(Photo by August Jennewein)

Students from Oakville High School (south St. Louis County) geared up Dec. 2 at the University of Missouri–St. Louis to battle against their Kansas City, Mo., counterparts in the annual Financial Football Show-Me Showdown.

The longstanding “I-70 rivalry” between Missouri’s two largest cities was expanded with an NFL-themed video game. Financial Football Show-Me Showdown, hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education at UMSL, pitted Oakville students against students from Lincoln College Preparatory Academy in Kansas City in a virtual showdown testing their financial knowledge. The teams played three games, with the St. Louis students taking the best two out of three.

“The event provides a fun way to reinforce what students are learning about personal finance in high school,” said Grant Black, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education at UMSL. “For the competition, students play Financial Football, an online educational video game developed by VISA in partnership with the NFL. The game requires students to test their knowledge of a wide range of personal finance topics.”