At each of the remaining men’s and women’s basketball home games, one randomly selected student will have the chance to make a half-court shot and win one semester of free tuition.
The tuition will be awarded for the fall 2023 semester with a max payment of $4,611. If the winning students already receive scholarships from Texas State, that dollar amount will be subtracted from the half-court tuition winnings.
Bryan Miller, executive senior associate athletics director, said the idea for this promotion came directly from Texas State President Kelly Damphousse.
“He is a supporter of all things Texas State Bobcats,” Miller said. “He comes to several games and wanted to do a promotion that he thought students would get excited about… we want all students to know that they’re all equally able to participate in it… it truly is random. We wanted it to be fair for everybody.”
To take part in the challenge, students must scan into the games with a valid student ID and must be enrolled in courses for the spring 2023 semester. Participants will be randomly selected and notified via email or phone. The selected students will be notified as the game approaches halftime and the shot will take place at some point in the second half of the game in order to give students as much time as possible to arrive. 
“I think athletics can provide a great way for students to engage with the university,” Damphousse said. “It’s all about all those things, creating experiences for students they might not think about on their own. They may be sitting in a dorm room going, ‘I don’t know what to do tonight.'”
Participants will have only one opportunity to sink the shot at each game. There will be two winners — one for the men’s game and one for the women’s.
There is a chance that no students will make the shot at the games. If this occurs, all previously selected participants will have the opportunity to attempt the shot once more at one of the remaining home games.
If nobody makes the shot then all Texas State students in attendance will have the chance to participate. Once the shot is made then nobody else will have the chance to compete.
“[This is] a good opportunity to give people a chance to save up for the following spring semester instead of worrying about the one that’s in front of them,” Ailed Garza, a political science freshman, said. 
Though not everyone will win free tuition, every selected participant will attend a lunch with Damphousse. Damphousse wanted to be sure that each student was able to walk away from the promotion with something meaningful.
“I think it’s nice because it shows that he cares about all of the people at Texas State, especially with it being his first year and trying to be in the community as much as possible,” Garza said.
Miller said students can expect to see more events like this at Texas State in the future.
“We have promotions that happen across the board at all of our sporting events,” Miller said. “In terms of free tuition continuing on, that will be a discussion after basketball season to see how successful this promotion was.”
According to men’s basketball head coach Terrence Johnson, this is a shot that students will just need to have fun with. It’s not the type of shot that one necessarily prepares for.
“You might need a little bit of luck,” Johnson said. “Just don’t come up short. If you can go long, you can give yourself a chance… in a world as divisive as we have right now, we want things that will bring people together, and there’s nothing better to do that than sports,”
Damphousse said that increased attendance from promotions like this can have longer-lasting positive effects on the university.
“The more students are engaged, the more likely they are to be successful, to retain, to graduate in a timely manner and have a great experience and someday become donors,” Damphousse said. “It’s also about the impact that has on the game itself and about the impact that has on the fans.”
The schedules for remaining basketball games and other events can be found on the Texas State Athletics website.