The University of Hawai'i expects its Colt Brennan Heisman Trophy candidacy DVD — "A Colt Following" — to be the best bargain since, well, the scholarship it gave the record-breaking quarterback.

For an expenditure of approximately $25,000, according to associate athletic director John McNamara, "the actual value to Colt, the team, the athletic department and the state is really way off the charts," he said. "I don't think we could have bought this kind of exposure at several times the price."

The release of the 43-minute DVD helped bring 11,891 visitors to Brennan's Heisman Trophy Web site in July, even with the DVD not going up until July 23. In the first 15 days of August, Brennan's site received 12,830 visitors.

"No question it is money well spent," athletic director Herman Frazier said. "For $25,000 for something that is viewed by that many people as opposed to a billboard in Times Square (N.Y.), you can't measure the two."

Oregon promoted quarterback Joey Harrington for the Heisman Trophy in 2001 with a 10-story Times Square billboard at a cost of $250,000. He finished fourth.

"We wanted people, the voters, to get to know not only Colt the football player but the person," said KITV sports director Robert Kekaula, who produced and directed the project. "It isn't just, 'Hey, I'm Colt, and here's what I've done, and here's what I'm running for.' Colt's a special guy and we wanted people to know why he has such a following in Hawai'i."

McNamara said the actual cost of producing the DVD "would have easily been five times that amount if not for Robert, all the TV stations, people in the media and community who contributed."

UH said it ordered 1,000 copies of the DVD, which it is distributing to media and others who vote in national polls and for postseason awards. The school is not selling copies.

Brennan and the Warriors have been — or are scheduled to be — featured by ESPN, Sports Illustrated, CBSSportsLine, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and USA Today, among others, UH and WAC officials said.

More telling, UH appeared in the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches' preseason polls for the first time in school history. UH is 23rd in the AP poll and 24th in USA Today.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.