This is pretty cool, though it would be better if the contest didn’t involve a video game but something a little more intellectual instead. But I can’t seeing a chess tournament gaining as much national attention and student interest as a video game tournament.

Matt Fin reports for Fox News:

College president offers to pay for students’ books in Madden tournament

If students held an imaginary draft for the coolest college president, Columbia College’s Scott Dalrymple might be a first-round pick.

Dalrymple has offered to buy textbooks for an entire year for any student who can beat him in a game of Madden NFL 25 on PlayStation 4.

“I’m relatively young myself for a college president,” Dalrymple, 46, told FoxNews.com. “I just have a personal interest in it and I thought it would be a great way for me to connect with students.”

Dalrymple, who issued the challenge last month in a creative YouTube video that has gone viral, will play the winner of a 48-student Madden tournament on Oct. 17 — the new college president’s inauguration day — on a jumbo screen for all curious co-eds to watch.

“If I lose, and there may be a statistical chance of that I don’t know, but if I lose then I’ve offered to pay for a years-worth of free textbooks for whoever beats me,” Dalrymple said.

A year’s supply of books costs between $800 and $1,500, the Missouri college estimates.