1. YSU athletic director Ron Strollo told me Valpo got between $70,000 and $80,000 to play Saturday's game, which is a decent paycheck but nowhere near what the Penguins get to play an FBS team. I think Valpo can benefit from playing a scholarship FCS team as long as it's not YSU.

2. The Penguins scheduled this game a few years ago when Valpo had just hired Dale Calrson and the hope was that the Crusaders would be more competitive by the time the series began. Plus, YSU already has a good relationship with Valpo, since the Crusaders are also in the Horizon League.

3. Valpo is not on the schedule next season and there are no plans to renew the series. Obviously, that's best for all parties involved. I'll say this, though: Valpo competed.

4. Albany presents a better challenge than Valparaiso. The Great Danes were a playoff team last year (albeit a partial-scholarship one) and it serves as a good warm-up to the big game against Northern Iowa in two weeks.

5. The Missouri Valley picked up two more wins over FBS teams this week as Illinois State handled Eastern Michigan 31-14 and North Dakota State beat Colorado State 22-7.

6. Meanwhile, some of the shine was taken from YSU's win over Pitt and UNI's close loss to Wisconsin. The Panthers got blown out by Cincinnati on Thursday night and the Badgers lost to Oklahoma State. Those are still good performances by MVFC teams but it's clear that both Wisconsin and Pitt are down this year.