College football's national champion will be crowned next Monday at Miami Gardens' Hard Rock Stadium, but the showdown between Alabama and Ohio State is creating fans outside of the game with two million dollars being invested to renovate nearly two dozen school media centers.
It's through a partnership between Miami-Dade Public Schools, the College Football Playoff Foundation and the Miami Host Committee. The upgraded media center at John F. Kennedy Middle School in North Miami Beach is being unveiled this afternoon.
Foundation Executive Director Britton Banowsky says Fort Lauderdale's Stranahan High is getting a high-tech multi-use learning space with several Palm Beach elementary schools receiving learning space renovations as a part of the Extra Yard Makeover Program.
"You're going to have students that, theoretically, haven't been born yet that are going to get to experience the impact that we've made in these learning spaces."
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He stresses this isn't a program that leaves as soon as the game clock hits triple zeroes.
In fact, officials start investing at least a year before the championship game and, "We stay with it for years afterwards just because we think the work needs to be sustained, and we think that if you want to have true impact, you really have to do it over the long run."