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Bowing to crowd pressure, Dr Pepper awarded two $100,000 tuition prizes—rather than just one—after two students tied during a halftime competition at the SEC championship football game Saturday, Fortune reported.
Midway through the game, between Louisiana State University and the University of Georgia, contestants competed for the prize money from Dr Pepper by throwing footballs into giant soda cans.
The highest scorers, Kayla Gibson of the University of St. Augustine and Reagan Whitaker of Baylor University, tied in both the first and second rounds. Time constraints prevented a tiebreaker, so Dr Pepper named Whitaker the winner based on a rule that includes points from a previous qualifying round.
The crowd was audibly furious, and the hashtag #JusticeforKayla began circulating on social media.
“Dr Pepper pitting two college students against each other on national TV with a tuition prize is so depressing every time,” wrote one Twitter user, criticizing the event over all.
By the fourth quarter, Dr Pepper decided to give in to the crowd’s demands and awarded Gibson and Whitaker $100,000 each, according to CBS reporter Jenny Dell.
