I’ve got the answer. Get the governor on the horn. I’ve found the solution to the state’s economic woes.

The answer hit me when Kathy Cox went on “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” and won $1 million for our state’s school system.

We’ve got just the people for the job right here at the University. It took me a little while to come up with the right candidates, but I think we’ve got sure-fire winners here.

First, there’s “Deal or No Deal.” To win, you’ve got to be someone who can get the most value out of the available options and someone who knows the value of a deal presented to him or her. I have to think you can’t be the director of the most profitable intercollegiate athletics program in the country without possessing those abilities.

That’s right, Damon Evans easily could earn the University thousands of dollars on NBC. I can imagine Evans negotiating that shadow-shrouded “Banker” right out of his booth as Howie Mandel writes a fat check to the Hartman Fund.

Next up, “Survivor.” We need somebody used to extreme environments, someone who can, as the logo for the shows reads, outwit, outplay and outlast. This one’s easy: Mark Richt.

Last summer, Richt went on a mission trip to Honduras, a country the U.S. State Department calls “one of the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America.” He’s been battle-tested, so to speak. And as for outwitting, outplaying and outlasting? Richt’s had to outwit a great many coaches to earn his 76 wins.

To play quarterback for the University of Miami, Richt definitely had to outplay a lot of people. And since Richt’s started coaching the Bulldogs, 11 different coaches have left SEC schools. How’s that for outlasting?

Then there’s that classic, “The Price is Right.” The best player there, of course, is the one who has a good handle on the value of things – refrigerators, jet skis, fabulous vacations, whatever. With his “president’s party’s” luxurious week in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl earlier this year and the attention its cost later drew, I’d wager Mike Adams would wheel through the Showcase Showdown with ease and nail the Showcase within 10 cents.

Surely there will be detractors to my idea and my list of perfect contestants.

Some may say these people have better things to do, such as manage our athletic department, football team and University.

Some will say that winning could be beneficial to the school system and the state, but if our contestants go out and lose or fall short, they run the risk of embarrassing themselves and, as ambassadors and figure heads of our state and University, embarrassing us.

To these people, I say: C’mon. Everybody loves game shows!

And hey, if you don’t think my picks can get it done, you can’t deny Knowshon would absolutely dominate on “American Gladiators.”

- Clarke Schwabe is a senior from Swainsboro, Ga., majoring in magazines.