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BRITTON BANOWSKY: We obviously believe that teacher recognition is really important. We have a workforce that’s making a difference in our future. Without a great teacher, we don’t have good student achievement. Without good student achievement and student outcomes, we’re not going to have great communities.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Hello everybody, and welcome back to Inspiring Teachers: The Honored Podcast, where we shine a spotlight on life-changing teachers across the country. I’m Hannah, your podcast host, and our podcast is brought to you by Honored, which is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring and elevating great teachers nationwide. Our mission is to inspire and retain great teachers, keeping them in the classroom as long as possible. Every month at the school year at Honored, we select an exceptional educator in the United States to be the recipient of the Honored National Teaching Award. Each Honoree, as we call them, receives a $5,000 cash reward, and we then tell the story on our website and our social media platforms of how that teacher has impacted their students’ lives. To learn more about our organization, you can go to our website at honored.org. While you’re there, if you have a teacher you would like to recognize, you can nominate them at honored.org/nominate.

We are so excited to have you listening in on our first organizational spotlight podcast episode. Today, we are joined by Britton Banowsky, the Executive Director of the College Football Playoff Foundation. Britton Banowsky was named the first Executive Director of the College Football Playoff Foundation in July 2015. He leads the organization’s philanthropic initiative, as well as its capstone project, Extra Yard for Teachers. Banowsky’s role includes coordinating all legacy investments in host cities, expanding positive impact for teachers year-round, as well as directing the long-term strategic plan for the College Football Playoff Foundation.   Outside of the College Football Playoff Foundation, Banowsky has been involved with many public service programs in Dallas. He served on the Dallas Mayor’s Task Force on Poverty, chaired the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance, founded the non-profit the Heart of Dallas, and chaired the Dallas Mayor’s Commission on Homelessness. Born in Los Angeles, he is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, where he earned both a business and a law degree. Britton also previously served as a member of Honored’s Board of Directors. To start our episode off, you’ll hear from Britton, who shares how he got to where he is now as the Executive Director of the College Football Playoff Foundation.

BRITTON BANOWSKY: So I’ve been in college sports administration for about 40 years now. And I was the chair of the foundation while I was still a commissioner of a conference. And so we got to the point where we were going to hire an executive director, and I just thought it would be a really fun project for me to work on full time and not just be part of the board or the board chair, but actually take on the role. And so I left my job as commissioner and jumped into this position, and it’s been the greatest 10 years of my career by far. I love this work.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Behind each and every one of us is a story of a teacher who had a life-changing impact. To share who inspired him, Britton tells a story about his high school math teacher and football coach who taught him invaluable lessons, both on and off the football field. 

BRITTON BANOWSKY: You know, so many teachers impacted me throughout not only my childhood, but also through college. So I have numerous, numerous stories. The one that comes to mind, though, is my teacher named Joe Gomez, Professor Gomez, or Coach Gomez. So he was my algebra teacher and geometry teacher in high school, but he was also my head football coach. And so not only did he do a great job of teaching me math, but he also taught me character building and taught me how to be a good person on the football field and off the football field. So I’d say Joe Gomez was the guy I think of first, who shaped my life.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: At its core, the College Football Playoff Foundation’s mission and vision are to support educators nationwide. Through their many different programs, they work to recognize teachers and improve student outcomes. Their primary platform, Extra Yard for Teachers, is dedicated to elevating the teaching profession by inspiring and empowering teachers in four core areas: resources, recognition, professional development, and recruitment and retention.

BRITTON BANOWSKY: Well, we’re the College Football Playoff Foundation, and I think most people know what the College Football Playoff is. It’s the way they decide who the champion is in college football, through a playoff format. But the foundation is a nonprofit that’s connected to that big, big event company. And our focus is around supporting K through 12 education. But within that space, it’s really focused on teachers. And we have a cause brand called Extra Yard for Teachers, and most of our impact work falls underneath that cause brand.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Reflecting on the history of the College Football Playoff Foundation, Britton expands more about how the organization came to be. Founded on the values of recognizing and going all in for teachers, the organization is leaving a lasting legacy in the lives of educators and students.

