Capital One All-America Mascot Team
National Mascot of the Year Online Voting Rules and Criteria

How the Capital One All-America Mascot Team Was Selected

The 16 members of the Capital One All-America Mascot Team were selected from among the mascot entries received from all eligible NCAA FBS and FCS schools. A panel of judges from Capital One and the mascot community used the following criteria to determine the 16 team members:

• Interaction with fans and demonstration of the mascot's originality, signature-move originality and creativity, ability to create enthusiasm among the fans, and contribution to an exhilarating atmosphere.
• Originality, creativity and professionalism of mascot appearance or costume.
• Pedigree, awards earned by the mascot during the past five years and national prominence.

How the Capital One National Mascot of the Year Will Be Selected

• The Capital One National Mascot of the Year is determined by both Internet voting and text voting.
• Voting will be conducted online at capitalonebowl.com in regular season and playoff phases, as well as via mobile text votes.

Regular Season Voting

The regular-season voting will be conducted over 12 weeklong voting periods beginning August 30, 2010. For purposes of this Contest, a week begins on a Monday at 9 a.m. ET and ends on 8:59 a.m. ET on the following Monday ("Voting Period"). For each weeklong voting period, the 16 mascots will be paired in groups of two for a head-to-head matchup (eight matchups per week). You may cast an unlimited number of votes for the mascot(s) of your choosing. At the conclusion of each weeklong Voting Period, the votes for each mascot will be tabulated, and a list of the eight winning and eight losing mascots will be posted at the website.

At the conclusion of the 12 weeklong Voting Periods, the mascots will be ranked in descending order of wins versus losses. The eight mascots with the highest number of wins will advance to the playoff phase. In the case of a tie in the win-loss record , the total number of votes for each mascot will determine ranking. In the event of a tie, the mascot that received the most total votes over the 12 Voting Periods will be ranked higher.

The Playoffs

The playoff voting will be conducted in three rounds over a three-week period beginning November 22, 2010, at 9 a.m. and ending on December 13, 2010, at 8:59 a.m. Based on the mascot rankings at the end of the regular season, each mascot will be given a playoff seeding ranging from No. 1 to No. 8. For example, the mascot that had the No. 1 ranking at the end of the regular season will receive the No. 1 seed in the playoffs; the mascot with the No. 2 ranking at the end of the regular season will receive the No. 2 seed. This seeding will continue all the way through the No. 8 ranked mascot receiving the No. 8 seed.

Round One starts November 22, 2010, at 9 a.m. and ends November 29, 2010, at 8:59 a.m.:

The No. 1 seed will match up against the No. 8 seed; the No. 2 seed will match up against the No. 7 seed; the No. 3 seed will be match up against the No. 6 seed; the No. 4 seed will match up against the No. 5 seed. You may cast an unlimited number of votes for the mascot(s) of your choosing. You are not required to cast a vote for all four pairings but can vote for all if you choose. The winner of each of the four match-ups will advance to Round 2. In the event of ties, the mascot with the highest seed will be declared the winner.

Round Two starts November 29, 2010, at 9 a.m. and ends December 6, 2010, at 8:59 a.m.:

The highest-remaining seed will match up against the lowest-remaining seed, leaving the remaining two seeds to match up against one another. You may cast an unlimited number of votes for your favorite mascots and do not need to cast a vote for both pairings when you cast a vote. The winner of each of the matchups will advance to Round 3 (Championship Round). In the event of ties, the mascot with the highest seed will be declared the winner.

Round Three (Championship Round) starts December 6, 2010, at 9 a.m. and ends December 13, 2010, at 8:59 a.m.:

The last two remaining mascots will match up in the Championship Round. Visitors may cast an unlimited number of votes in the Championship Round. The mascot with the most votes at the end of the Championship Round will be the Capital One National Mascot of the Year. In the event of ties, the mascot with the highest seed will be declared the winner. The winning mascot will be announced during the 2011 Capital One Bowl on January 1, 2011, and will be named The Capital One National Mascot of the Year.

Regulations

The Contest begins August 30, 2010, and runs through December 13, 2010. Votes received after 8:59 a.m. ET on December 13, 2010, will not be counted. Capital One, NA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to void any votes it deems fraudulent, votes not cast in conformity with these official rules or votes otherwise designed to undermine the integrity of the Contest. Decisions of Capital One are final. No purchase is necessary to vote for the Capital One National Mascot of the Year.

Voting

Text Voting:

Your vote will count if you have successfully sent your text vote to 69866 during the valid voting window and received your confirmation message. Typing in one of the following names will lead to a successful vote: bearcat, bearcats, big blue, big red, bigblue, bigred, brutus, duck, goldy, goldy gopher, goldygopher, ibis, joe bruin, joebruin, joe vandal, joevandal, mike, mike the tiger, monte, mr c, mrc, paydirt pete, paydirtpete, Sebastian, smokey, testudo, the bird, thebird, the duck, theduck. You may receive one text confirmation message for each valid vote per contestant during a voting event. You can vote an unlimited number of times, but standard messaging costs apply.

University	Mascot Short Name	Text No.
Ohio State University	Brutus	69866
University of Maryland	Testudo
United States Air Force Academy	TheBird
Louisiana State University	Mike
University of Oregon	Duck
University of Miami	Sebastian
University of Cincinnati	Bearcat
Western Kentucky University	BigRed
University of Minnesota	Goldy
University of Texas El Paso	PaydirtPet
University of Tennessee	Smokey
Vanderbilt University	MrC
Old Dominion University	BigBlue
University of Idaho	JoeVandal
Universty of Montana	Monte
University of California Los Angeles	JoeBruin

Billing and Pricing:

Standard text messaging and data rates apply according to your individual rate plan provided by your wireless carrier. Check with your wireless carrier or review the terms of your wireless plan for details. Under no circumstances will Capital One, NA, its parent or its corporate subsidiaries or affiliates be responsible for any text messaging or wireless charges incurred by you or by a person who has access to your wireless device or telephone number.

