For the NAU football team, the Jacks alternate years in playing in-state opponents ASU and UA. But when the Jacks head down to Tucson or Tempe every year, they collect something more than playing experience, something very large: a check from the larger university to the tune of $360,000.

It’s just another part of today’s sports world, where the college football season starts off with a common theme — a national powerhouse scheduling a smaller athletics program. But what does that smaller school get out of it? The motivation for these schools is more than a moral victory or a chance at 15 minutes of fame — it’s a signature on a dotted line.
The idea behind this process is the larger school will write the smaller school a check to come to its stadium, and the bigger school will prepare for what many analysts call a “tune-up game.”

NAU also received $410,000 from the University of Mississippi, who the Jacks played on Nov. 14 in Oxford, Miss., losing 38-14.

But the underlying question to be asked is: How will this money be used?

“Through athletics, we set a budget at about $10.8 million each year,” said Jeff Pritsker, the assistant athletic director for business. “Due to the state’s budget issues, we lost about $470,000 this year, so some of this payout money will go toward filling that hole.”

However, according to Athletic Director Jim Fallis, even though football conferences can become imbalanced, this system is strictly for out-of-conference play.

“There are no exchanges of resources within the conference,” Fallis said. “We pay Division II schools, but not other FCS schools or FBS schools.”

Fallis said schools may agree to work out a “home-and-home” agreement, in which two institutions schedule each other and play at each site in alternating years, therefore negating any need for payouts to be made.

As is, the checks coming from Arizona and Ole Miss are not made in multiple payments.
“[The money] comes in one large bulk,” Pritsker said.

Despite the large sums collected by the football team, this payout money does not go completely to NAU Athletics; eight percent of the revenues made from each specific check go back to the university.

Additionally, even with the football program agreeing to play for the amusement of the larger school and receive the paycheck, the team may not be able to utilize the funds received by NAU.

“They’ll use a little bit of it case-by-case, but most of it will cover the budget,” Pritsker said.

An example of a case-by-case scenario would be if the football team wanted one of its trips compensated by NAU and the volleyball team also wanting one of its trips paid for with the same funds. Because the football team played the tune-up games and likely suffered a defeat, it is generally going to receive the compensation to pay for the trip.
Either way a person looks at it, these sums of money are a boost for NAU because of its small athletics budget when compared to the athletics budgets of UA or ASU.

Even with a likely defeat looming when the Lumberjacks participate in these contests, there is always something else to walk away with.