Twenty seconds left in the big game against rival University of Kansas, and the power goes out on a roomful of University of Kentucky basketball fans. They wring their hands, grab flashlights, burst outside, run to the only porch they see with the lights on, and ring the doorbell in desperation.

Bad news. At the house they’ve approached lives a KU fan — who shuts the door in their Kentucky blue-clad faces.

But when one Kentucky fan holds a six-pack of Coca-Cola up to the window, the resident in the Jayhawk sweatshirt reconsiders and they all watch happily ever after — drinking Coke together, of course.

It’s NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship tournament time, a time when Jayhawk gear is especially prone to showing up in national TV commercials. In case you were wondering, KU is not getting paid for this particular commercial, at least not directly, though the university does have a say over where its official logo and mascot are used.

Coke reached out to KU with the concept for the new commercial a couple months ago, said Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director for public affairs. KU gave Coke the OK to have that Jayhawk logo front and center.

“We get to approve whether they use it or not,” Marchiony said. “As long as we approve, they can use it. But Kansas Athletics doesn’t realize any revenue from it.”

Unlike typical licensing and branding agreements where a portion of product profits goes directly to KU, this commercial was done through the NCAA’s corporate partnership with Coke, Marchiony said. That agreement allows Coke to use schools’ logos as long as the schools approve.

As for the plotline to have the Jayhawk answering the door and the Wildcats showing up in a pack on the porch, as opposed to the other way around? Marchiony said, “that’s all Coke’s decision.”

Recall, in 2012 Kentucky beat KU in the national championship game (I know, I don’t like to think about it, either). So far in the 2017 tournament the Coke commercial is maintaining traction thanks to the fact that KU and Kentucky are both still in it, set to play Sweet 16 games in their respective regional brackets this week.

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• I’m the Journal-World’s KU and higher ed reporter. See all the newspaper’s KU coverage here. Reach me by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com, by phone at 832-7187, on Twitter @saramarieshep or via Facebook at Facebook.com/SaraShepherdNews.