Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - When Cuba Gooding, Jr's character in the film Jerry Maguire proudly proclaimed "Show me the money!", it became the battle cry for the widely underappreciated, and grossly underpaid among us.

In an effort to line their coffers, many small colleges and universities are more than willing to sacrifice their dignity when scheduling football games against teams that are clearly bigger, stronger, faster and more talented, the results of which are often laughable and raise the question as to whether or not a substantial pay day is in the best interest of the players involved, and the program in general.

With few exceptions, Appalachian State's win at No. 5 Michigan in 2007 and James Madison's upset of No. 13 Virginia Tech in Blacksburg in 2010 being the benchmarks, most times that a Football Championship Subdivision team takes on its bigger, meaner brother at the Football Bowl Subdivision, the outcome is decidedly lopsided, and the lasting effect on the losers can go well beyond the field of play.

Case in point ... Savannah State opens the season with two such contests, the first being last week at No. 19 Oklahoma State where as expected, the Tigers lost. It's not the fact that they came up short against an obviously superior opponent that rankles the purists out there, but that they weren't even remotely competitive in suffering a humiliating 84-0 setback.

Adding insult to injury, the beleaguered squad will play at No. 6 Florida State this weekend where the final score could be even worse.

There are some that argue that not only does Savannah State have no business playing a team from the FBS, which it did for the first time last week, but that the Tigers shouldn't even be playing in the FCS where they've lost far more games than they've won since making the transition from Division II in 2000.

With few standout players in its history, Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe (1986-89) being the most notable, Savannah State hasn't had much success on the gridiron. In fact, the Tigers have reached the postseason only once (1992 D-II playoffs), and they claimed their last conference crown way back in 1956.

Embarrassed to say the least, Savannah State head coach Steve Davenport wonders whether the $385,000 his school received for the Oklahoma State debacle was worth it. While fully understanding that these large payouts help fund the athletic department as a whole, he will have to do some serious work counseling his players as they look ahead to more reasonable competition once Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference play gets underway in a couple of weeks.

While there were few highlights to speak of, Davenport praised his players after the massacre in Stillwater.

"There were some proud moments and sometimes you have to take baby steps. We will watch the film, but there were some things we saw that we were proud of. Our kids fought. We wanted to play until there were three zeroes on the clock. I think for the most part we did that."

He also took a shot, albeit a veiled one, at the parties responsible for shaping the team's schedule.

"Our number one goal was not to win either of these games. Our goal is to win the conference championship. We have got another preseason game in Tallahassee next week then our season gets underway. That is where we are."

That's actually a pretty sad statement considering every game counts in college football. To know prior to even showing up that you're going to be blown out of the water is demoralizing enough, but to have your coach acknowledge as much publicly makes it even worse.

Would anyone blame even one Savannah State player for not showing up for these games? Of course that's not going to happen as each and every guy on the roster likely has enough pride in himself and his school to put forth maximum effort.

In a world where we're constantly reminded that "only the strong survive", the Tigers' current plight certainly hammers home that point.

The Sports Network