.Northern Illinois stunned No. 5 Notre Dame last weekend on a last-second field goal to scratch university soccer's 1st huge upset of 2024. For the Huskies, it is actually a win they'll be commemorating for years to find. For the Battling Irish, it's a season-crusher. To drop the home opener to a tiny university from a vastly inferior event was a discomfort for Notre Dame.Especially due to the fact that they paid for NIU $1.4 million to accomplish it.This sparkles an illumination on some of the longest and very most pricey customs in college volleyball: assurance games. They are actually also phoned "loan games," "paycheck games," or, as I such as to phone them, "acquire weeks." A pricey (and also unsafe) traditionFor many years, in the very first few weeks of the time, major college soccer organizations have spent smaller schools ahead to play them in their house.In Full week 1 alone, more than $35 thousand was devoted around at least 55 assurance video games, according to Front end Workplace Athletics. Alabama created the greatest examination to its rival, Western side Kentucky, for a whopping $1.9 thousand. WKU shed that activity 63-- 0, yet they probably struck the bank on the bus trip home and also likely will not reconsider it.In Full week 2, 3 schools-- Western Michigan, Middle Tennessee, and Utah Condition-- got payments much bigger than NIU's $1.4 million. They dropped through a combined rating of 156-- 3, but they took home a total of $4.85 million in the process.It's commonly a good deal for both teams. The small schools acquire a salary, the big schools obtain one more home game to milk gameday earnings. The small university reaches play on the huge phase and also obtain national visibility, the major one receives a dish on the timetable to begin the year in a sporting activity without preseason. So all's effectively as well as good till the lower staff determines to show out and draw the trouble.