Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

About two months ago, we announced our biggest and boldest project ever. Extra Points is sponsoring a bowl game. Yes, a real one.

If you missed this before, the Extra Points Bowl will be played on Nov 23, 2024, at the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. It will feature teams from the Ohio Athletic Conference and the Presidents’ Athletic Conference that do not participate in the D-III Football Playoffs. Another bowl game featuring teams from the Heartland and NCAC will kick off earlier that day.

In addition to writing four newsletters a week, launching and updating the Extra Points Library, planning a series of editorial and speaking trips in October, trying to sell ads and bulk subscription packages for this newsletter and everything else that goes into keeping the lights on around here…I’ve also been making calls and working on making the Extra Points Bowl the best possible experience possible for participating schools, athletes and fans.

Part of why we decided to sponsor this game was so that we could take you, the Extra Points reader, along for the ride. So in that spirit, here are a few updates about the game, what we’re working on, and what we’ve learned so far:

Who is going to play in this game, and how can I buy tickets?

Well, we don’t exactly know who is going to be in the game yet, because the season isn’t over. The great Logan Hansen has been crunching win and postseason probabilities across DIII this season, and as of this week, it appears that John Carroll, Marietta or Ohio Northern are our most likely candidates to represent the OAC (Mount Union is a massive favorite to make the Playoffs). From the PAC, Carnegie Mellon is the favorite to make the Playoff, with Grove City, Washington & Jefferson and Case Western Reserve also in the mix.

Of course, the season isn’t over yet, so naturally, fans of everybody from Capital to Geneva should buy tickets, in my humble opinion.

The good news is…you can buy tickets now. Early Bird tickets to both Opendorse Bowl Series games (ours and the NCAC/Heartland game) are on sale for just $15 bucks (or $35 bucks if you want to splurge and grab box seats). One ticket is good for both games. The tickets will increase in price to $20/$40 on Nov 1.

Once we get closer to the game, Extra Points will also be giving away some tickets to the games. Stay tuned for more details in November!

Also, if this matters, I have zero percent of a say in ticket pricing, nor does Extra Points financially benefit in any way from ticket sales to this event. We are not producing the game, we are just the enthusiastic game sponsors.

What are some game updates that we can absolutely, stone-cold confirm?

Not as many as I’d like, if I’m being totally honest, but I do have some!

For one, our understanding is that there will be a fan tailgate event/space that will be accessible before the games. We believe that alumni groups from the participating schools will be there, as will food vendors affiliated with the Hall of Fame Village, and a few sponsors that we’ve secured. Also, I’ll be there! And so will Dennis! And hopefully many of you!

The game will be broadcast on FloSports, so you can catch the action from your device of choice if you can’t make it out to Canton. We’ll have more specifics on pricing/discounts/streaming options once we get closer.

We also have a few commitments from brands to help out with gifts for the participating players, as well as at least two other companies who have agreed to also sponsor the event.

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Okay, what else are we working on?

So, a few things.

One, I am told that everybody is very close to being able to announce a title sponsor for the other bowl game in the Opendorse Bowl Series, which is great news for the NCAC, Heartland, and everybody else. We played a tiny role in that process, and we’ll share it as soon as the lawyers and PR people give us permission.

We are also hoping to secure even more sponsors to help make this event memorable, exciting, and financially responsible. The bowl game can offer booths at the tailgate event, signage in the stadium, mentions on the broadcast, and as much shameless promotion as I can possibly provide over my various audiences.

A few caveats apply. I’m told we can’t accept money from professional sports organizations (although they’re welcome to attend, tailgate, promote their stuff, etc), as this would be an NCAA violation? Sure, fine, whatever. We also cannot accept gambling sponsorships (NCAA and school reasons) or new athletic apparel sponsorships (exclusive rights have already been sold). Just about anything else should be okay.

We’d love more food and beverage partners, college sports B2B partners, NE OH/Western PA professional services, or anybody that can provide in-kind donations that college athletes would be interested in. These sponsorships are VERY AFFORDABLE. Please email Matt@ExtraPointsMB.com, and I’ll put you in touch with the right people. I’ll even throw in some EP ad space as a bonus for those who can help with the game.

We are also working on securing a much larger co-sponsorship with a company many of our readers love, but that isn’t finalized yet.

We’re also working through the process to potentially secure a military flyover for the games (no, seriously, I called the Air Force and filled out the paperwork and everything), but we are not far along enough for me to promise anybody any fighter jets. Turns out this is a complcated process! You have to secure FAA permission, make sure the event can have military recruiters, figure out if there’s room for the pilots to do a rehersal…the whole thing. We also have a backup airplane plan in the event that we are not able to secure the Air Force. Planes! Very much part of the plan right now!

We are also very close to sharing details for a trophy design contest, so keep your eyes open for that.

Finally, Skyline said they wouldn’t donate enough chili for us to dump on the winning coach. Sad! But we haven’t given up on other iconic Ohio or PA brands.

Why are other sponsorships so important for this game?

A D-III bowl game doesn’t operate on the same business model as FBS bowl game. ESPN isn’t cutting some massive check for the broadcast rights. Nobody is gambling on this game…or at least, I hope not. If you’re considering gambling on the Extra Points Bowl, please call the hotline.

We, as in Extra Points, do not get any revenue from selling secondary sponsorships, selling tickets, or anything else. We get money if we can sell subscriptions to the newsletter or Library, or if we sell ads in either of those places. We didn’t sponsor the Extra Points Bowl expecting to turn a profit, and nobody involved in the operation of the EP Bowl is looking at this event as a center. I’d love to sell 25,000 tickets and for everybody to make bags of money, but I’m a realist.

This game exists because folks like Opendorse, FloSports, Visit Canton and the leadership of these four conferences believes in providing a meaningful experience for D-III athletes and fans. We want this to be a celebration of athletes and institutions that don’t get celebrated enough.

But that means that everybody involved has to be financially disciplined. We want to make sure that these postseason events are not a cost burden on schools or athletic departments, so we need to make sure there’s enough money out there to pay for stuff like band travel, meals for football players, decent hotels, quality officials, etc.

I’m not going to name names, but my understanding is that another entity that was previously thought to be sponsoring the halftime events for both games backed out at the last moment, leaving an unexpected budget hole. The Ohio Athletic Conference is awesome, but they don’t have a small army of outbound sales reps who can dial for sponsorship dollars.

Anybody who can kick in a few hundred bucks, donate some ice cream, give away pizza coupons, etc. goes a long way towards making these events possible in the future. I’ll keep making calls, but if you’re in Ohio or PA and happen to know some small business owners, boy we’d sure love to talk to them.

Tl;DR, how can we help?

A few things I’d love from all Extra Points readers and pals:

And if you like the newsletter, you’ll love the Library!

For my industry friends (ADs, consultants, lawyers, newsrooms, sports management departments), the Extra Points Library is for you. We’ve been hard at work with updates, and we’ve added over 100 more coach contracts, vendor contracts, FRS reports and more since launch. Get the data you need to do better research, make better decisions and save money by subscribing today.

Thanks for reading everybody. I’ll see you in Canton!