Google Leading the Way with College SEM Challenge

This is something I wish was around back when I was in college.
Google Online Marketing Challenge

Of course, Google hadn't gotten into the advertising game yet when I was in college - damn I feel old (back in my day, SEM's had to learn how to set up and manage Adwords campaigns on our own - and we liked it!).

It's a chance for college students to gain real-world SEM experience before heading out into that job market - they form school teams, then partner up with participating local businesses to devise a strategy, set up and manage the campaign, and analyze the results.

I think this is a great idea - and talk about a resume-builder!  These students will be excellent candidates for some prime marketing internships while they're in school.  Once they graduate, they'll have some top-notch, marketable experience under their belts.

I'd love to see the published results once this is over - who worked with what business, what the goals were, strategies, results, etc.  I'd also like to see who else jumps on this bandwagon (where has Yahoo been?) and if we'll see more college challenges in other areas of online marketing (SEOMoz? Aaron Wall?  Oh I know - Matt Cutts and Google will have an SEO challenge).

We'll see...