.Northern Illinois stunned No. 5 Notre Dame final weekend on a last-second basket to notch university football's first significant upset of 2024. For the Huskies, it's a gain they'll be actually celebrating for a long times ahead. For the Battling Irish, it's a season-crusher. To shed the home opener to a tiny school coming from a greatly substandard association was a humiliation for Notre Dame.Especially because they spent NIU $1.4 thousand to do it.This shines a light on one of the longest and also very most pricey practices in university football: assurance games. They are actually likewise called "funds video games," "paycheck video games," or, as I as if to phone all of them, "buy weeks." An expensive (as well as unsafe) traditionFor many years, in the 1st handful of full weeks of the period, primary university volleyball institutions have actually spent smaller sized schools to come to play them in their house.In Week 1 alone, greater than $35 million was devoted across at least 55 warranty activities, according to Face Office Sports. Alabama wrote the largest check to its rival, Western side Kentucky, for a monstrous $1.9 million. WKU lost that game 63-- 0, but they perhaps attacked the trust the bus experience home as well as likely will not reconsider it.In Week 2, three schools-- Western Michigan, Middle Tennessee, as well as Utah Condition-- obtained payouts bigger than NIU's $1.4 thousand. They shed through a consolidated rating of 156-- 3, however they take away an overall of $4.85 million in the process.It's typically a good deal for both crews. The little schools get a paycheck, the major universities obtain yet another home video game to milk gameday income. The little college reaches play on the large stage and get nationwide visibility, the huge one acquires a dish on the schedule to begin the year in a sport with no preseason. Thus all's effectively and also great till the smaller group determines to show out and draw the upset.