For junior football player Frank Ross, it was an easy decision to suit up for the Blue Streaks. It was an easy decision to put in the hours, week after week, to help the team. But his hardest decision came from one simple question.

Deal, or no deal?

Ross had always been intrigued by NBC's hit game show, which aired in 2005.

After months of rigorous trials and battles, Ross has since become part of the program. He will appear as a contestant in an upcoming episode, Nov. 3.

To get on the show, he needed to enter a process that took several months to determine if he would be a good contestant on the show. Simply put, the producers look for entertaining people who have a good use for the prize money.

Ross, a very passionate football player, convinced them.

“My reason for possibly winning this money is to buy our football team new uniforms,” he said. “It's not fair that we don't have new uniforms.”

For the last nine months, Ross has seen the need for new football equipment. Players have to buy their own travel suits, hand in their practice gear after the season and in some cases, the uniforms do not match for the entire team. He saw “Deal or No Deal” as an opportunity to use one interest to help another interest.

Ross is allowed to talk about the show, but he must act accordingly to a very strict contract.

“My contract is if I say anything about my winnings, how the show went, what case I picked, anything like that, I could get sued for $1 million every time it gets leaked to the press,” said Ross.
Don't expect too much info.

In the middle of February, Ross filled out an 11-page application and sent it in to the producers, along with a video of what would make him a good contestant.

“I sat down in my room and tell them we're D3 athletes, we don't have funding, and we're doing it for the love of the game,” he said.

“People were laughing as I put this thing in the mailbox, saying 'Really? This is a waste of your time',” said Ross.

About a month later, Frank got a callback from a producer of the show. When he talked to the representative on the other end, they set up a phone interview for some time in March.

“Be the best of yourself the whole time,” he said to Ross. Then they played a mock game of “Deal or No Deal”.

They told Ross that he may not hear from them for as long as a year, as short as a month, or maybe never hear from them at all.

Then, in late June, another producer named Matt Ponfret called Ross.

“Start at birth,” said Ponfret.         

Ross spent so much time on the phone over the course of nine months that his parents were forced to change his cell phone package to allow him to talk long distance so often.

In July, Ponfret told Frank that they would not be flying him out to Los Angeles for the time being, and that it was up to the main producers of NBC to decide.

“I was so dejected. I e-mailed Matt like, thank you for this opportunity. I really am doing it for this reason,” said Ross.

He thought this shot was over, but what Ponfret meant was that he was not going to be flying out for that particular session, but perhaps for another session.

He did get called back and on Sept. 12, Ross, his parents, sister and fellow JCU junior Chukubueze Iheama were on a plane to California to film Ross' episode.

“They booked my plane tickets and I was set to go,” said Ross. “That was huge news for me.”

The show is filmed in Culver City, California, in the outskirts of Los Angeles. As soon as Ross got to his hotel, he got a taste of Hollywood and the bright lights.

“A Ben Affleck movie was being filmed in my hotel,” he said.

While spending time at his hotel, a lot was going through Ross' head.

“I was just thinking of all the advice people gave me. The most important thing I heard was don't be greedy,” said Ross. “I knew I only got this once. I was calm ... then the crowd was cheering ... then I got all jacked up like it was a football game.”

Although Ross has to keep silent on what actually transpired, he did reveal what he gained non-monetarily from his appareance on "Deal or No Deal".

“My experience on the show is one of the hardest things I've ever done," said Ross. "I felt pressure because I knew I wasn't playing for just me. I didn't want to let anyone down."