Last updated August 16, 2026

1. Sponsor and Administrator
The Campus Cup 2026 (the “Cup”) is presented and administered by The Beam Group, LLC (“Beam,” “we,” “us”), headquartered at 80 SW 8th Street, 22nd Floor, Miami, FL 33130.

2. Agreement to Rules
By participating in the Cup in any capacity, by voting, submitting music, joining a campus, or serving as a campus ambassador, you agree to these Official Rules, to Beam’s Terms of Use, and to Beam’s Privacy Policy.

These Official Rules govern the Cup specifically. Where they conflict with Beam’s general Terms of Use, these Official Rules control with respect to the Cup.

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO PARTICIPATE OR TO VOTE IN THE CUP. A PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING OR THE STANDING OF ANY CAMPUS.

3. Competition Period
The Cup is structured as twelve weekly periods running Wednesday through Tuesday:

Weeks 1-3: Seeding—cumulative Discovery voting; standings lock at the close of Week 3
Weeks 4-7: Main Stage Quarterfinals; Encore bracket runs and concludes
Weeks 8-9: Main Stage Semifinals
Weeks 10-11: Main Stage Final
Week 12: Championship Week; champion announced

4. Participating Campuses
Campuses are grouped into Beam-operated conferences. Conference names, composition, and boundaries are determined by Beam in its sole discretion, may be changed between seasons, and do not reflect any athletic conference, institutional affiliation, or institutional preference.

Beam may add, remove, or substitute a participating campus before the close of the seeding phase. After the seeding phase closes, a campus that withdraws or is removed forfeits its position, and Beam may advance its opponent, award a bye, or take other action under Section 13.

5. Who Can Participate, and Whose Votes Count
Only current, verified students may compete in the Campus Cup.

Anyone may join or follow a campus. Joining or following a campus does not, by itself, mean that a user’s votes count toward that campus’s Cup Score.

Users may follow campuses, view brackets, and use all other platform features. Their activity is tracked for analytics and reporting and may be reflected in Discovery standing, but it does not contribute to Cup Score.

Beam may verify, re-verify, reclassify, suspend, or revoke any user’s category or campus affiliation at any time. Eligibility is recomputed at the time scores are tallied, not only at the time a user joins—a user who completes verification mid-season will have votes counted from the point of verification forward.

Participants must be at least 18 years of age to participate in the Cup.

6. Artists, Discovery, and the Starting Lineup
Any eligible artist may join their campus’s Discovery pool. Discovery is uncapped and open for the full season. To join, an artist completes the Beam artist profile, uploads at least one recording, and verifies a school-issued (.edu) email address through the verification email Beam sends. Beam approves or declines each submission in its discretion.

Every vote cast for a Discovery artist builds that artist’s Discovery score, in every week of the season, whether or not a matchup window is open.

The Starting Lineup. Each campus is represented in Cup competition by a Starting Lineup consisting of five eligible artists. For the first round, the Starting Lineup may be selected by the Beam Campus Ambassador. For each subsequent round, the Starting Lineup is reset based on Discovery score at the lineup-setting time.

Only votes cast for Starting Lineup artists during an open matchup window count toward a campus’s Cup Score. Votes for all other artists continue to build Discovery standing but do not affect the Cup.
Inclusion in a Starting Lineup in one round does not entitle any artist to inclusion in any later round. Artists may be promoted into, or relegated out of, the Starting Lineup between rounds based on Discovery score alone. No artist is guaranteed Starting Lineup placement at any time.
A campus must field at least five eligible artists to enter or remain in the Cup.

Beam may adjust the number of Starting Lineup participants, the lineup-setting time, and the minimum roster gate between seasons, and during a season only as permitted under Section 13.

7. How Scoring Works
Cup Score means the total of eligible scoring actions attributed to a campus, calculated under these Rules.

An eligible scoring action is a vote cast, during an open matchup window for an artist in that campus’s Starting Lineup for that round.

What does not score. Page views, comments, shares, follows, profile visits, and other engagement are tracked for analytics, sponsor reporting, and editorial storytelling. They do not determine any matchup, seeding position, or competition result.

Window total versus season cumulative. Two totals are maintained:

Window total — eligible scoring actions gained during a specific matchup window.
Season cumulative — eligible scoring actions accumulated across the season, used for standings, reporting, and (during Weeks 1–3) seeding.

Each matchup is decided by the window total. A campus may lead on season cumulative and still lose a matchup on the window total.

8. Seeding, Format, and Advancement
Seeding phase (Weeks 1–3). All participating campuses accumulate Cup Score. No head-to-head matchups occur. At the close of Week 3, campuses are ranked within their conference by cumulative Cup Score.

Breakout. The top two campuses in each conference advance to the Main Stage. The remaining campuses enter The Encore.

Main Stage. Single-elimination. Qualifying campuses are seeded 1 through 16 by cumulative Cup Score across all qualifiers, and paired highest-versus-lowest. Winners advance through Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and the Final. The Main Stage winner is the Campus Cup Champion.

The Encore. A consolation bracket for campuses that do not reach the Main Stage, seeded the same way, concluding in Week 7 with an Encore Champion. The Encore does not feed back into the Main Stage.

Ties. Where two campuses finish a matchup window with equal Cup Score, the campus with the higher verified Student scoring total in that window advances.

Byes and play-ins. Where the field is not a power of two, Beam may award byes or run play-in matchups, assigned by seeding position.

