Finally, the Big Shot is getting interesting. The “Apprentice-like” brainchild of the Athletic Marketing Department and Cox School of Business is down to its final two competitors, Ryan Amos and Mark McDonough, both of which have finally come up with ideas worth everyone’s time, and all the hype.

If anyone missed it (and many of you might have, judging at the attendance numbers) allow Ed Board to recap. The Big Shot began with twelve student competitors divided into two teams, appropriately divided into the red team and the blue team. Members competed in in-game marketing promotions, such as selling select items from the SMU Spirit Shop, marketing Coke’s new energy drink, Full Throttle, or creating and executing a general plan and budget to increase attendance at the SMU women’s basketball vs. Boise State. Two competitors from the losing team were eliminated each week leading up to this one. Sounds exciting, right? Great idea, SMU, way to get on the Reality TV bandwagon, after all these years. Only problem is, Moody Coliseum doesn’t even have a TV. For that matter, the sound system isn’t all that great, either, but like Ed Board has said before, it’s part of the “Moody mystique.”

While the competition would have benefited greatly from these technologies, it just wasn’t in the cards. But now, Amos and McDonough have been challenged with the final task of doing what the competition has failed to do: generate a buzz to drive people to the SMU basketball games. Today, the competition gets serious. Since Monday, Amos’ cryptic flyers have been hanging around campus. While Ed Board isn’t quite sure what the message “X=MŸ3” means, but we’re almost certain it has something to do with the color red, seeing as how Amos is the last member of the red team. Could it be a gigantic game of red rover at halftime? Maybe a keg party, complete with Red Stripe beer? Whatever the case, it will be interesting to see what Amos has in store.

McDonough, on the other hand, has given an old favorite a new twist, as he has created “Hill-top-oly.” According to his flyers, McDonough plans on hiding thousands of silver eggs all over the main quad in the early morning hours, each of which will contain game pieces reminiscent of the original Monopoly pieces. If a student brings a full set of properties (“owns a Monopoly” in the classic sense) to Thursday’s men’s basketball game, they will be entered to win prizes. The winner of the competition will be announced at Saturday’s game.

Ed Board would just like to thank these two competitors for salvaging this competition. They have demonstrated real creativity, and we wish them the best of luck.

Now off to find those silver eggs…