Utah's athletic department is paying Idaho State more than half a million dollars to provide what's expected to be minimal resistance Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
That's market value for a Big Sky Conference football team's visit to a Pac-12 school. Such money was unwisely spent the five times in this decade when the likes of Portland State and Eastern Washington upset their Power Five opponents.
PSU in 2015 and EWU in ’16 each beat a Washington State team that went on to have an outstanding season. Those historical asterisks aside, the No. 11 Utes figure to score about one point for every $10,000 they’re giving ISU.