I guess this message is mainly directed at R. and the other NAQT brass, although I would love to get everyone's feedback on it. What's prompting it is a reflection on thinking about my own team's (Penn) chances of qualifying for Div I ICT next year. Right now, I would say they're pretty slim, although not totally out of the question. For the record though, we won Mid-Atlantic Div II Sectionals this year. And yes, the point I'm getting at has been brought up several times before. The jump for even really good freshman and sophs. to "open" competition is quite severe. An easy solution would be to eliminate grad students from the mix, and make ICT for example an undergrad only tournament. Since I know that's not going to happen, I'm not going to even bother proposing. Here's what I am proposing though. Have the Div I field be composed of 16 "open" teams with grad students included of course, and 16 undergrad only teams. Then, the winner that comes out of each bracket will face each other in the final. Granted, the winner of that game might almost always be the open team. But this is a way to insure undergrad participation at a much broader level. Having an undergrad champion in the current format does some to help the problem, but not nearly enough in my opinion. This new format would insure that the best undergrad team in the country is declared champion, and that some good (but not stellar) undergrad teams qualify for ICT, and play some against some reasonable competition. It does marginalize or reduce grad student participation a bit, but then the question must be asked: whom is college bowl targeting? If, as implied by the name, it is college students...then this solution seems like a perfect balance. In Penn's own case, virtually all of our team is freshman and sophs. right now. So next year, it will be juniors, sophs. and freshman. A lot of those juniors are already ineligible for most events in our area, b/c everything is like a junior bird. I know Harvard and Princeton are in similar boats, as are most of the liberal arts colleges of course. This would just be one way to at least give juniors and seniors a better chance of playing more tournaments, and insuring a continuous, four year quiz bowl experience for undergrads. That said, I'm really eager to hear everyone's thoughts. --Nick Walters, Penn College Bowl
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