There was no better way for Monday night’s Tostitos BCS National Championship Game and the 2010-11 season to end.
No, I’m not talking about Auburn placekicker Wes Byrum’s chip-shot field goal that gave the SEC its fifth consecutive BCS championship. I’m talking about the moment right before that kick.
After a relatively dull three quarters, Oregon rallied to tie the game at 19-all before Cam Newton and Michael Dyer set Auburn up with an opportunity for a game-winning field goal as time expired.
As Byrum prepared for his field goal, legendary broadcaster Brent Musburger paused and said, “This is for all the Tostitos.”
Wait, what? All the Tostitos?
Here we are in the middle of the final moment of the most exciting national championship since Vince Young’s Texas team beat USC in January 2006, and you have to squeeze in one last shameless promotion for the game’s title sponsor? Surely, I was not the only one to notice Musburger’s choice of words.
Since it is 2011 after all, I took to Twitter and quickly discovered plenty of jokes about “all the Tostitos.” Many of America’s most famous quotes had been paraphrased for humor’s sake.
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for all the Tostitos,” was a popular change to John F. Kennedy’s famous speech.
“I just checked, and yes, Washington said, ‘This is for all the Tostitos’ right before he crossed the Delaware,” tweeted Richard Deistch, a writer and media critic for Sports Illustrated.
In fact, a website has even been created — allthetostitos.com— where you can find all things about all the Tostitos, including an image of  Newton running down the field protecting his precious Tostitos Scoops from those who would wish to keep him from having all the Tostitos.
Musburger, who has been a play-by-play announcer since 1973, is a legend in sports broadcasting, so I guess I’ll let one shameless promotion slide.
However, upon further review, research showed that Musburger had actually used “for all the Tostitos” when Ohio State clinched a trip to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in a win over Michigan in 2002. Oi. I still can’t blame Musburger, though.
If there is one thing the last year has taught us about college football, it is that it is indeed all about the Tostitos.
From the blatant cash grab in last summer’s conference re-alignment, to the agent scandals that rocked North Carolina and hit a few SEC schools, to the Cam Newton pay-for-play saga, dollar signs made more headlines than box scores in 2010.
The popular book “Death to the BCS” not only made a compelling argument for a playoff, but also exposed some of the excesses the corporate suits in charge of the bowls and the BCS enjoy and use their power to maintain.
Then came the ruling from the NCAA that five Ohio State players, headlined by Terelle Pryor, would be suspended for five games for receiving extra benefits. However, Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolahan still wanted the key players to suit up to “preserve the integrity of the game,” as he told The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.
The players suited up, ESPN got their ratings, Allstate got to put their logo all over the field, and No. 6 Ohio State went on to defeat No. 8 Arkansas. Integrity preserved.
All of these controversies have served to remind the average fan that college football is big business and, with mega-TV deals, will remain that way for the foreseeable future.
No matter the controversy surrounding the sport, the Southeast still has an insatiable appetite for college football. The SEC constantly draws the most eyeballs, as evidenced by the 15-year, $2.25 billion television deal with ESPN and the $825 million deal with CBS.
So in the year of mo’ money, mo’ problems, why not slip a promotion of one of the game’s biggest sponsors into the season’s highly-entertaining climax?
When all the Tostitos are on the line, we’ll still be right there watching.