The sponsored Dr. Pepper tuition giveaways at halftime of various conference championship games have become something of a viral sensation in recent years, which led to Saturday’s edition at the Big 12 championship sparking quite the furor.
The two contestants for Saturday’s contest, Gavin and Ryan, actually tied and were forced to go to an overtime round. The overtime round also ended up tied, which Ryan won on a sudden death toss.
There was one problem, however. Several eagle-eyed viewers noted that the scorekeeping in overtime had gone horribly wrong and that Gavin should have won outright. The video made that pretty clear, as Gavin got six in, while Ryan got 5 but was credited with making 6.
With an added counter pic.twitter.com/EhhhxRe8p7
— Marc Istook (@MarcIstook) December 2, 2023
The rather controversial scoring quickly went viral, with many calling on Dr. Pepper to give both competitors the prize of $100,000 in scholarship money. During the fourth quarter of the game, ESPN’s Sean McDonough announced during the broadcast that Dr. Pepper had decided to do just that.
They just announced that Dr Pepper has decided to pay both folks due to the mistake…
THANKS FOR MAKING IT RIGHT @drpepper
🗣🗣👏🏻👏🏻 https://t.co/TAfh4anEhR
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 2, 2023
A job well done by internet sleuths, and kudos to Dr. Pepper for doing the right thing. Now we just need them to do something about the chest pass tactic and we’ll really have something.