BRITTON BANOWSKY: So I was a commissioner of a conference, and I was fortunate enough to be at the table when decisions were made to have a playoff and to move from an old system called the BCS to an actual playoff format. And the marketplace responded really well to it. ESPN loved the idea, and they decided to make an offer for 12 years, and a lot, a lot of money. And so we were about ready to say yes to that, but then a few of us at the table thought, well, are we just going to be about football, or should we be about supporting something beyond football? Having a kind of lasting legacy for the work that’s not just about that we played the game and then we left. And most of us thought that would be a great idea, but we went through a process to determine how to create a foundation, how to build it out, and then what we wanted to stand for. And so we talked about a variety of different ways for us to make an impact. But then I remember very clearly we all had a teacher who made a difference in our lives, or we had a mom or dad who were teachers, or sons or daughters or brothers. And so, we basically said we need to go all in for teachers. Teachers are critical for our country’s success going forward and its future, and so they need our help now. So let’s just go all in for teachers. And so that’s how we decided to do it.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Research shows that teachers who are regularly recognized are more likely to stay teaching for longer. And yet, research from Gallup also shows us that more than 70% of teachers report that they haven’t been recently acknowledged for their work. In our conversation with Britton, he highlighted the role teacher recognition plays in teacher retention. Through the College Football Playoff Foundation’s work, they are committed to increasing recognition and empowering teachers, which ultimately improves retention and student success.

BRITTON BANOWSKY: Yeah, I mean, you use the word retaining teachers. That’s the outcome we want to our recognition programs. But what I was amazed at when I first got into this space about a decade ago was how absolutely little recognition teachers receive. And what we learned, something as simple as a free lunch, like a Chick-fil-A sandwich or something like that, actually moves teachers. They’re so appreciative. A Starbucks gift card or something like that just to say you’re doing a great job, keep it up. And so we believe in the value of teacher recognition. We know from a decade worth of experience that it matters, and so we’re doubling down on it.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Working in K to 12 campuses, Britton is a part of incredible impact stories year-round. In 2023, the College Football Playoff Foundation invested in renovating a library at Eliot Arts Magnet  School in Altadena, California. In January 2025, the Southern California wildfires left significant damage to the school, including the library. To help rebuild the school, the College Football Playoff Foundation, in partnership with the College Football Playoff Bowl Games, provided funding to restore the library. In celebrating this restoration plan with the community, Britton was able to see firsthand expressions of hope and resiliency among both students and teachers.

BRITTON BANOWSKY: We work year-round, every year, and have for the last decade. We have a dozen or more programs, including a lot of programs that get us on campuses. And so I’m blessed to be able to be on elementary, middle school, and high school campuses regularly. So we do see the impact. The thing that comes to mind most recently, though, the work that I think was really impactful, was in response to the fires in Altadena and Pasadena. So we had made an investment of a couple $100,000 in renovating a library at a school called Eliot Arts Magnet in Altadena, part of the Pasadena Unified School District. And we celebrated that investment about 18 months ago. Well, in January, the fire in California burned down the school altogether and displaced all the students. No one was injured at the school, but the school is basically a total loss. So they made a decision to rebuild the school, and then we got together with some of our other partners, particularly the partners at the Playoff Bowls, the six games that host playoff games. And we all pooled funds together and were able to make an investment of 1.5 million to restore that library. And so we went and celebrated that at a neighboring middle school called McKinley, where the Eliot kids and the McKinley kids are kind of using the same campus. And so we were able to speak to some of the Eliot Arts Magnet students and teachers about our investment to make their new school and their new library the best in the country. And it was really fun to see the expressions of hope on their faces, and just to witness the resiliency of a community. And how people react in times of challenges is just kind of cool to see that they come out on the other side. And that change is not necessarily bad. So that was last month, and so that was a moment that comes to mind.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Through one of the College Football Playoff Foundation’s programs, they support student athletes who are interested in becoming teachers by offering grants to help offset the costs of teacher certifications. Each athlete also selects a teacher who made a difference in their lives and surprises them with a grant for their own school. This pay-it-forward program is invaluable in recognizing teachers and building the next generation of educators.

