During our Ultimate Sports Road Trip travels we come across some really cool promotions and contests; then again we also see some that are downright ridiculous.

But the one here at the Big East tournament, sponsored by New York Life, is one of the dumbest ones we have ever witnessed. The sponsors ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Here’s how it works… contestants are chosen to come down on the court during a media timeout, and throw these three large dice shaped cube objects.

If all three land on the logo “New York Life”, the contestant wins $10,000.

If all three land on the same slogan, such as “164 years strong”, or “join our team”, the contestant wins a pair of tickets to the finals.

Any other outcome and the player goes him with the board game “Life”. In this day and age of X-Box, Playstation and millions of games online, who actually plays board games anymore!

Try playing with three dice and landing three of the same numbers. It is so statistically far fetched and hard to do.

So of course, this game is played at every session, twice in fact per session, and the contestants keep crapping out after throwing just two cubes. By Thursday the boos were raining down onto the court as soon as this nonsense was trucked out, that’s how ugly it got.

So lo and behold… what happens Friday night?

Both contestants win… $10,000. That’s right, 10,000 smackers handed out twice.

How did it happen? We have no idea. In the first game they didn’t even train the camera on the cubes. The guy hit two of who knows what, and the announcer screeches, “just one more and you win $10,000!” The contestant tosses the third cube, has a dazed look for a moment and then PA guy yells, “that’s it! You win!” Out comes New York Life CEO with this giant replica check and it’s all smiles.

At the nightcap, the contestant throws a cube which misfires and it rolls almost off of the court. He throws a second one and a third, then the intern collects all the cubes. But then the contestant throws a FOURTH cube. Intern guy collects two of them, and in the confusion PA Guy yells, “You WIN!”. Again, out comes bald fat CEO guy with the check. WTF just happened here!!!

Memo to New York Life and to the Big East… you clowns are a disgrace!

P.S… Another contest, a free throw shooting exhibition, delivered a prize of a “one year supply of Reese’s Peanut Butter cups”. Oh great! By March of ‘11 I’ll weigh 500 pounds, be in a diabetic coma and my teeth will have rotted out. Who comes up with this shit!!!