MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Some would say it is akin to standing in front of a Mack Truck to collect the insurance money. Is it worth it?

A mismatch -- on the surface, at least -- happens all over the college football landscape in the first few weeks of the season. With Big East Conference member and No. 25-ranked West Virginia taking on Division I-AA Coastal Carolina (5-6 last year), the game Saturday might turn a bit lopsided in the Mountaineers' favor.

The truth is, no matter what happens, even if a Mack Truck in the form of the Mountaineers plows through the Chanticleers, Coastal Carolina goes home with a $350,000 payout.

The slate Saturday is dotted with games like this from one end of the country to the other such as No. 19 Penn State playing host to Youngstown State, No. 9 Iowa welcoming Eastern Illinois, and Sacramento State meeting Stanford.

The logic: BCS conference schools can make millions of dollars with a home game -- and most need at least three non-conference home dates to really make some money -- so they can afford to pay a decent chunk of money to a lower-division school or a smaller-conference Division I foe. After paying the opponent to come to town, there is a great windfall from ticket sales, parking, concessions and all the other money fans spend on game day.

Consider this much: When West Virginia hosts UNLV Oct. 9, the Mountaineers will pay the Rebels $650,000 to come to Morgantown. What do these smaller schools, which often go home with a one-sided loss but with a spike in their bank account, do with the funds?

"It varies, there are certain elements of operations that it goes to," said Liberty coach Dan Rocco, whose Division I-AA program plays Division I Ball State this season and has, in the past, played Connecticut, Wake Forest and West Virginia. "There are things like team travel budgets, banquets, a third uniform, facilities enhancements that these funds go toward. There is a great value in games such as these for a school like us, because we can show players already here, and players considering Liberty, that we are showing an annual upgrade."

As for Coastal Carolina, there is already a dispersal plan for what will happen with the $350,000. Off the top, about $50,000 will be spent on getting the Chanticleers to and from Morgantown -- they will charter a flight from South Carolina to Clarksburg, W.Va.

"The remaining $300,000 will go into a general operating budget," said Coastal Carolina athletic director Hunter Yurachek. "But, there is more to it than just the money."

And there is the exposure.

Coastal Carolina has played three Division I-A programs in the past two seasons and been slammed, aggregately, by Penn State, Kent State and Clemson, 133-33. Still, Yurachek knows the peripheral benefit for the university near Myrtle Beach.

"If we don't play these teams, if we play someone else, our game highlights won't be on ESPN," he said. "More than 50 percent of our students come from above the Mason-Dixon line, and it is a win for us in terms of exposure. Also, though, for the football team, there is the experience and the ability to give us a measuring stick against some of the best."

There is, perhaps, no one who knows more about payout games than Jay Mills, the coach at Division I-AA Charleston Southern University.

Mills' team began the season last year at No. 1 Florida -- they came home with a 62-3 loss, but with a reported $450,000 payday for their trouble. Also last season, Charleston Southern absorbed a 59-0 loss at South Florida in a game in which they received a hefty payout.

This year, Mills' team will be heavy road underdogs -- but fatten their wallets -- when they travel to Division I opponents Hawaii and Kentucky.

"It has multiple benefits for us," Mills explained. "These funds are going toward what we hope will occur, and that's a new multisport facility here. Also, it is beneficial to recruiting in that you can tell a player, 'if you can't play at the best program in this country, we are going to give you a chance to play against them.' "

And even if that chance ends up in a lopsided defeat, there is a lot of money to take home.

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