UMBC and Little Caesars were taking everyone in America out for a four-slice pizza lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday. There was no word yet on the tab.
The pizza takeout giant offered four slices of "Deep! Deep!" dish pepperoni pizza and a 20-ounce Pepsi product lunch combo if a No. 16 seed beat a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament this year, WJZ-TV reported.
Since that has never happened in the history of the tournament under its current 64 and 68-team formats, Little Caesars probably felt pretty comfortable about the promotion. But The University of Maryland Baltimore County basketball team made Little Caesar cough up the freebies with a stunning 74-54 victory over No. 1-seed Virginia on March 16.
The UMBC athletic department put out a "humble brag" statement on Twitter Sunday.
Little Caesars didn’t back away from the offer, issuing its own tweet on Monday calling on everyone to take advantage of the free offer, while supplies lasted, and noted there were some rules, including one free lunch combo per family, USA Today reported.
Even though UMBC lost to No. 9-seed Kansas State in the second round of the tournament 50-43 two days later, the Retrievers had already etched themselves into NCAA and Little Casears history.
UMBC coach Ryan Odom has received a nice payday beyond the Little Caesars pizza, according to USA Today. Odom received a $7,500 bonus from the school for the Retrievers winning the America East Conference tournament and another $7,500 for the team participating in the NCAA tournament. He received another $10,000 for the Virginia upset and advancing to the round of 32, the newspaper said.
Fans responded positively to the free lunch on social media.
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