Arike Ogunbowale to Appear on “Dancing With the Stars: Athletes”

What a Time to Be Alive

Arike Ogunbowale is living her best life right now. She has had one hell of a two-week stretch. Yes, just 15 days ago she hit “The Shot” to beat UConn.

Just 13 days ago, she hit “The Shot 2.0” to seal the National Championship for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

9 Days ago, Arike was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated

8 days ago, Arike appeared on “Ellen.” For this, she got to meet Kobe Bryant and play 2-on-2 “basketball” against Kobe and Ice Cube. This was all due to her Final Four heroics as well as her Twitter back-and-forth with Kobe.

All of this has happened since March 30. Now, though, Arike can add one more awesome thing to her crazy month of April. She was selected to be on a special edition season of “Dancing with the Stars” called “Dancing with the Stars: Athletes” which will air on April 30 at 8 PM on ABC.

Now, because there is prize money involved, one might ask how Arike could participate. She is still a college athlete...

...so how can the NCAA let her compete for prize money? Well, it is actually fine because the prize money (if she were to win) is not in direct correlation to her basketball skills. Additionally, she cannot advocate for herself on social media or on any platform, and Notre Dame cannot “promote” her being on the show. Official accounts can wish Arike good luck and say she is on the show, but they cannot, for example, encourage people to vote for her. It’s an interesting stipulation.

This is actually a pretty big deal because for all of the hoopla that the NCAA decides upon, this is the first case of its kind. They are letting a current college athlete compete for prize money because it is outside of the sport of the athlete. We’ll see if this starts to set a precedent for this.

Regardless, Arike will be on the show, dancing with Gleb Savchenko.

Go Arike! Do all of the things!