Ban the Dr. Pepper Challenge Chest Pass

When the Dr. Pepper Tuition Giveaway debuted at the ACC Championship in 2008, it instantly jumped into the Mount Rushmore echelon of halftime entertainment. It was Creed in Dallas on Thanksgiving, Red Panda the acrobat across the country, Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl, and the Dr. Pepper Tuition Giveaway. The soda brand challenge came out of the gates with an intense, blood-pumping, pressure-cooker atmosphere giving regular kids a chance to chip away at an iceberg of student debt.

I don't know how to embed videos but if you click the first link, you'll see Geza Kenna III from Brick, NJ take down Ronnie Botts from Georgia in a classic, fundamentally-sound, overhand throwing contest. The next year at the SEC Championship, South Alabama med student Sarah Beth Hill put on a methodical masterclass. Her opponent blew his load way too early, running out of throws with 15 seconds left and only 8 in the bucket. But the tortoise beats the hare in the old story and Sarah Beth took her time and checked down for chunk yardage on the way to 9 makes and the victory.

That's when everything went downhill and I imagine it's around the same time HR departments started referring to company merchandise as "swag". 2009 was the last authentic Dr. Pepper Challenge we've been graced with as a country. In 2010, Nikki Boon from Grand Rapids, MI ruined it forever. She decided to throw a chest pass. Look, Nikki, if I wanted to watch the NBA Skills Competition I'd youtube search Steve Nash's 2006 highlight reel. Here's her quote from an ESPN interview:

"What did you ask? Did I change football history?" Nikki Boon says with a laugh. "Is that what happened? OK, I'll take that. Because maybe I also helped change some people's lives that night. I know that night changed my life forever."

Ya know what, Nikki, you did change football history. For the worse. Every year I no longer look forward to the Dr. Pepper Halftime Challenge. Instead, I look forward to screaming at the television when I see someone give the pigskin a two handed shove that only Bob Cousy would be proud of.

Thanks, Nikki, I'll probably never get to experience anything near the level of The Thrill from Sarah Beth Hill ever again.