It happens, if not every year, then often enough every team should be on its guard.
Someone decides they won’t be hosting some directional Christian college (or, an actual Division I opponent somewhat locally for charity, which would be the smarter move) and puts an actual test for their team into exhibition season, only to emerge battered, beaten and absolutely embarrassed by a loss to a quality Division II, D3 or NAIA program. Sometimes it’s a middling program already sinking like it’s weighed down with cinder blocks straight to the bottom of turd lake, doing its best against a team that’s better coached and diligently disciplined in a tight game; that’s sad, if unsurprising and a harbinger of things to come.
Also, sometimes Point Loma Nazarene hits Pepperdine in the teeth with a brick and wins by 27. That is considerably funnier for everyone involved (except, probably, Pepperdine).
The gang over at hoopshd.com has done us all a tremendous service and compiled as many exhibitions as they could get their hands on into one easy-to-parse database; go nuts. I’m more interested in which little school that could might elect to knuck up on a school paying them to be there and take home the check and the W too. Come with me and dive into which schools might have just cut five-figure checks (or more!) to embarrass themselves and their fanbase before the games even start to matter.