Northwestern shelled out $1.2 million to Nevada to play a game. Because it can.
Northwestern just paid out $1.2 million to Nevada to get the Wolf Pack to come to Evanston to play a game in 2017.
That is a really large sum of money.
That's a larger sum than Michigan paid Miami (OH) a couple of years ago ($1.1 million). It's a larger sum than what Wisconsin paid to the same Miami team in 2015 ($1 million), or Nebraska paid FAU ($1 million), or Iowa paid Ball State ($900,000). It's a helluva lot more than the $500,000 Northwestern paid Northern Illinois to play in the 2014 season.