.Northern Illinois stunned No. 5 Notre Dame last weekend on a last-second basket to mark college soccer's first large upset of 2024. For the Huskies, it's a gain they'll be celebrating for a long times ahead. For the Battling Irish, it's a season-crusher. To drop the home opener to a little university coming from a significantly inferior conference was an awkwardness for Notre Dame.Especially because they paid NIU $1.4 thousand to perform it.This beams a lighting on some of the longest and very most pricey practices in college volleyball: promise games. They are actually likewise called "amount of money video games," "income games," or even, as I as if to contact them, "purchase full weeks." A costly (and also risky) traditionFor decades, in the very first few full weeks of the period, significant college soccer organizations have paid out smaller sized schools ahead to play them in their house.In Week 1 alone, much more than $35 thousand was invested all over a minimum of 55 guarantee video games, depending on to Front end Office Athletics. Alabama wrote the most significant examination to its enemy, Western side Kentucky, for a whopping $1.9 million. WKU shed that activity 63-- 0, however they perhaps reached the count on the bus flight home and very likely won't think twice about it.In Full week 2, 3 colleges-- Western Michigan, Middle Tennessee, and also Utah Condition-- received payments bigger than NIU's $1.4 million. They shed by a bundled score of 156-- 3, yet they take away an overall of $4.85 thousand in the process.It's normally a bargain for both crews. The small colleges get an income, the large institutions obtain an additional home video game to milk gameday profits. The little university gets to use the major stage as well as acquire national visibility, the big one receives a cupcake on the timetable to start the year in a sport without preseason. Therefore all's properly as well as great up until the minimal team chooses to present out and pull the upset.