Images of Ole Miss stars Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy have popped up on new billboards in New York City, officially launching their Heisman Trophy campaigns nationwide in Times Square. Talk about making a statement, right? Ole Miss is taking a page straight out of the Oregon Ducks’ playbook, and they’re not holding back.
The Big City, Big Campaign Vibe
This isn’t some quiet little local thing either, this is a full-blown #H6I5MEN campaign hitting the biggest stage. We’ve seen this kind of aggressive marketing before, for sure. Think back to Oregon’s “And There’s Moore!” campaign from earlier this summer, or even the “Bo-Dacious” campaign from 2023, and way back to the “Joey Heisman” push in 2001. Putting up billboards in major cities for your biggest players is smart in college football, especially with the Name, Image, and Likeness era in full swing. Athletes are getting those marketing stipulations built right into their contracts, and you love to see it. Getting those faces out there ahead of the season, drumming up that buzz? That’s how you play the game now.
What This Means for the Betting Odds
Oregon QB Dante Moore, for example, had his face all over buildings in Tokyo, Japan, earlier this summer when the team went for an Oregon-Tokyo football skills camp. It was a massive move to acclimate players to a new culture and hit a new audience, and now Ole Miss is clearly following that lead with the NYC billboards. The big question now is how this impacts the Heisman betting lines. Before these billboards even went up, Chambliss was sitting at +1500 odds to win the award, tied for the sixth-best in the nation on FanDuel Sportsbook. Lacy, his teammate, had +12500 odds, which was the 36th-best. Meanwhile, Moore is still holding strong with the fourth-best odds at +1100.
So yeah, it’s gonna be super interesting to see if more teams jump on this marketing bandwagon. And more importantly, does this kind of national exposure actually move the needle on those betting lines? Keep an eye on Chambliss and Lacy, because Ole Miss just threw down the gauntlet in the Heisman race.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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