On any given day?

 I rarely write about sports, but I am obviously making an exception today. What caused this change of heart? The results of college football games yesterday.

In the college football world, teams are always looking for easy wins to tune up on to start the season. A couple of weeks ago here in North Carolina, UNC paid Florida A&M $400,000 to come up to Chapel Hill and take a beating from the Tar Heels. A&M only had 40 eligible players, but UNC still managed to beat them easily.

In Nebraska yesterday, the Cornhuskers lost to Georgia Southern University. The last several years have not been good for Nebraska football. Yesterday, the bottom fell out with the loss to Georgia Southern. How bad was it? Gorgia Southern had 642 yards in total offense against the Cornhuskers. That is the most ever put up by an opposing team in Memorial Stadium.  What was the worst part of the game? Nebraska paid Georgia Southern $1,423,000 to come to Lincoln and beat them. 

Today, Nebraska fired head coach Scott Frost. How badly did they want Frost gone at Nebraska? $7.5 million worth. Frost's contract had a buyout amount of $15 million. On October 1, that number would be reduced to $7.5 million. Evidently, the alumni and other donors didn't want to wait three weeks for him to leave. Even with Inflation Joe destroying the economy, Nebraska was willing to spend the money. Hell, they had already blown $1.4 million bringing in Georgia State!

Meanwhile, in South Bend, Indiana (where Lady Pete Buttigieg was once the mayor) Notre Dame failed to pray enough and often before the game. Notre Dame paid Marshall $1.25 million to come to South Bend. The "Fighting Irish" were a 20-point favorite. The Thundering Herd won 26-21. The odds were so high against Marshall that if you had bet $10 on Marshall to win, you would have won $110. The Herd didn't check the odds before playing.

Last, but certainly not least, Appalachian State was paid $1.5 million to go to College Station, Texas and play Texas A&M. The Mountaineers were 19-point underdogs. They beat Texas A&M 17-14. Texas A&M was ranked sixth in the nation. The Mountaineers evidently did not read that they were supposed to lose. Games like this make Jimbo Fisher, A&M coach, wish that he had stayed at FSU. 

The best comment that I read about all of this dealt with the ASU-Texas A&M game. In 2007, Appalachian went to Ann Arbor to play Michigan. They were paid well for this early season tune-up game for Michigan. As with yesterday's game, Appalachian won. There were no betting odds in that game because Michigan was such an overwhelming favorite that no bookies were taking bets. Yes, that's why they call it gambling. So yesterday someone wrote "If your stadium seats over 100,000 people, do not under any circumstances pay Appalachian to come play your team."

There is any old saying that on any given day, one team can beat another. (Regardless of records) Obviously, yesterday was that day!