substandard conference was actually an embarrassment for Notre Dame.Especially due to the fact that they paid for NIU $1.4 thousand to carry out it.This sparkles a light on one of the longest and also very most pricey traditions in college volleyball: guarantee games. They are actually also gotten in touch with "funds video games," "salary games," or even, as I such as to phone all of them, "get full weeks." An expensive (and also dangerous) traditionFor many years, in the initial few weeks of the season, primary university soccer organizations have actually spent much smaller schools to find to play all of them in their house.In Week 1 alone, greater than $35 million was devoted across at the very least 55 assurance activities, according to Front end Office Athletics. Alabama wrote the most significant examination to its own challenger, Western Kentucky, for a whopping $1.9 million. WKU shed that video game 63-- 0, yet they possibly struck the rely on the bus ride home as well as probably won't reconsider it.In Full week 2, 3 institutions-- Western side Michigan, Middle Tennessee, as well as Utah Condition-- acquired payments bigger than NIU's $1.4 million. They dropped through a consolidated rating of 156-- 3, but they take away a total amount of $4.85 million in the process.It's typically a bargain for both groups. The small colleges get a paycheck, the large institutions obtain an additional home activity to dairy gameday income. The small university comes to play on the huge phase and get national visibility, the huge one gets a dish on the timetable to start the year in a sport with no preseason. Therefore all's effectively as well as excellent until the smaller staff decides to reveal out and pull the upset.