Re: Analysis (State of the Game)

etchuck · Thu, 13 Jul 2000 18:49:06 -0700

Regarding Craig's points:

1) Saying that
the high school circuit expanded: NAQT HSCT by itself
cannot be the sole proof in the statement. In fact, if
you looked at the various HS competitions around the
country, Chip Beall's competition had a great decrease in
the number of teams competing. You also have to count
the actual number of schools sending teams to all the
various tournaments. It's very difficult to point that
out at the national HS comp level whether there is an
increase or decrease in the number of schools. You have to
look locally; in our case regionally, did attendance
at the Michigan, BGSU, and CWRU competitions go up
or not? Have new competitions been formed this past
year to accommodate teams that could not attend any of
those tournaments?

2) NLIT 9 proved the circuit
could self-police??? I don't think so. They proved they
can identify a situation in which plagiarism had
occurred in a q-submission packet (provided of course
someone was keenly aware of the actual source of the
questions), but I don't recall any sort of formal inquest or
prosecution. Nor do I know of any safeguards against this sort
of thing happening again.

3) Tournament
attendance increased, however I don't believe it's
necessarily because the number of tournaments available has
increased. I think the number of tournaments in areas
previously not served by competitions has increased because
in general awareness of the circuit has expanded
(which is very good). However, there is a possibility
that some regions are experiencing an overload of
tournaments. Not enough weekends to spare to go to a
competition and still achieve academically. This may be okay
for relatively larger programs in the mid-Atlantic
where driving costs and distances are smaller than out
in California.

4) Size of active teams stayed
the same or increased isn't as important as the
retention of experience among those programs.

5) The
number of teams outside CBI has increased. True... but I
don't know how many "teams" within CBI have increased
as well. Either way, that's not the main
issue.

6) National recognition for academic/QB-style
achievement has generally increased. I don't know. That's
what was said when Jeopardy came onto the scene many
many years ago. Millionaire and other copycat programs
only put the focus back on the ability to have good
knowledge, but I don't think that the phenomena of those
shows really has resulted in an increased interest in
qb in high school or in college. The ratings-draw
for these programs is the tension that a player has
in risking money for one correct answer to get
closer to the big prize. But I can't say that this has
resulted in an increased clamor by the average person on
the street to go see an ACF match.

Anyway,
just my thoughts.