ESPN 

I find the whole story funny to the point of being hypocritical.

The whole reason Bama scheduled Louisiana-Lafayette was to get a guaranteed win. So much so they almost assuredly paid L-L several hundred thousand dollars to show up and take a beating.

Bama was a 49 point favorite. L-L is ranked 131st in the Sagarin rating. They have about 20 Division 1-AA teams ranked higher. There are only about 15 1-A teams ranked lower than they are.

Why should the students be expected to show up and watch their football team crush an unworthy opponent? Put a team out there that has a 30% chance of winning and you will see more butts in the stands.

About 5 years ago I went to visit a friend in Knoxville. He wanted to take me to the Tennessee game. Before the season they were scheduled to play NC. Carolina had put together a couple of decent seasons so TN bought out the contract and then paid Buffalo to come down and take the beating. It was interesting to see the stadium. It seats over 102,000. The game was never in doubt. TN wanted the win. (As do all the better power conference teams) And they were willing to buy it.

On the bus ride from the stadium we met a Buffalo alum. He took the ribbing and retorted that he appreciated TN helping to rebuild the Buffalo stadium.

The only way to avoid these lopsided games is to prohibit paying lesser teams to come and play their big brothers along with requiring all teams to have a home and home series. If TN had to travel to Buffalo or Alabama go to Lafayette there would be fewer matchups like this.

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perhaps they were studying.

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Well I did think about that. Then I realized Saturday and it is Alabama. Coming in at 129th, they are not renowned for their academic standards. At least they are ranked ahead of
Michigan Technological University and University at Albany-SUNY. That's got to count for something.

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