Re: Div 1/Div 2

• From: Brian_Hight
• Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 20:25:06 -0700
• Message-ID: <000TSV78I.001F080FP.12170551-quizbowl_at_...>

Yet another sports analogy on the subject of Div.
1 vs. Div. 2 in NAQT competition.

I've
always interpreted the Div. 1/ Div. 2 divide as that
between the varsity and junior varsity levels of athletic
competition. Presuming a program retains a reasonable number
of players throughout a collegiate career (assuming
4-5 years for undergrad work and 3-4 years of for a
certain % of grad students depending on the school), one
could expect most entering players to play on the Div.
2/ JV teams for a year or so, then move up to Div. 1
either on the A squad or a "sub-A" varsity team (or, for
the sake of argument, two equally balanced
teams...e.g. Wassamatta Univ. Black and Wassamatta U.
Blue).

By the same token, a superfrosh with the skills and
talent to play at Div. 1 would play on a varsity team in
order to enhance the school's ability to compete on the
Division 1 level. (Disclosure: I was part of a team that
used a freshman (or first-year) for this purpose, as
he was the star of a unit that included a
fourth-year and 2 grad students at the '99 ICT)



As for size of schools, I don't think it's as much
of an issue in quizbowl as in other
athletic/academic endeavors. For now, the circuit is still small
enough and sufficiently free of budgeting disparities to
allow for the current system of allowing all schools to
compete for the national (Name your favorite format here)
title. Much like Indiana high school basketball until a
couple of years ago, everyone got a shot at the title,
even if a school the size of Milan High hadn't won the
whole thing since 1954. (Although if a qb program
started at a school with, say, <500 undergrads and no
grad students produced a national champion that beat a
team like Michigan or Harvard in the finals, would
they make a movie about it ?)

Brian M. Hight -
UVA '99