Nick Bhardwaj has no connection to Arkansas State.
He has never been to a football game in Jonesboro. He has never even been in the state of Arkansas.
But that won’t stop the 25-year-old CEO of a California video game studio from catching a plane this morning to kick off what he called a “dream” weekend in Jonesboro.
And all it cost him was $11,700.
Bhardwaj, who lives in San Francisco, placed the winning bid in ASU’s “Head Coach Experience” online auction.
Bhardwaj’s $11,700 bought him the opportunity to serve as a coach for one of the teams in the Red Wolves’ spring football game Friday night at Centennial Bank Stadium. He’ll get to hold a news conference at 11 a.m. Friday, address the team before the game and at halftime, and make in-game decisions such as whether to go for it or punt on fourth down, or when to run or pass.
“One of those dream jobs that you would want for a day,” Bhardwaj said. “It really clicked with me instantly. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I wanted to have it.”
Bhardwaj said he first read about the auction on ESPN.com and decided to bid without any real expectation of how high the price would eventually be.
The bidding started at $2,500 when it opened April 7. His first bid was around $5,000, then the bidding shot up to around $10,000 over the weekend. Bhardwaj wasn’t deterred, placing his winning bid before it closed Monday evening.
Bhardwaj is co-founder and CEO of Beyond Games, which is based in San Francisco. Before that, he was the vice president at Natural Motion, a mobile game company that was sold for $527 million in January.
“No buyer’s remorse at all,” he said. “The experience has already been fascinating.”
Bhardwaj spent Monday evening interacting with coaches and fans on social media sites and doing interviews with various news outlets and radio stations, interactions that spilled well into Tuesday afternoon.
Bhardwaj’s winning bid will go to the Red Wolves Foundation, the fundraising arm for ASU’s athletic department.
“The reason I did this, not only for the experience, but for Arkansas State realizing there was an opportunity to bring interesting press and bring some attention to the program,” he said. “I think that’s worked really well for them. I’m really excited to play just a minor role in that process.”
Bhardwaj, who grew up near Sacramento and attended San Jose State University before dropping out, isn’t completely in the dark when it comes to the Red Wolves.
He described himself as a huge sports fan and said he watched ASU play in its Go-Daddy Bowl victory over Ball State in January. He also followed ASU’s head-coaching changes in each of the past four seasons and was familiar with ASU Coach Blake Anderson’s past two seasons as North Carolina’s offensive coordinator.
He said he always has been interested in the Spread offense, which ASU runs, and is already tinkering with ideas on how to use wide receiver J.D. McKissic and running back Michael Gordon.
“There are a few players I’m excited to see if we can execute plays and get them into man-to-man coverage,” he said. “A lot of the fans have been wonderful and pointing me to guys I should know about. Definitely hoping to learn more.”
At a glance ASU SPRING GAME WHEN 7 p.m. Friday WHERE Centennial Bank Stadium, Jonesboro TICKETS Free
Sports, Pages 21 on 04/16/2014