Before Saturday’s game between Texas A&M and McNeese State, there will be a coin flip. 

It won’t be the only pregame exchange involving some money.

Sometime before, or after kickoff, Aggie officials will fork over a cool half-million dollars to the Cowboys. It likely won’t be a check and not likely hidden in a briefcase made up of small bills either.

But payment will be made.

The $500,000 is the going rate McNeese gets these days to go play FBS Power programs. That’s what they collected last year at Florida.

‘It is huge for our football and athletic programs,” said McNeese Athletic Director Heath Schroyer. “Schools our size really need that money to keep things going.”

McNeese is not the only Southland Conference team taking on an SEC opponent this weekend. Nicholls is headed to Baton Rouge to play LSU. McNeese has two games set against the Tigers in the future.

These are known as “money games” in the college football world. Big schools bring smaller programs in, write a big check, and generally go out and paste the patsies.

“I get how important these games are for us,” said McNeese head coach Gary Goff. “For us, it’s an opportunity to play a great program and experience a great atmosphere. Our kids love it. We welcome the challenge.”

As long as nobody gets hurt everyone goes home happy…usually.

But these games can be tricky. Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban talks about how much he doesn’t like them, always mentioning how he lost to Louisiana-Monroe one season. 

The most famous upset is when then FCS power Appalachian State beat No. 5 Michigan 34-32 to open the 2007 season. That stunned college football from coast to coast.

McNeese has had a history of playing well when taking on bigger schools. In 2001 the Cowboys led Texas A&M at halftime, ironically, 16-10 panicking the big crowd at Kyle Field. The Aggies rallied in the second half for a 38-24 win.

“McNeese put up a heck of a fight that day,” said the Aggie head coach R.C. Slocum who played his college football at McNeese. “At halftime, it was close, and I wasn’t so sure it was such a good idea. I thought maybe I had gone too far.”

The Cowboys came closest to pulling off the big upset in 2014 but fell at Nebraska 31-24 when the Cornhuskers scored the game-winning touchdown on a 58-yard screen pass with 20 seconds remaining.

The previous season McNeese had its biggest win against a game against an FBS level. The Cowboys beat South Florida 53-21 to open the 2013 season.

There has been a lot of talk of late of these types of games going away, of the big schools looking to play each other more and leaving the little guys to fend for themselves. 

“I hope they don’t do that,” said Schroyer. “These games are important for us financially. We would have to find another way to come up with the money.”

Southland Conference Commissioner Chris Grant agrees. He made his position clear while speaking with TexAgs Live this week ahead of Saturday’s games.

“I’d be kicking and screaming if (SEC Commissioner Greg) Sankey ever tried to take away these matchups like McNeese and Texas A&M this weekend,” Grant said. “He’s a loyal Southland alum, and I’ve learned a lot from him.”

What everybody knows is that these games, while tricky for the big schools, mean a lot more to the smaller ones. 

For them, it’s not just about wins, but also at times financial survival.