BRITTON BANOWSKY: So we have several programs that involve student athletes and football players as well. One of them was a pay it forward program where we identified student athletes who wanted to be teachers, and we basically said we’ll give you a grant to help offset the cost of your teacher certification. And Dr. Pepper is the sponsor of this one; the amount was like $2,500. And also, we want you to identify a teacher that made a difference to you, and then we’ll set up a Zoom call, and you can surprise them with a grant for their school, for their classroom, for the same amount, $2,500. So we see these kinds of interactions all the time, and have supported the teacher pathways for student athletes from 150 different schools.  And so we do that every year, including HBCU. So it’s something that we get to see often, and it’s really neat to see student athletes not only recognize and express appreciation for the teacher that impacted them, but also to see how their skill set as student athletes transfers well into the classroom. So we see it all the time.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: At Honored, we know that teacher recognition is a critical part of keeping teachers engaged in their work. In conversations with Honored co-founders, Karen and Katherine, Britton saw a direct relation between Honored’s and the College Football Playoff Foundation’s work. As a previous member of Honored’s board, Britton’s collaboration has allowed us to support each other’s initiatives to inspire and retain great teachers nationwide. 

BRITTON BANOWSKY: We obviously believe that teacher recognition is really important. We have a workforce that’s making a difference in our future. Without a great teacher, we don’t have good student achievement. Without good student achievement and student outcomes, we’re not going to have great communities. So, for us to see teachers feel underappreciated and underrecognized, and then they ask themselves whether this is a profession I want to stay in, is something that is of serious concern to us. And so when I met with Katherine, and she told me what she and Karen were up to, and that they were trying to really lift up the profession and also identify teachers all across the country to storytell about, I was like, “That’s right in our lane, for sure. You know, how can I be helpful to you?”

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Founded by Honored in 2020, Honored Schools is an in-school teacher recognition program aimed at recognizing great teachers, elevating student voices, and creating a consistent culture of teacher appreciation within school communities. In 2025, we were honored to hand over leadership of this initiative to the College Football Playoff Foundation. In just this year alone, they have grown this program beyond belief and have incredible plans to continue the growth and impact of this program.

BRITTON BANOWSKY: We love the model of Honored Schools and the whole student voice element of it, and having students basically be part of a validation and feedback loop for their teacher is reaffirming. And so we love the concept and the idea. And so this last year, we took over the operational side of it, and figured out how it worked. And we shortened the season to a period between January to April 15, because our football work begins to really culminate at the National Championship Game, which is January 19 or 20 usually. So it works great. We got a good administrator to help us stay on top of it. And we were pleasantly surprised in the five communities that we were supporting, we had over 8,000 nominations, which was more than was in the system a year ago. And so we saw how amazingly impactful the program could be. And so going forward, we have really ambitious goals. We were in Indianapolis, Inglewood, New Orleans, Houston, and Atlanta last year. And so we’re going to add to that Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Palm Beach District, we’re going to try to get Las Vegas involved. Those are three of the top ten districts in the country. So we feel like if we can plant these programs in them, those major systems that have higher resources, that we might be able to double or triple the number of nominations and the number of teachers that receive awards going forward next year.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Thank you so much for listening and joining us today to learn more about Britton Banowsky and the College Football Playoff Foundation. To learn more about the College Football Playoff Foundation, you can visit their website at cfp-foundation.org or click the link in the episode description. If you enjoyed today’s podcast episode, you can follow us and leave us a review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening in from. If you’d like to take a moment to recognize a life-changing teacher, head to Honored.org/nominate to nominate a teacher for our Honored National Teaching Award. Thanks again for listening, and make sure to tune in next month to listen to another organizational spotlight podcast episode.