Tufts students will have the opportunity to win a year of free tuition, room and board during this upcoming Homecoming weekend. The contest will take place during half-time of the Homecoming football game tomorrow.
This year's contest is called "Pass, Punt, Kick." Starting from a position on the field, contestants must throw the football, then punt it from where it lands, and then finally kick a field goal. (For women, the starting point is behind the ten-yard line; men must stand behind the back goal line in the center of the end zone.)
If the ball makes it through the posts, a full year of college bills is wiped out.
The Tufts University Spirit Coalition (TUSC) plans to use the contest to enliven a traditionally lackluster showing at University sports events.
TUSC tried a similar but harder contest last year, where contestants had to throw a regulation-sized football through a hole, 25 yards away. Nobody won.
The new revamped contest will be "a little better and more fun," according to TUSC co-chair Sarita Parekh.
The business SCA Promotions will act as an insurance company to support the game. TUSC pays a fee to the company based on the odds of a win. If someone wins, the company will pay for the prize, namely the year of free tuition.
Although Assistant Director of Student Activities Ed Cabellon would not cite the precise odds of a win, he predicts that they are relatively low, given that TUSC paid "no more" than $3,000 for the game.
Restrictions also exist on who can participate: Any "current or former professional or semi-professional football or baseball players or coaches" are prohibited from playing. Also excluded are any students who played football or baseball in high school or college.
Participants are required to sign waivers confirming that they did not participate in these [activities].
Due to time constraints, only two people will have a chance to win the prize. Raffle tickets will be handed out to students who are lined up along a parade route that begins behind Miller Hall, proceeds down Packard Avenue, turns onto Professors Row, and continues toward the football field.
Signs along the way will notify students about where to stand and wait to receive tickets. When the game begins, two numbers will be randomly drawn to determine who gets to play.
The winners will be announced over the PA system, and several volunteers will walk through the stadium with banners stating which numbers were called.
Initially TUSC planned to have three contestants, but the number was reduced to two due to time constraints during halftime, which will also include the announcement of Homecoming King and Queen and a speech by President Bacow.
"I think it's a great use of student activities money," sophomore and TCU senator Zach Landau said. "It reaches everyone, and it should draw more people to the game, if only because they want to see if someone wins."
Cabellon recommended the contest to attract a larger crowd to the parade and generate more hype around Homecoming weekend.
Students were impressed with the scope of the raffle. "That seems like an awful lot of money to just raffle away," sophomore Aaron Schutzengel said. Senior Lizzie Goergen said she would certainly get a ticket and give the contest a try if she were a freshman and had any tuition left to pay.
Whether the contest will really bring more viewers to the game is still in doubt. "It just seems like a gimmick to get people to come," Schutzengel said.
According to Parekh, students will have other opportunities to win exciting prizes over the course of the weekend if not chosen for the free tuition contest.
At the pep rally last night in the Mayer Campus Center, iPods were raffled off and the senate distributed homecoming T-shirts.
