While the Indiana Hoosiers and the Ohio State Buckeyes battled on the gridiron during the 2026 Big Ten Football Championships, the University of Oregon had already secured a decisive victory over Ohio State in Indianapolis less than 24 hours earlier.
This win, however, didn't happen on the turf. It happened in the boardroom.
A team of four undergraduate students from the Warsaw Sports Business Center at the University of Oregon's Lundquist College of Business claimed the title at the inaugural Big Ten Sports Business Challenge, December 4–7, defeating a field of competitors that included teams from Penn State, Indiana, Northwestern, Iowa, and—in a dramatic final round—Ohio State.
Organized by the Warsaw Sports Business Center, the competition tasked students with the high-stakes, real-world challenge of creating a marketing strategy to increase blood donations.
The Warsaw Center student team—comprised of seniors Nick Angelo, Archie Rohden, Hudson Spears, along with junior Keila Barton—had just 48 hours to digest a complex case study and build a comprehensive strategic plan before flying to Indianapolis to present to a panel of industry and university judges.
Their assignment was critical: reverse a generational decline in blood donation. The students had to devise a plan to increase participation via a blood-donation campaign, specifically targeting first-time student donors.
"It was one of the most transformative experiences of not only my college experience but my life," said Rohden, who, along with his teammates, were finalists in the 2025 Sports Marketing Association Case Study Bowl in Arizona a month earlier. "We had to buckle down and work on a whole strategic marketing presentation, but having that prior experience of working together really helped us a lot. We knew what we were good at."
The Winning Strategy: "She Gives Blood"
The Warsaw team's winning pitch distinguished itself by looking beyond the traditional football season. While other schools focused heavily on game-day activations, the Oregon team identified a crucial, underutilized demographic: female students and fans of women's sports.
Their proposal leveraged the statistic that 57 percent of college students are women. The strategy also included
- Year-Round Engagement: Moving beyond football season to partner with female athletes in volleyball, softball, and basketball.
- Parody Ads: A "Blood State Rivalry" campaign modeled after the popular Dr. Pepper "Fansville" commercials to drive viral social engagement.
- Class Segmentation: A gamified competition pitting freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors against one another to drive participation.
- A Triple Donors Club: Incentivizing donors to give three times in a single season.
"We uncovered that 72 percent of sports engagement in women's sports is driven by individual athletes rather than teams," Rohden explained. "We wanted to leverage that and target more women, which requires a shift from focusing on traditional sports rivalries."
High-Profile Judges and Heavy Hitters
The students presented their final pitch to a heavyweight panel that included industry and Big Ten Conference representatives.
"Our partners brought huge hitters to the table," said Lauren Anderson, Director of the Warsaw Sports Business Center, who organized the event. "It was also a great opportunity to connect with programs at other Big Ten schools. Our undergrad team won, but that's not the full story. The students made career-defining connections and got a first-hand look at how brands activate at big events."
The judges were particularly impressed by the Warsaw team's business acumen, specifically their inclusion of a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis and clear key performance indicators—elements that set their presentation apart.
For the Warsaw Sports Business Center, the victory underscores its reputation as the premier training ground for the next generation of sports business leaders. The win was especially sweet for the students, who treated the trip as a business trip first and a celebration second. In addition to the competition, students received a behind-the-scenes tour of Lucas Oil Stadium and engaged with the team at Indiana Sports Corp. to learn how it promotes and markets Indianapolis and Indiana as a host for major sporting events.
"But being able to apply what I'm learning in the classroom to real business challenges and make an impact, that was the biggest takeaway. It was really incredible," Rohden summed up. "And it was fun to beat Ohio State, too. That felt pretty good."
—Jim Engelhardt, Lundquist College Communications