Supported Carriers:

The following carriers are supported using the 69866 short code: Alltel, AT&T Wireless, Sprint/Nextel, T-Mobile, US Cellular and Verizon Wireless. Prepaid phones or calling plans may not be supported.

Privacy Policy:

Capital One Mascot Challenge text-to-vote process is managed by Mobile Commons. Mobile Commons is a software company that provides a platform for organizations to communicate via text and phone calls. Mobile Commons does not sell, trade or rent your personal information to other companies or individuals. By completing the text-to-vote transaction, you give Mobile Commons permission to provide your contact information to Capital One. Capital One will not utilize telephone numbers for uses other than tallying votes for the Mascot Challenge. Mobile Commons uses industry-leading Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to keep your personal information as secure as possible.

¹ Sponsor is not responsible for technical failures of any kind or any problems or delays arising from any technical, software or equipment malfunctions, computer viruses, congestion on or unavailability of the voting site during the Contest, or any other technical, equipment or human errors of any kind. If Sponsor determines in its sole discretion that there is any suspected or actual evidence of electronic or non-electronic tampering or fraud relating to any portion of the Contest, or if technical difficulties compromise the integrity of the Contest, it may cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest, in whole or in part, at any time without notice.

Internet

Sponsor is not responsible for technical failures of any kind or any problems or delays arising from any technical, software or equipment malfunctions, computer viruses, congestion on or unavailability of the voting site during the Contest, or any other technical, equipment or human errors of any kind. If Sponsor determines in its sole discretion that there is any suspected or actual evidence of electronic or non-electronic tampering or fraud relating to any portion of the Contest, or if technical difficulties compromise the integrity of the Contest, it may cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Contest, in whole or in part, at any time without notice.

Prizes

Each school selected as a member of the Capital One All-America Mascot Team was awarded $5,000 for use in scholarships and funding of its school's mascot program. The Capital One National Mascot of the Year will receive an additional $15,000 (total of $20,000) for its school's mascot program.

MASCOT WRITE-IN VOTING RULES AND CRITERIA

How the Eligible Mascots Were Selected

Under our Write-In Contest guidelines, only mascots that are the official costume character representing their NCAA FBS or FCS college or university with football programs are eligible to participate. Under these requirements, eligible NCAA FBS and FCS school mascots have been identified by Capital One to be eligible for this competition. Capital One, in its sole discretion, identified the eligible write-in mascots. In the case of schools with multiple costumed mascots, only the primary (original) mascot of the respective school is eligible. All decisions of Capital One are final.

The Write-In Contest is completely separate from the Capital One National Mascot of the Year competition. The 16 mascots selected to the 2010 Capital One All-America Mascot Competition are not eligible for the Write-In Contest.

How the Write-In Contest Winner Will Be Selected

The winner of the Write-In Contest will be determined by online voting (100%).

Write-In Contest Voting

The Write-In Contest voting will be conducted over 15 weeks beginning August 30, 2010, at 9 a.m. ET and end December 13, 2010 (8:59 a.m. EST). To cast a write-in vote, you must first vote in the Capital One National Mascot of the Year competition at capitalonebowl.com. Once you have voted for the National Mascot of the Year, you will be prompted on a new screen to vote in the Write-in Contest. You can cast a Write-In vote immediately, but only after voting in the Capital One National Mascot of the Year competition at capitalonebowl.com. If you leave the site before casting a Write-In Contest vote, you can't vote in the Write-In Contest until you vote again for the National Mascot of the Year.

Visitors may cast one vote in the Write-In Contest for every Capital One National Mascot of the Year vote they make. The Write-In Contest mascot with the most online votes at the end of the 15- week Voting Period will be the Write-In Contest winner. The winning Write-In Contest mascot will be announced on January 1, 2011, at capitalonebowl.com.

Regulations

The Write-In Contest begins August 30, 2010, and runs through December 13, 2010, (8:59 a.m. EST). Votes received after 9 a.m. ET on December 13, 2010, will not be counted. Capital One reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to void any votes it deems fraudulent, votes not cast in conformity with these official rules or votes otherwise designed to undermine the integrity of the Contest. Decisions of Capital One are final.

No purchase is necessary to vote for the Write-In Contest.

Internet

Sponsor is not responsible for technical failures of any kind or any problems or delays arising from any technical, software or equipment malfunctions, computer viruses, congestion on or unavailability of the voting site during the Write-In Contest or any other technical, equipment or human errors of any kind. If Sponsor determines in its sole discretion that there is any suspected or actual evidence of electronic or non-electronic tampering or fraud relating to any portion of the Write-In Contest, or if technical difficulties compromise the integrity of the Write-In Contest, it may cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Write-In Contest, in whole or in part, at any time without notice.

Prizes

The Write-In Contest mascot receiving the most online votes will win $1,000 for use in scholarships and funding of its school's mascot program. The winning mascot will also be offered an opportunity to be on the 2011 All-America Mascot Team pending their school's official approval and willingness to agree to the official terms and conditions required by Capital One to be on the All-America Mascot Team.

In the event of a tie, the Write-In Contest prize money will be split between the two winning schools, and both winning mascots will be offered an opportunity to compete in the 2011 Capital One All-America Mascot competition.