.Northern Illinois stunned No. 5 Notre Dame last weekend on a last-second basket to mark college regulation football's first major upset of 2024. For the Huskies, it's a win they'll be actually celebrating for several years to come. For the Combating Irish, it is actually a season-crusher. To drop the home opener to a little institution coming from a greatly poor association was actually an awkwardness for Notre Dame.Especially due to the fact that they paid for NIU $1.4 thousand to perform it.This sparkles a light on some of the lengthiest as well as most costly customs in college volleyball: guarantee games. They're additionally gotten in touch with "money video games," "paycheck video games," or, as I just like to phone all of them, "buy weeks." A costly (and risky) traditionFor years, in the very first couple of weeks of the season, significant college volleyball establishments have spent much smaller universities to come to play them in their house.In Week 1 alone, more than $35 million was actually devoted around a minimum of 55 promise video games, depending on to Front Office Athletics. Alabama wrote the most significant check to its own enemy, Western side Kentucky, for a tremendous $1.9 thousand. WKU dropped that video game 63-- 0, yet they possibly struck the rely on the bus trip home and very likely won't hesitate about it.In Week 2, three universities-- Western side Michigan, Center Tennessee, as well as Utah State-- obtained payments bigger than NIU's $1.4 thousand. They lost by a bundled credit rating of 156-- 3, but they take away a total amount of $4.85 million in the process.It's commonly a deal for each teams. The little institutions receive a salary, the big colleges get an additional home game to milk gameday revenue. The little institution comes to use the huge phase and obtain national exposure, the large one gets a cupcake on the routine to start the year in a sport with no preseason. So all's effectively and also really good up until the smaller group decides to reveal out as well as take the distress.