Maryland offers free tuition if you're willing to watch its football team

Driving the news: Students who stay until the fourth quarter at Saturday's matchup against Illinois will have a chance to win free tuition for the spring semester.

• The prize is worth the equivalent of in-state tuition, roughly $8,000 for a semester.
• Not a student but still interested, for some reason, in attending the noon kickoff? Maryland is also offering a buy-one-get-two-free ticket deal.

State of play: It'll be Maryland's first game since the school agreed to pay Michael Locksley nearly $10 million to not coach amid a disastrous season.

• Interim coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim will lead the Terps for their final five games.

The big picture: Maryland has long struggled to fill its football stadium, a product of decades without a truly competitive team. Fan interest has sagged further this fall following several blowout losses.