Electronic Arts Sports is giving Mike the Tiger a chance to be on the cover of its NCAA Football ’09 video game for Nintendo Wii. The Mascot Challenge allows fans to choose their favorite NCAA mascot through Internet voting by visiting www.easports.com/ncaa09, NCAA Football ’09’s Web site. Voting began Feb. 14 and ends March 14. EA Sports will announce the winner March 18. NCAA Football ’09 is scheduled for release July 15. “It’s a fun, interactive way to get college students involved,” said Andrew Remson, LSU representative for EA Sports. Fans are allowed to vote once a day until the end of the voting period. “Or as I like to tell people, you can vote as many times a day from a different computer,” Remson said. More than 200,000 votes have been cast in the competition so far. Matthew Clark and Andrew Remson created the Facebook group “Vote for Mike for the cover of NCAA ’09” to raise awareness. Remson said the number of the Facebook group members is slowly reaching 3,000. The group’s numbers seem low compared to some universities. The Penn State Nittany Lion’s group has more than 4,400 members. And the Missouri Tiger’s group has more than 6,000 members. Remson said the biggest competition is the Kansas Jayhawk’s group, boasting more than 8,000 members. “Hopefully we come out on top, and Facebook numbers don’t matter,” Remson said. Remson said the numbers should continue to grow in voting for Mike because University students want to remain at the top. “I believe honestly with LSU’s recent success in football, fans are wanting to continue to be in the spotlight,” Remson said. Melissa Comoletti, dietetics sophomore, said she has already voted 10 times and no other mascot deserves it more than Mike. Alexandra Panicucci, communication studies sophomore, said she has voted seven times so far. “We are the only school with two BCS titles,” Panicucci said. “LSU is the obvious choice for the cover mascot.”
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