Being offered hundreds of thousands of dollars for doing pretty much anything is hard to turn down. Just watch Fear Factor. What goes in reality TV also applies to college football today, as major football programs are lining up “cupcakes” early in the season to run up scores and start of its seasons with victories.

Eastern became Illinois’ cupcake last weekend as the scoreboard displayed 42-17 as time expired. The Panthers did not play the Illini simply because they wanted to see how they would compete against a bigger school and better competition. Eastern made the 45-minute drive north for cold, hard cash.

While the exact amount Eastern received from the Illini has not been released, you only need to look at what some other teams were paid last weekend to figure it out.

Illinois State was paid $300,000 by Kansas State to nearly upset them in a 24-23 loss and Iowa forked over $650,000 to pound Montana 41-7.

That payday will allow for Montana to pay off a school debt five years early and the $450,000 they made playing Oregon last year funded the salary and equipment of a strength and conditioning coach for the team.

Notoriously, Big Ten schools with 100,000-plus seat stadiums were only ones who could make guarantees the size of Iowa’s because of the amount of tickets that could be sold.

That is changing because the NCAA has made beating a I-AA team even more valuable.

A new ruling now allows for I-A teams to count a victory against a I-AA team towards its bowl eligibility.

Teams need six wins in a season to be eligible to go to a bowl and while you probably have not heard of the bowls that bring in six-win teams, there is extra money to be made.

With the new ruling, the 26 teams that beat I-AA opponents last weekend (three teams, Duke, New Mexico and Colorado actually lost) only need five more wins out of 11 more games to be bowl eligible and cash in on adding a 13th game.

This is a joke. I have no problem with I-AA schools getting a slice of the college football cash cow to get beat up on because it seems to help out all involved but under no circumstances should a win against a I-AA team be allowed to count.

College football should simply introduce a preseason that is one game in length. College football already approved a 12th game for this season and most of those schools are using it to schedule teams they can use as a warm-up. It simply cheapens bowl games by allowing a team with only five real wins to play in the postseason.

It makes sense that the NCAA would make a ruling like this because it allows for more bowl eligible teams and thus more bowls get created and, BAM, more money for everyone. (Except the college athletes that are being exploited for millions, but that is for another column).