How Stupid are the Dr. Pepper Halftime Competitions?
Two big screw-ups here...
1. Having boys compete against girls
I understand we're trying to be progressive and that gender is a social construct, but when it comes to Dr. Pepper halftime competitions the boys are kicking trash. It's not fair for the girls.
And this isn't a competition for peanuts. If it was just a feel-good contest where the contestants were cheered by the big crowd, threw on their stupid Dr. Pepper jerseys, and threw the ball around and the winner got a Playstation or something, fine. But this is a serious competition with real stakes. The winner gets $100,000 dollars of scholarship money. Most of these that I've seen are boy versus a girl, and the boy wins.
At the PAC 12 championship game this past weekend in Vegas, the boy won by five shots which is huge margin in a competition like this. I felt sorry for the girl who clearly had trained and worked hard for this big moment. Why isn't she competing against another girl?
2. Not having a live tie-breaker
In the SEC Championship they did have two girls competing against each other. Well done! And the competition was awesome. It ended in a tie. Twice! Except they announced Reagan Whitaker of Baylor University the winner because she won the tie-breaker earlier in the day. LOL. The fans booed like crazy and Dr. Pepper, now in the midst of a public relations nightmare, backed down and has given both competitors $100K.
I love having stuff like this at halftime. It's much better than watching the band, or listening to Urban Meyer and Matt Leinart during the halftime show. Just make it fair and don't do tie-breakers beforehand.