These college football teams paid how much to face smaller schools? Cost of Week 4 buy games

The college football spending spree continues! Power conference teams shelled out a combined $13.9 million in Week 3 alone in buy games. Teams such as Memphis and UNLV took the pay and ended up scoring huge upset wins over Florida State and Kansas, respectively.

Power conference schools will be writing similar checks again this week. Here's a list of Saturday's Week 4 matchups with the biggest payouts for small schools.

Week 4 college football payouts

Will one of these CFB underdogs become the next UNLV or Memphis?

1. Marshall v. No. 3 Ohio State: $1.6 million

The Buckeyes like to drop serious cash for its buy games. This season alone it's spent $5.2 million on inferior opponents but handled them ease. No. 3 Ohio State scored a combined 108 points in its first two games and only gave up 6. If it handles business against Marshall on Saturday then the 3-0 start will have been well worth it. The only downside is it saw itself slide from No. 2 to No. 3 over the first three weeks due to such a soft schedule.

2. Georgia Southern v. No. 5 Ole Miss: $1.6 million

The Rebels are on a serious roll in 2024, especially against teams it's paid serious coin to play. Just this season it's shelled out $3.7 million for three buy games and so far it's two-for-two, putting up 128 points against Furman and Middle Tennessee. Georgia Southern gave Boise State some trouble in Week 1 so this game will be worth checking in on periodically.

3. Kent State v. No. 8 Penn State: $1.6 million

Props to Kent State for how big of a bag it has secured this season. Teams paid the Golden Flashes just over $4 million to play them over the first few weeks. Now, they got slaughtered in the first two games by a combined score of 126-24 but they can wipe their tears with hundred dollar bills. No. 8 Penn State will look to easily dispatch Kent State, especially after it had a Week 2 scare against Bowling Green.

4. Bowling Green v. No. 25 Texas A&M: $1.6 million

The No. 25 Aggies spent just $500,000 in Week 2 to pound McNeese State 52-10. Now, it's dropping a huge check on Bowling Green State looking to round out non-conference play. It will hope to avoid an upset scare like No. 8 Penn State saw in Week 2 against the Falcons, escaping 34-27. If it can't, well, then that's a very expensive way to go 2-2 to start the year and likely exit the Top 25 again.

5. Louisiana-Monroe v. No. 1 Texas: $1.5 million

This matchup will have a significant number of eyeballs on it for the obvious storylines featuring quarterbacks Arch Manning and General Booty. But No. 1 Texas will looking to avoid an upset worth $1.5 million without starter Quinn Ewers. If (when) it pulls off the victory, the Longhorns will have spent $4.9 million in 2024 alone on buy games. Money well spent if the program finds itself national champions in January.

6. Akron v. South Carolina: $1.5 million

After coming off a heartbreaking loss to LSU last week, South Carolina will be looking to take out its frustrations on its next opponents. Lucky for Akron, it will walk away from the likely bruising $1.5 million richer (and with a 1-3 record). The Zips were paid a combined $1.6 million to play Ohio State and Rutgers the first two weeks of the season, so all said and done, the program will be just fine with this hefty sum of cash at its feet.

7. Charlotte v. Indiana: $1.3 million

This game was scheduled way back in 2015 but what was supposed to be a home-and-home series across two years was trimmed to just Saturday's bout in 2019. Charlotte will still walk away with $1.3 million for the whole affair which still seems like they're making out like bandits. Indiana is 3-0 and doesn't look to be in too much danger of an upset bit here.

8. Miami (Ohio) v. No. 17 Notre Dame: $1.25 million

After making Purdue the clear revenge victim in a 66-7 drubbing, avenging its upset loss to Northern Illinois the week before, little old Miami (Ohio) is next on the slate. The Red Hawks will be just fine regardless of the score though, as the contract between the two teams guarantees it $1.25 million this year. Now if it were to follow up on NIU's exploits, that would just be the cherry on top.

9. James Madison v. North Carolina: $500,000

This game was originally scheduled for 2020 and had to be rescheduled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Dukes will get a humble $500,000 for their troubles but it seems almost like a ripoff now that they're an FBS program. When the game was agreed to in 2018, JMU was an FCS national title contender.

10. Youngstown State v. Pittsburgh: $450,000

If I were Youngstown State I would never have taken a measly $450,000 to travel to Pittsburgh and play a tough FBS program. The Panthers seem to have gotten a steal of a deal to play YSU and move to 4-0 on the season. Pittsburgh seems to have a history of short-selling these games too. In 2021 and 2022 respectively it paid New Hampshire and Rhode Island a similar amount to visit Acrisure Stadium.

11. Portland State v. Boise State: $450,000

This game was close to being called off about a week ago. However, it will still be played despite a whooping cough outbreak at Portland State which caused that program to cancel its Week 3 game against South Dakota State. It will be the second time in three weeks that Boise State faces a team from the state of Oregon.

12. Northern Iowa v. Hawaii: $165,000

I'm surprised Northern Iowa didn't make this trip for free. Although, the travel disaster that Delaware State went through in Week 0 might have been the cautionary tale. Probably not because this game was scheduled back in 2021. The 2-1 Panthers will visit the 1-2 Rainbow Warriors for a $165,000 fee in what could actually be an interesting matchup.