Small Colleges Ring the Register with Away Games at Big Schools

Forget about the Western Kentucky bookstore helping the athletic budget with sales of hats and decals. On Saturday, the football team made $700,00 by letting Tennessee whomp all over them 63-7. That cost Tennessee $12,500 per point in the point spread. With that payment they garnered 30 votes in the AP poll.

Although that was a bit expensive for the Vols, it was nothing like what it cost Ohio State to host the Midshipmen. They paid Navy a cool $1,000,000 to roll over and play dead for the Buckeyes. Unfortunately OSU didn't ever read Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris. If they had, they would know that Teddy Roosevelt spent even bigger bucks to make the Navy more powerful that the English and Germans combined so he could control Panama. The English threatened him and the Germans threatened him, even mosquitoes threatened him, but that Navy guy hung tough. So did the Midshipmen on Saturday. They almost upset OSU. That game cost them a ton of money and a two spot drop in the polls.

Below are the worst value point spreads when the guarantee is compared to the margin of victory

Navy vs. Ohio State - $250,000
Liberty vs. West Virginia - $28,077
Montana State vs. Michigan State - $15,854
Western Kentucky vs. Tennessee - $12,500
Charleston Southern vs. Florida - $7,627

So, the moral of the story is that if you have to pay big bucks to get some patsy team to play you, there is a risk. It might be easier to sell more Ohio State University merchandise than to buy your way up in the polls by having Navy come to town.

If the success of your favorite team above makes you want to buy Ohio State University merchandise or a West Virginia University flag or even a University of Tennessee license plate, you will be able to find all of them at LogoProducts4Less.com.