Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.
I’ve alluded to this a few times, but today, I’m thrilled to finally confirm everything officially.
We are back for the third installment of the Extra Points Bowl. The game will be played, once again, at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio, on Nov. 21. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET.
The Extra Points Bowl is part of the Opendorse Bowl Series, a two-game postseason event involving Division III teams that did not qualify for the NCAA tournament. The teams will be selected from the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, Ohio Athletic Conference, North Coast Athletic Conference and Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. Since we’re trying to avoid regular-season rematches, the specific conference pairings will be announced at a later date.
The Westminster Titans of the PAC won the past two Extra Points Bowls, most recently dispatching the College of Mount St. Joseph, 40-21. Will they make it three championships in a row?!? I’m guessing probably not, as this is a bit of a rebuilding season for Westminster. But that just means we’ll have a completely new champion. Exciting!
This year, we’re adding a new wrinkle: The Faculty Lounge
One of the advantages of having your name on the dang bowl game is that you get a VIP luxury box suite. The past two years, we’ve invited some of our media pals to that suite, along with my family. The fact that I could take my daughters into a fancy room with unlimited soda pop made this one of the very few times that my kids have cared at all about my career.
This year, we’re extending the party beyond just immediate friends, family and children. Enter the Faculty Lounge. We’re inviting sports management professors, athletic department professionals, and anybody who works in or teaches college athletics to come by, enjoy the games and talk shop. On us.
If you’re in the industry and are able to come to the game, register here, and I’ll put you on the VIP list. That gives you a free ticket to both football games (there’s another D-III game at 1 p.m.), access to our luxury box, sideline access during the game and some food and drinks. We envision this as a space to network, meet other professors, and enjoy an evening of excellent D-III football.
For our non-industry pals, we’d still love for you to come, and I promise I’ll swing by and say hello!
Additional information about the Faculty Lounge, as well as ticket pricing and broadcast options, will be available later this fall.
Why are we doing this again?
That’s a fair question, right? I live in Chicago, after all. Dennis lives in Los Angeles. Neither of those places is Northeast Ohio, and I’m not going to sit here and pretend Canton in late November is some tropical paradise.
But that isn’t the point.
Being involved in sponsoring a bowl game has taught us a lot about the business and operations behind running major events. Because I now have a little experience behind-the-scenes of these games, I can ask more informed questions to other leaders and industry executives, which pays off in better reporting for all of you. The more lived experience we get, the more we’ll continue to learn.
This is also about Extra Points Classroom
We’re not just just inviting professors because we enjoy their company and want to expand our network, even though those things are both true. We’re also hoping to grow awareness of our classroom product. We’re currently working with about two dozen departments including Michigan, Louisville, Eastern Michigan, Texas and Northern Illinois University, among others.
Extra Points Classroom is built to support college classes, be they sports management, sports law, sports media or other related fields. Extra Points Classroom is a living and breathing textbook for students studying college sports. Things happen fast and change quickly. Our product moves with the industry, and we’re constantly building new features. It includes access to the Extra Points newsletter, our beloved computer game, Athletic Director Simulator 4000, course material and outlines for professors, and a new College Sports Career Navigator tool to help students understand what jobs exist in college sports. Professors also get access to Extra Points Library, our database of 17k+ contracts to work into their lessons. We built this product set to make professor’s lives a little easier and to be far cheaper than a typical textbook or trade publication.
Wanting to improve the practical educational experiences for college students is very much part of what animates me about this business. We’d love for more universities and classrooms to take advantage of this tool, and we look at the Extra Points Bowl as a chance to help others do exactly that.
Which leads me to the biggest reason we signed up to do this again: We do this for ideological reasons, too
I grew up in a D-III football town (Granville, Ohio, home of the Denison University Big Red) and have deep connections to many of the institutions that could play in this game. And the longer I run Extra Points, the more connected I become to small colleges. I know how hard the players, the ADs, the coaches — the everybody — work each season.
They all deserve a special moment, a unique experience in their athletic careers. If we can help support those moments, and it makes sense with our larger business goals, I’m more than happy to cut that check and make the drive.
We obviously want to sell newsletter subscriptions, sponsorships, licenses for the Extra Points Library and everything else we do. But sometimes, it’s also important to do stuff because we think it’s the right thing. Supporting D-III sports falls into that bucket for me.
The Extra Points Bowl has been a highlight of my career over the past two seasons. I certainly expect to feel the same way after Extra Points Bowl III later next month.
I hope to see you all there, either in the stands, in the box or on the field.
And one more time, register here for the Faculty Lounge.
- Matt
