Today ESPN announced Dr Pepper as the first official Championship Partner and also as presenting sponsor of the new College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy. In the new College Football Playoff era, the Championship Partner designation represents the highest level of sponsorship and activation. The announcement also confirms Dr Pepper’s renewal as an SEC official sponsor and their long-term commitment with ESPN and the new SEC Network.
The unique collaboration includes extensive exposure for the trophy across all of ESPN’s multimedia platforms during the regular season, including stops along the way at marquee games which could impact the championship run, as well as select College GameDay Built by the Home Depot sites. The trophy will also be featured over the course of the postseason and the College Football Playoff, in anticipation of it being presented to the winning team at the conclusion of the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday, Jan. 12, 2015.
“Dr Pepper is proud to continue its longstanding partnership with college football through ESPN and help usher in a new era with the newly formed College Football Playoff,” said Jim Trebilcock, executive vice president of marketing for Dr Pepper Snapple Group. “The impact of this one of a kind collaboration with ESPN and the CFP is monumental. In addition, we will be able to further extend our popular Dr Pepper Tuition Giveaway, where we have awarded more than $6 million dollars in tuition to students across the country since 2008.”
“Dr Pepper has many longstanding relationships in college, including ours,” said Bill Hancock, executive director of the College Football Playoff. “Dr Pepper’s people are top-notch and their commitment to this great game is unique and exciting. We are grateful that ESPN has secured this partnership and we are thrilled about the future of the new playoff.”
Added Ed Erhardt, president of global customer marketing and sales at ESPN, “Dr Pepper’s commitment to the new College Football Playoff and the SEC Network mean they’ll be a part of something from the ground up. It’s also great to build upon Dr Pepper’s long and established history with the conference and extend the partnership to include our launch of the SEC Network.”
Dr Pepper will continue its title sponsorship of the ACC Championship Football Game on ESPN in early December as well as presenting sponsor of the Pac-12 Championship telecast.
The deal also includes intellectual property rights and category exclusivity for all marketing and promotional activities involving the SEC and its championship events, as well as a premier position with SEC Nation, the SEC Network’s traveling campus-based pre-game show during college football season.
In addition to supporting ESPN’s coverage of the College Football Playoff, Dr Pepper is the title sponsor of the Dr Pepper Tuition Giveaway, a season-long program that provides tuition-based awards to deserving students across the country, culminating at the Conference Championship games and the College Football Playoff.
ESPN will have exclusive coverage of the College Football Playoff that will begin with the 2014-2015 season and feature the four top teams as selected by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee. The Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl will host the first Playoff Semifinals, which will pit No. 1 versus No. 4 and No. 2 versus No. 3 on January 1, 2015. The winners of those two games will face off in the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on January 12, 2015.