How much did LSU pay to lose to Troy?
By Asher Fair
The LSU Tigers suffered a monumental upset loss to the Troy Trojans after paying them nearly $1 million just to come to Baton Rouge to play.
The No. 25 LSU Tigers (3-2) dropped a home game against the unranked Troy Trojans (4-1) by a score of 24-21 in the team’s first home loss to a non-conference opponent in over 17 years. Their most recent loss of this sort had been a 13-10 loss to the UAB Blazers in 2000.
Typically, when a Power 5 school schedules a home game against from a conference like the Sun Belt, which is the conference Troy plays in, no one expects the game to be competitive. The reason for those games simply comes down to money. Does anybody really want to see an SEC team wallop a Sun Belt team?
Well, even if anyone had wanted to see that this weekend, no one got to. What we saw was LSU take a near million-dollar “L” in a game they were favored to win by three touchdowns (-20.5).
LSU literally ended up paying Troy $985,000 just so the Trojans could come to Baton Rouge and beat the Tigers, ending a 49-game home winning streak that the Tigers had against non-conference opponents.
Biggest Paycheck Losses This Year:
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) October 1, 2017
LSU paid Troy $985K
Syracuse paid MTSU $950K
Rutgers paid E. Michigan $860K
Nebraska paid NIU $820K
The Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders beat the Syracuse Orange at Syracuse by a score of 30-23 and the Eastern Michigan Eagles beat the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Rutgers by a score of 16-13 in Week 2. Then, the Northern Illinois Huskies beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Nebraska by a score of 21-17 in Week 3.
LSU would have preferred that that trend ended with Northern Illinois’ win at Nebraska two weeks ago. However, that would not end up being the case, and LSU would not only fall victim to the “pay-to-lose” list, but they would shoot to the top of it in arguably the most embarrassing loss than any college football team has suffered so far this season.
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With LSU’s playoff hopes out the window, can the Tigers bounce back from this near-$1 million loss? They’ll be back in actual next Saturday afternoon at 3:30 PM ET in a road game against the #21 Florida Gators (3-1).