I think we can all agree that CBCI is an anchronism. Their claim for trademarking their questions is legitmate and their rules for restricting participation in their "national championship" are fair and consistent, but the knowledge level in their questions display what constitutes "knowledge" in the framework of a 1950s game show, not the 1990s college circuit that we all know and love (exceptions not included). CBCI's national championship was originally equivalent to a national championship in e.g. intramural basketball. Teams of amateur players must play in a campus-wide tournament, then a tournament with the regional teams, then the national championship. No one is supposed to be at a professional level. As it is now with the college circuit, many of the participants are professional-level players. When the professionals are playing against the schools who "follow the rules" and are true amateurs, they get the crap killed out of them. CBCI does not like this happening, so they do everything in their power to hinder the college circuit. Examples? The supposed licensing fee that *ALL* collegiate tournaments are supposed to pay (including NAQT and ACF tournaments) because CBCI thinks it holds a trademark on "intercollegiate academic competition" and not just the questions it writes; even though this "reasoning" is equivalent to Clorox saying that every manufacturer of bleach must pay them money for their trademark to make bleach even though bleach was in existence long before the Clorox company existed. How does this rant figure in with the CBCI-HCASC topic? For the record, I think that the HCASC-CBCI dichotomy is equivalent to HBCUs choosing to play in football conferences containing only other HBCUs. If the schools want to do it that way, there is nothing we can or should do about it. It is CBCI's ball, and it they want to play like that, it is their business. If the HBCUs do not like CBCI's rules, no one is forcing them to play HCASC. This is *NOT* analogus to segreagated restrooms and water fountains. There is no legal penalty for not using the "colored questions" instead of the "white questions". If you feel that the HBCUs must play on the collegiate circuit, then you must find the individual students who would want to start a circuit team. Starting a circuit team from nothing is not easy. Eric Bell, Ann Wiley, and I did at the University of Oklahoma, fighting a hostile administration the entire way. We had to it covertly until we could not be ignored (too many people and too much reputation). To do this is up to the individual students, not us, to do. We should provide as much help as is possible to interested schools and individuals. We must emphasize to those interested parties that participation in our tournaments does not prohibit their playing in HCASC because we are not CBCI-licensed tournaments. We need to inform them know that CBCI does not look at the results of our tournaments, or we can provide a cover name for them if that calms any lingering fears. We can't make them play in our circuit if they do not want to. Daniel W Beshear Webslinger, Oklahoma Academic Team
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