Re: PB10 Comments

• From: etchuck
• Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 10:28:10 -0800
• Message-ID: <000T7BDHQ.000PJMVKD.12170551-quizbowl_at_...>

<<I've seen versions of the above comment
in numerous posts. I'm going to go one deeper and
question the underlying assumption behind it - namely,
that Penn Bowl should be as large as it is. ...
etc.>>

I think that the question on whether Penn Bowl
should be as large as it is should be up to the people
who run the tournament. Sure our feedback is
important, but I also feel it is important for us to give as
many teams as possible an opportunity to play other
teams across the country.

The question is: would
you like to see Penn Bowl be reduced down to a
24-team tournament? If so, how many teams do you know
have you locked out by such a decision? There were
still teams waiting to compete even with a 64-team
field (granted some dropped out at the last minute, but
you get the point).

I myself am suffering with
finding the right sized field for our high school
competitions. For the first time, we have a 64-team field, with
as many as 5 schools on a waiting list. We're barely
able to accommodate this number of teams with our
staff and friends we're begging for around the area. So
we could reduce the number of teams down to 42...
which we do for another HS comp we do in March. For
that tournament, I've got a full field plus 10 schools
on the waiting list.

For my own opinion, I
prefer a 64-team field. There's no reason why we can't
do this if we ALL don't pitch in and help make sure
the questions we write are of top quality. Penn's
team's responsibility is to make sure that as many teams
as they can manage could compete.

Of course,
one way to weed out teams is to lay down the law: if
you don't submit a round, you don't play. I don't
know how many teams actually didn't submit a round, or
if such a rule would encourage the submission of
completely sub-par rounds. I think the general feeling by
most TD's out there is, it's more important to get as
many teams to your tournament -- especially newer
programs. And I think that reducing the field may
disadvantage those programs from competing and seeing just how
good the best teams out there really are.

///
etc.