The monkey dances as the scores run upward.

The fields hosting some of the best teams in college football were a slaughterhouse last weekend. See for yourself:

No. 4 Ohio State 76, Florida A & M 0.

No. 7 Louisville 72, Florida International 0.

No. 8 Florida State 54, Bethune-Cookman, 6, By golly at least the small, historically black Wildcats scored a TD.

No. 20 Baylor 70, Louisiana-Monroe 7.

Stephen F. Austin 52, Montana State 38. This sounds more like Texas 6-man football but my alma mater the Lumberjacks of SFA were pretty even unlike some of these match-ups.

Even here in Beaumont, Texas, the rebuilt-from-the-grave Lamar Cardinals, a FCS, or what was once Division 1-A, throttled the smaller Bacone Warriors of Muskogee, Okla., 53-0. I saw the Bacone bus at the MCM Elegante Hotel while coming home from work late. I said: “Bacone?”

Some football “purists,” if such a word exists came to work Monday at their radio or TV studios, eyes raised, ready to engage in “for” or “against.” What do smaller schools get in exchange for playing much larger and ranked BCS schools? Oh, and getting beaten like a rented mule? Money. Yeah buddy, beat me until I turn green like the GEICO Money Man. I think GEICO, who is owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire-Hathaway, has some of the most clever advertising characters ever. Love the Gecko and Ralph the Pig, along with the Money Man. He must be Buffet in a younger day.

Here is my alma mater playing Texas Tech on Sept. 7. Tech 61 SFA 13. Attendance, more than 54, 000. On RedRaiderSports.com, old buddy, former co-worker and fellow SFA journalism alum Kevin Gore hit the nail on the head:

“Texas Tech is the toughest opponent on SFA’s schedule, how do you think they’re gearing up mentally for their trip to Lubbock?
KG: “Well, you know, it’s a money game for Stephen F. They’re getting $387,500. They try to play a money game every year.”

To paraphrase an old chem professor, you don’t get 20,000 students to show up for a chemistry lecture.

I have been searching for what SFA brought home in cash in the beating they took a year or two ago playing the Texas A & M Aggies at Kyle Field, but can’t find the amount.

Other reasons exist for these mismatched contests but money reigns supreme, at least for the “beat-ee.”

The question raised is whether these games contain “sportsmanship.” WTF? I remember in high school, a football player and a pretty girl would be the “Sportsmanship Couple.” This couple would take a bouquet to another such couple from the other team. I never got to be a sportsmanship, uh half-a-couple. I was just the equipment manager. And I remember a game in high school in which I watched from the sidelines as our team racked up 60 to 0, the best I can remember. We put a 300-pounder lineman in at halfback and he bulled his way through a couple of yards a la Refrigerator Perry style. That was before The Fridge though.

This score-up-running scene I described was a district football game. It was a school we played year in and out, except every so often and when the University of Texas body that runs interscholastic events — my best friend and I were 2-for-2 in the Nederland Foresnic Tournament. We raced to see who could first dig up dead bodies and find crucial evidence. Oh bullshit, it was a debate tournament!

Where this all comes out is sometimes the score gets run up. It seems a bit unseemly when this is all for money. But you have to make that dancing monkey dance. That is not a racist statement. You ever see a dancing monkey?