9. Results and Their Display
Beam may display live running totals, delayed totals, partial results, momentum indicators, or no interim results at all, and may vary this by round.

Any result displayed before a window closes and is audited is provisional and for information only. Results become official only after Beam has completed verification, eligibility, and fraud review under Section 13.

Beam will announce official results for each round on Wednesday at or around 9:00 a.m. ET.

Correction window. Beam may correct an official result within 72 hours of announcement where an error, fraud, or eligibility problem is identified. After that window closes, results are final.

10. Prizes and Recognition
Prizes are non-transferable. Beam may substitute a prize of equal or greater value. Prize recipients are responsible for all applicable taxes and must complete any documentation Beam requires, including tax forms and eligibility verification, within 28 business days of notification. Failure to complete required documentation forfeits the prize.

No participant, artist, campus, ambassador, or fan is guaranteed any prize, payment, placement, ranking, exposure, or opportunity by participating in the Cup.

Prizes and recognition may be awarded to one or more categories of participants or campuses, including the Campus Cup Champion, Main Stage Finalist or Runner-Up, Encore Champion, Winning Starting Lineup artists, fans, ambassadors, campuses, or other recognition award recipients, as determined by Beam and announced in connection with the Cup.

11. Music Rights
Artists retain ownership of the music they submit. Participation in the Cup does not transfer ownership of any recording or composition.
Artists represent that they control, or have secured, all rights necessary for Beam to host, stream, display, and promote their submitted material in connection with the Cup, and that the material does not infringe any third party’s rights.

Where a prize includes a recording, release, distribution, publishing, or synchronization opportunity, that opportunity is governed by a separate written agreement that the winner must execute before the prize is awarded.

12. Integrity, Audit, and Beam’s Authority
Prohibited conduct. Participants may not create or use fake, duplicate, automated, purchased, or shared accounts; misrepresent student, alumni, campus, or artist affiliation; use bots, scripts, or automated tools to vote or engage; buy, sell, trade, or coerce votes; pay or offer anything of value to induce a person to vote or to vote a particular way; circumvent verification or scoring systems; use disposable or fraudulent email addresses; coordinate deceptive voting patterns; tamper with results, leaderboards, rosters, or referral codes; or interfere with another participant’s participation.

Ambassador program. Beam operates a compensated campus ambassador program. Ambassadors are paid for verified recruitment activity, bringing artists into Discovery and bringing fans onto the platform and are not paid for votes cast or for any competition outcome. Ambassador activity and budget are not distributed equally across participating campuses, and no campus is entitled to any adjustment, relief, or remedy on that basis.

Audit. Beam may review any records relevant to eligibility and scoring, including votes, timestamps, verification status, affiliation, device and account signals, referral codes, and traffic patterns.

Authority. Beam may exclude ineligible scoring actions; adjust scores, seedings, or results; pause, extend, or reopen a window; correct bracket state; apply tiebreakers; disqualify any participant, artist, or campus; suspend or terminate accounts; and withhold or revise any prize. Beam’s determinations on eligibility, vote validity, scoring, advancement, and final results are final and binding, subject to applicable law and to the correction window in Section 9.

Changes to these Rules. Beam may correct clerical errors and clarify ambiguities at any time. Beam will not change the scoring formula, the eligibility categories, or the competition format after the seeding phases begin each season except where necessary to address fraud, a technical failure, or a legal requirement, and then only with notice to affected participants before the next scoring window opens.

Suspension or cancellation. If the Cup cannot be conducted as planned because of technical failure, fraud, or other causes beyond Beam’s reasonable control, Beam may suspend, modify, or terminate it and determine results on the basis of eligible activity recorded before the disruption.

13. University Non-Affiliation
Except where Beam and an institution have entered a written participation agreement, and then only to the extent of that agreement, the Cup is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or affiliated with any university, college, athletics department, student organization, or alumni association.

References to institution names, campuses, and locations identify campus communities and competition participation. They do not imply endorsement.

Participants may not state or imply that the Cup is endorsed by or affiliated with any institution unless Beam has authorized that statement in writing.

Participants may not use university trademarks, logos, mascots, or other protected institutional branding in a manner that implies university endorsement without authorization.

14. Publicity
Except where prohibited, participants agree that Beam may use their name, username, artist name, image, likeness, campus affiliation, score, ranking, placement, and submitted content to operate, report on, and promote the Cup and the Beam platform, including on campus pages, brackets, leaderboards, winner announcements, social media, email, SMS, press materials, sponsor reports, and sales materials.

15. Sponsors
If the Cup includes a presenting sponsor or other sponsor, Beam may identify that sponsor on the Cup page or in related promotional materials. Sponsor involvement does not give the sponsor control over the Beam platform, voting system, eligibility determinations, scoring, advancement, or competition results.

16. Privacy
Information collected in connection with the Cup is handled under Beam’s Privacy Policy. Participation involves collecting and processing information such as school-issued email addresses, campus affiliation, account activity, voting activity, and other information described in Beam’s Privacy Policy.

17. Communications
By participating, users may receive Cup-related communications by email, SMS, push notification, and in-app message.

SMS. Beam sends recurring campus mobilization messages by SMS. Consent to receive them is obtained separately at signup, is not a condition of participation or of voting, and may be revoked at any time by replying STOP. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency may vary.

18. Governing Law and Disputes
These Rules are governed by the governing law and dispute resolution provisions of Beam’s Terms of Use.

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