Kansas State, Arizona State, among Power 5 schools to lose to a team they paid
One of the interesting things about the early portion of the college football schedule is the wealth of mismatched teams that end up facing each other.
Sure, there are some big-time contests between historic heavyweights — Alabama at Texas was a classic! — but you also find a plethora of games that appear to carry the intent of being glorified scrimmages, meant to get a Power 5 team ready for the conference slate.
And lower-level teams — often Group of 5 or even FCS teams — are happy to take the games, because they often are paid to do so. Those payments can be crucial to the financial health of such programs.
Sometimes, though, the big-time programs actually lose those games, and as RJ Young wrote in our Week 4 preview, "if you lose to a cupcake — put money in the bag — you're gonna catch a load of cream filling to your face like a clown."
This year, there have been a wealth of such upsets in which the team that was paid to fight the bully ended up dishing out some black eyes, walking away with both the cash and a victory.
This trend has given Young much delight, and he outlined the list of these games in a "Money in the Bag" segment on his podcast, "The Number One College Football Show."
"You pay a school that is usually in a division below you, but sometimes just outside of your Power 5 conference, to come in and take a whooping'," Young said. "And every now and again, we get somebody that says 'we ain't gonna take no whoopin'.'"
Young then went on to outline several such upsets, and how much the losing team paid for the "privilege" to get beat.
Eastern Michigan def. Arizona State, 30-21
Eastern Michigan was paid $1.5 million.
William & Mary def. Charlotte, 41-24
Williams & Mary was paid $300,000
Eastern Kentucky def. Bowling Green, 59-57
Eastern Kentucky was paid $350,000
Tulane def. Kansas State, 17-10
Tulane was paid $300,000
Incarnate Word def. Nevada, 55-41
Incarnate Word was paid $300,000
Weber State def. Utah State, 35-7
Weber State was paid $390,000
Southern Illinois def. Northwestern, 31-24
Southern Illinois was paid $550,000
Georgia Southern def. Nebraska, 45-42
Georgia Southern was paid $1.4 million.
"Charlotte, Bowling Green, Kansas State, Arizona State, Nevada, Utah State, Northwestern and Nebraska, you've been had!" Young said.
You can catch more of the conversation from "The Number One College Football Show" on YouTube, or by subscribing to the show on Apple podcasts or your favorite podcast app.
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