Business Embraces Prep Football

Elite Programs Given Chance to Travel and Play in Televised Games

When more than a dozen of the nation's top high school football teams converge in Ohio for a series of games this weekend, ESPN and the NFL Network will have their cameras ready. A fast-food chain will pay a six-figure sum to sponsor the event, with Nike, Gatorade and the Marines also pitching in.

Welcome to the latest trend in high school sports, where the volume of coverage on the Internet and interest from corporate sponsors have combined to create a growing number of long-distance matchups between top football teams.

Chicago-based sports marketing and event production company Intersport is organizing 11 games in Ohio this weekend, the Burger King Kirk Herbstreit Ohio vs. USA Challenge. The event is headlined by The Post's No. 1 team, DeMatha, taking on Cincinnati powerhouse St. Xavier today at noon in a game that will be shown on ESPN and bankrolled in part by Burger King, which signed a three-year contract as the series' title sponsor. Burger King also has contracted to be either the title sponsor or one of two primary sponsors in ESPN's new high school football all-star game.

"We like the fit with our customer," Burger King chief marketing officer Russ Klein said. "We like what the sport stands for. We like the every-town authenticity and appeal that high school football represents. We think it's an underdeveloped and untapped segment, and we're going to be aggressive about building it on the national stage."

In the past, high school sports was limited to local and regional competition. Some winter and spring sports teams have traveled for holiday tournaments, and in recent years, elite basketball teams have traversed the country to play one another in high-profile, specially arranged games. But until now, it was financially cumbersome for high school football teams, with rosters and coaching staffs that are significantly larger, to journey long distances.

DeMatha, for instance, has not traveled a significant distance since 1990, when it played at Brockton, Mass. The Stags were scheduled to play at Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Mo., in 2001 -- with costs paid for in part by an alum -- but the game was canceled because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

More football teams are scheduling long-distance trips because there is more interest. With the explosion of information available online, fans, coaches and players want to know how the best teams stack up. The amount of attention paid to college recruiting, as well, has helped raise the profile of high school sports.

"As the Internet has allowed the exchange of information to grow, I think you've seen high school sports grow up akin to college sports," said David Carter, executive director of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California. "Well, here come the sponsors."

Given the chance to play St. Xavier to open this season, DeMatha Coach Bill McGregor said there was no hesitation. Event organizers will pay for 75 plane tickets, bus transportation, meals and 27 hotel rooms for the team's traveling party plus $5,000 for the school, McGregor said. The payout will be used to bus 21 more players, chaperoned by coaches, to Cincinnati.

"I don't see how anybody who is offered a trip like that can turn it down," McGregor said.

All told, 13 of the teams in USA Today's preseason top 25 rankings will play in a national event this season. The biggest game could come in two weeks, when top-ranked Carroll of Southlake, Tex., hosts second-ranked Northwestern of Miami in a game being billed as the Clash of Champions. It will be televised by ESPNU.

Corporate America already is in the midst of a feet-first dive into the high school sports craze. The NBC series "Friday Night Lights" will return for a second season this fall. Over the past year, MTV televised two seasons of "Two-A-Days," a reality series about the football team at Hoover High in Hoover, Ala.-- which was scheduled to play in the Herbstreit Challenge yesterday against Colerain High of Cincinnati.