Mercer is the Tide’s 2017 FCS opponent in the game slot that has become known as ‘paycheck weekends’ for FCS schools. Since 2005, many SEC schools have added FCS opponents to their schedules in late November in advance of big rivalry games the next weekend.
Despite many lop-sided pairings, the games are valuable to the less competitive schools by boosting their football revenues through sizable visiting team guarantees.
While the games are not usually competitive, there are exceptions. The most notable exception was the Appalachian State upset of Michigan in 2007. In 2013 Georgia Southern beat Florida.