“You’re safe!” has become the infamous term associated with the SMU Athletic Department and the Cox Business School’s new marketing competition, The Big Shot.

And at Thursday night’s women’t basketball game against the Boise State Broncos at 7 p..m., two of the final four contestants will hear the infamous term.

The remaing four contestants are Ryan Amos, Brittany Timmerman, Mark McDonough and Greg Kitt. Amos and McDonough comprise the Red Team, while Kitt and Timmerman comprise the Blue Team. This week’s task requires contestants to generate attendance to the games via vouchers.

The team who gets the most people to attend the game with their team’s voucher wins.

The Big Shot competition was created to generate more excitement and exposure at not only the men’s and women’s basketball games, but at all SMU athletic events.

“Make the students look like idiots and then the people will pay attention,” said Chris Siebert, a Big Shot contestant.

All SMU students had the opportunity to apply to be a Big Shot contestant. Interested students were required to fill out an application, submit a résumé and go in for an interview.

About 20 to 30 students applied to be The Big Shot and were interviewed by a faculty panel. Susan Tinsley, the community marketing coordinator, said the students were asked three questions: “If you could trade places with Mark Cuban, Donald Trump or Bill Gates, who would you choose and why?” “What is your best quality and how will it help you become The Big Shot?” and “What one thing in your current home or apartment would you take if there were a fire?”

Of the 20 to 30 students who applied 12 were chosen to compete in a marketing competition throughout the last six weeks of the men’s and women’s basketball season. These candidates come from varying majors and minors including advertising, CCPA, Chinese, finance, geology, marketing, psychology and theater. The original 12 contestants consisted of Brittany Timmerman, Candice Adkins, Siebert, Collin West, Eric Luna, Farrar Johnson, Greg Kitt, Joel Mathews, Julie Coats, Mark McDonough, Michelle Gonzalez and Ryan Amos.

Each week, the students are divided into two teams and compete in a series of different marketing tasks during the first half of the basketball game. These tasks challenge the candidates to use innovative thinking, people skills and marketing skills.

The team that wins enjoys a small prize package, but the losing team must vote off two contestants. If a tie occurs, a team monitor must make the final decision about the two students eliminated.

The first week each team had to run a concession stand. They were supplied with concession stand foods and drinks, markers and poster board, and hawking stands. The task was sales-oriented and the team with the highest sales won. The Red Team sales totaled $1,336.30 and won, but the Blue Team was forced to eliminate two contestants. West and Mathews were eliminated.

The second week each team had to run a stand selling merchandise from the SMU spirit shop. They were given supplies to market their products. The task was also sales-oriented and the team with the highest sales won. The Blue Team sales totaled $842 and won, but the Red Team was forced to eliminate two contestants. Johnson and Coats were eliminated.

The third week each team had to perform an in-game promotion, promoting The Dallas Morning News. Each team was required to create a game, find contestants, write a script for the announcer and increase audience excitement.

The Red Team preformed its promotion first, titled “The Dallas Morning News Date Derby.” Three couples were required to gallop to half court with one person on the back of his or her partner, and throw a Frisbee onto their team letter. The first team to hit the letter and return back to the finish line won.

The Blue Team followed with its promotion, titled “Dizzy in Love.” Two little kids spun around a hobbyhorse 10 times and raced to grab a newspaper located underneath a banner at half court. The two kids had to deliver the newspaper to the cheerleader at the end of the court and pick up a valentine to deliver to the man in the bathrobe. The first kid to deliver his or her valentine won.

A panel of two judges, Lizz Siverston, sports marketing manager for The Dallas Morning News, and Sara Engel, marketing manager for Quick!, selected the winning promotion. The Blue Team won and the Red Team was forced to eliminate two contestants, Adkins and Siebert.

“I don’t think of who to vote off until I know we’ve lost and then I replay the task in my head. Most of the time it’s a spur of the moment decision,” said Gonzalez.

The fourth week Luna and Gonzalez were eliminated.

The last contestant standing wins the title of “The Big Shot” and will be given a final prize package. The final prize package includes two roundtrip tickets on American Airlines, a $500 gift certificate to Plucker’s, a $200 gift certificate to The Palm, a free Nokia video mobile phone, four tickets to the Dallas Mavericks vs. Cleveland Cavaliers basketball game at the American Airlines Center and a piece of jewelry from Bachendorf’s valued at $1,200.

The Big Shot will be announced when the men’s basketball team plays the Rice Owls at Moody Coliseum, Saturday, March 5 at halftime.