In the world of college football “revenue games,” the San Jose State Spartans are prolific.

They’ve been playing much better competition for money, a practice both criticized and applauded in collegiate circles, since the 1950s. In the process, they’ve made millions of dollars to support the school’s athletic program.

In many ways, the Spartans are a case study in the pay-for-play arena of big-time college football. The school fields a competitive team, but it’s almost always overmatched against the powerhouse programs scheduled every year. But the athletic department coffers benefit.

Is San Jose State just playing the role of the perennial piñata, sacrificing its young players for financial gain? Or has the school mastered the system, leveraging scheduling problems for profit?

If you ask people at San Jose State, they’ll tell you it all works for the Spartans.

Consider the case of former San Jose State receiver Chandler Jones, who was thrown into a high-pressure situation in the very first game of his college career.

The Spartans had scheduled the nation’s top-ranked team, Alabama, to start the 2010 season.

When Jones first got into the huddle, he couldn’t hear a word the quarterback was saying because the crowd of 101,821 at Bryant-Denny Stadium was so loud.

“We used hand signals and went up-tempo, with no huddle,” he said.

He recalls the game fondly, despite taking a 48-3 beating.

“You get a chance to put your best foot forward against those teams, and you might get noticed off of it,” said Jones, the Spartans’ all-time leader in receptions (248) and touchdown catches (29) who had brief stints with three NFL teams and played in Canada. “There’s no down side. You get to play football. It’s another opportunity to get better and put up a win.”

That day in Alabama, San Jose State was paid $900,000.

That game was part of a very profitable run for the Spartans, who have played as many revenue games as any school in the country. The result is almost always a beatdown on the field. Since 2010, the Spartans are 0-13 in revenue games and have been outscored 516-155.

But the practice also has brought millions into the university’s athletic program. Over the course of those 13 games, the Spartans have pocketed $9.4 million. They’ll make another $1 million Saturday at Oregon. The athletic department says it couldn’t function at its current level without the games.

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“Student fees are maxed out,” San Jose State athletic director Marie Tuite said. “I don’t think the school would choose not to play in a ‘money game’ if the consequence was to drop sports. Dropping sports is a really tough decision. Whenever I read about it (at another school), I feel a sense of angst for the president, the athletic director, the coaches and the athletes who are involved.”

Last season the Spartans were paid $1 million to fly to Austin, where they were summarily pounded 56-0 by Texas.

“Nobody wants to do that,” Tuite said. “You want to be competitive in the game. Most times, you hope to be competitive through halftime, and then in the second half, you never know what’s going to happen. Where you get challenged is in the depth factor. We don’t have the same depth as Texas has.”

Sometimes, San Jose State is on the paying end. It gave UC Davis $400,000 to pay a Week 1 visit this year; the Aggies not only got the money but beat the Spartans 44-38.

A lucrative future

Looking ahead, San Jose State will play at Arkansas (2019), Penn State (2020) and Georgia (2021). The going rate for those games is at least $1.5 million, and the Georgia game will bring SJSU a school-record $1.8 million.

The cost of flying a team, coaches, staff, school officials and equipment across the country and paying for hotels and meals can eat up as much as $100,000 from the payout. But even after taking that into consideration, there’s plenty left over.

San Jose State has a $26.5 million annual athletics budget, with which it fields 22 varsity teams, 13 of them for women. A school needs to have 16 overall teams to stay in Division I of the NCAA. Nearly 6 percent of this year’s budget — $1.525 million — will come from the school’s two big revenue games (Oregon $1 million; Washington State $525,000).

“Eight or nine years ago, you couldn’t get ‘money games’ for $1.6 or $1.8 million,” Tuite said. “Because the revenues have increased so much at the Power-5 (major conference) level, it’s created this opportunity where a school like San Jose State can get $1.8 from Georgia in 2021.”

The series Every year, you see mismatches on college schedules. Football powerhouses playing little-known schools. Texas vs. San Jose State. Cal vs. Presbyterian. Stanford vs. UC Davis. Why does college football feature these lopsided games, which the bigger schools often win by landslide scores? The Chronicle investigates the questionable tradition of “revenue games.” To read the entire series, go to bit.ly/RevGames. Part 1: Why college football plays these annual blowouts Part 2: Why colleges should be ashamed of these games Part 3: What’s in it for the little guy?

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Second-year head coach Brent Brennan knows his team faces long odds in revenue games, but he accepts them as part of the job. He discounts the suggestion that they lead to more injuries than other games and says there are on-field benefits for his team.

“I think you get beat up playing football,” he said. “We got beat up just as much playing Cal Poly last year as we did playing Texas or Utah. Football’s a physical game. Sometimes there’s a certain amount of good fortune in staying healthy.

“It’s an advantage in that we get tested by a really good team early. It gives us a chance to see where we’re at early in the season. Can we make a run into the conference discussion based on how we compare against some of these revenue teams?”

A showcase for players

The players say they enjoy getting a chance to play against teams studded with NFL prospects.

Tight end Josh Oliver, a pro prospect, said that for players like him, “It’s kind of a statement game. You weren’t recruited by those Power-5 teams. It’s a chance to show yourself to the other teams.”

Senior defensive lineman Bryson Bridges said that when the Spartans played at Texas last year, “it was an awesome experience. Going into a stadium with 90,000-100,000 people, it gives you a different rush.”

Tuite also sees beyond-the-payday upsides.

“Our student-athletes really love playing the Auburns, the Alabamas, the Texases because of the big stage,” she said. “Our fans like to go to those arenas. It creates an excitement around your football program.”

San Jose State’s greatest success playing a big-conference opponent has come against Stanford, which it has beaten four times in 14 meetings in the past two decades, mostly when the Cardinal were struggling. The Spartans haven’t beaten a Power-5 team on the road since topping Stanford in 2000.

Tuite said ideally she would like to book a weaker team from the best conferences, take a big check and hope to strike lightning on the field.

That strategy, unfortunately, involves taking guesses about the future. Tuite pointed out that in 2012, when San Jose State scheduled a 2014 game at Auburn, the Tigers were winless in the SEC. When the game arrived, Auburn was No. 5 in the country and steamrolled the Spartans 59-13.

“Thanks for scheduling this one,” then-head coach Ron Caragher wryly told Tuite afterward.

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald