.Northern Illinois stunned No. 5 Notre Dame last weekend on a last-second basket to scratch university football's initial major trouble of 2024. For the Huskies, it is actually a succeed they'll be commemorating for a long times to find. For the Battling Irish, it's a season-crusher. To lose the home opener to a tiny university from a greatly inferior event was actually an awkwardness for Notre Dame.Especially because they paid for NIU $1.4 million to accomplish it.This sparkles a lighting on one of the longest and also very most pricey practices in university volleyball: warranty activities. They are actually likewise phoned "cash games," "salary activities," or, as I such as to call them, "purchase weeks." An expensive (and also high-risk) traditionFor decades, in the 1st handful of full weeks of the period, primary university volleyball establishments have spent smaller sized schools to find to play them in their house.In Full week 1 alone, much more than $35 million was spent around a minimum of 55 assurance games, depending on to Front end Office Athletics. Alabama composed the most significant inspection to its enemy, Western Kentucky, for a whopping $1.9 million. WKU dropped that activity 63-- 0, yet they most likely attacked the trust the bus trip home as well as probably won't hesitate about it.In Full week 2, 3 schools-- Western Michigan, Center Tennessee, as well as Utah State-- acquired payouts larger than NIU's $1.4 million. They dropped by a mixed credit rating of 156-- 3, but they took home a total of $4.85 million in the process.It's usually a deal for both staffs. The little universities receive a payday, the huge colleges receive one more home game to milk gameday profits. The small college comes to use the large stage and get national visibility, the huge one acquires a cupcake on the routine to start the year in a sport without preseason. So all's well and excellent until the smaller group determines to present out and also draw the trouble.