If Kentucky loses, restauranteur promises to buy 15,000 steak dinners

Forget that late-night pizza, undergraduate students at Northern Kentucky University might be getting a steak dinner if their school wins its opening-round game in the NCAA Tournament.

Of course, the game is against Kentucky, so it’s a long shot, but a free steak would make the victory even sweater.

Jeff Ruby, who owns a handful of steakhouses, said he will give a full steak dinner to the 15,000 undergrads at Northern Kentucky if they win on Friday. In a news release, Ruby said the cost could top $1 million.

“Yes, this could get very expensive,” he said in the release. “But it’s important to me to show support to our hometown organizations. NKU is a real asset to the community as they continue to produce extraordinary talented leaders for our region and beyond.”

Ruby also said in the release that he a Wildcats fan and friends with coach John Calipari, he doesn’t believe there is a conflict of loyalties in offering this incentive to the upstarts at NKU.

“NKU is virtually in our back yard and we’ve watched it grow at an amazing rate since we started building our own businesses in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky in 1981,” Ruby said in the release. “It’s a true success story and they’re just getting started.”

Many people who aren’t students at Northern Kentucky will be rooting for the team on Friday simply because they don’t like the Wildcats.