Let’s see, what do I know about the University of Louisiana-Lafayette? The Internet tells me it is a school with just over 17,000 students, their official colors are vermilion and white and, of course, its nickname is the Ragin’ Cajuns (with apostrophe and all). How exciting.

Outside of that, I don’t know much about ULL and you probably don’t know much either except for that the Illini will play them at Memorial Stadium 2.0 on Saturday.

The angry James Carville’s are the third of four non-conference teams Illinois will play this season (unless I missed a very important meeting about ULL being added to the Big Ten) and its last game before entering the bulk conference play.

For those of you new to college football, or unaware of how the hierarchy works, you might be wondering to yourself why Illinois is playing cupcakes like the Ragin’ Cajuns instead of a team like, let’s say, Notre Dame. Both schools have a natural regional rivalry and both compete heavily for the same Chicago recruits. Sounds like a sensible fit, right?

“It’s fun playing a non-conference team,” sophomore linebacker Martez Wilson said. “It feels good to get a different taste of speed and a different type of offenses you got to scheme against.”

Sure, non-conference games can be fun. It was fun to watch Illinois play Missouri in what felt like a post-season atmosphere, and it was fun to watch the Illini rail Eastern Illinois, but “fun” is not the factor behind the construction of a non-conference schedule. Bowl eligibility and money are.

Illinois’ four-game non-conference schedule for 2008 is comprised of Missouri, Eastern Illinois, ULL and Western Michigan (Nov. 8 in Detroit … figure that one out) and each one fulfills one of the two principles about non-conference games mentioned above.

For the Missouri game, it was about the money. Both teams made $1 million just for playing and then split the remaining revenues later. The other games are about bowl qualifying. The University buys, I mean schedules, these opponents by offering them a nice cash prize to play Illinois. Ideally, a superior Illini program will be able to defeat the smaller programs so the school’s money is well spent bolstering the team’s record for a bowl game appearance.

Illinois isn’t the only team that applies this “buying opponents” strategy. In fact, it’s common practice across the college football landscape. An often-cited example of cupcake scheduling is Indiana University. Since 1985, the Hoosiers football program has gone 48-23 (67.6 wining percentage) against non-conference teams while putting together a 60-123 (32.8 winning percentage) against the Big Ten. So in the last 23 years, Indiana has literally bought a huge percentage of their wins.

One of the arguments for scheduling less-skilled opponents is that college football doesn’t have a preseason like the NFL.

“It’s not necessarily the preseason because they are very, very important but we want to become a sharp team and get ready for the Big Ten run,” head coach Ron Zook said, not wanting to downplay the importance of Saturday’s game or last week’s win.

But let’s call a spade a spade here. Games against small schools like Eastern Illinois and struggling teams like the Ragin’ Cajuns are, in essence, a warm-up for conference play. They are a way to expose weaknesses and discover strengths. They are a means of creating team identity and building confidence in the players. Most of all though, they are for harvesting wins.

“We played our tough game against sixth in the nation (Missouri),” senior defensive lineman Will Davis said about Illinois’ remaining non-conference schedule. “Right now, we’re fine tuning a lot of things.”

Don’t get me wrong. I understand the value behind weak non-conference schedules because their importance is naturally built into the college football system. Bowl eligibility requires teams must win at least six games to qualify for postseason play. Why not get three or four easy wins from non-conference opponents? It just makes sense and this is the plan of attack for most Division I football teams.

On the other hand, some college football purists would love to see teams use the non-conference schedule to allow the big boys to knock each other around. They argue if a program can’t compete against teams in similar positions as themselves, then they probably shouldn’t be considered for a bowl game in the first place.

Personally, I fall somewhere in between the two sides of the argument. Would I like to see Illinois play teams like Notre Dame, Tennessee, Kansas and other regional non-conference teams? Yes I would, but the current bowl system is not favorable to these match-ups and the schools recognize this. It just comes down to dollars and cents.

The big problem with this system is that it keeps college football in a state of feudalism. The rich get richer off of the plights of the poor. Bad programs sell themselves to big schools and the vicious cycle continues.

So while fans and administrators argue from both sides of the fence, perhaps the best perspective on non-conference scheduling rests with the players.

“I’d like to play USC again.” Davis said grinning ear to ear. “Whoever they call the best, that’s who we want to play.”

The best wanting to play the best. Isn’t that what sports is supposed to be all about?

Kyle Betts is a graduate student. He can be reached at [email protected].