Why Play When You Know You'll Win?

This season the University of Texas at Austin’s football team is scheduled or has already played against such athletic powerhouses as the University of Louisiana-Monroe (59-20), the University of Texas-El Paso (64-7), and the University of Central Florida (on November 7).
Most other top-flight teams are also scheduled against Division I schools that they are likely to wallop. Why? Very simple — a team must win six games to qualify for a post-season game; and scheduling a few teams that are nearly certain to be beaten makes the post-season minimum requirement easily attainable.
We ease ourselves into qualifying for the post-season; athletic programs at the smaller schools make substantial sums of money playing against a top-level team; and their fans probably enjoy seeing the big-name team play against their men. How about UT fans? Seeing their team destroy another, while not desirable in every game, probably makes UT fans happy if it occurs a few times each season. This schedule may represent a Pareto improvement with every agent better off.
(Hat tip: M.F.)