Circuit Expansion--HBCU's

madelman1 <*no_reply_at_yahoogroups.com*> · Fri, 18 Jul 2003 14:46:50 -0000

Over the past few years since I got involved with college quizbowl, I 
have seen many schools, including my own, the University of 
Rochester, join the circuit.  However, a couple of months ago I 
started to wonder why it is that a huge portion of the collegiate 
quizbowl world is not a part of the cicuit, namely Historically Black 
Colleges and Universities.  64 schools compete each year in Orlando 
at the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge, and yet it is rare to see any 
of those schools compete in any other tournaments.  To my knowledge, 
every once in a while an HBCU will show up for a tournament at the 
Univeristy of Tennessee-Chatanooga, but that's about it.  Surely a 
few of those 64 would be interested in playing more often.

Is the lack of HBCU's on the circuit due to a lack of interest on the 
part of the HBCU's themselves, or is it because they are often 
overlooked by the people who run tournaments?  If it is the former, 
then there is really not much that can be done, other than to keep 
inviting them and to hope that they change their minds.  If it is the 
latter, though, then perhaps there is something that can, and should, 
be done.  I can think of very few reasons as to why a valuable 
resource like this should go untapped.

The reason that I bring all of this up is that I know that there are 
several shools that will be running junior-bird tournaments in the 
fall.  Schools like the University of Georgia and the University of 
Louisiana-Lafayette in particular are hosting tournaments using NAQT 
Invitational Series questions that would serve as a very nice bridge 
from the questions used in the HCASC to the ones used on the 
circuit.  Tournaments like these could be excellent ways to bring 
HBCU's onto the circuit.

All of this is, of course, dependent on HBCU's wanting to become a 
part of the circuit.  I'm pretty sure that many of the people who 
attend HBCU's do so specifically because those schools are 
historically black, and they like to be in that environment.  
However, I feel that it is worth inviting them in case they really do 
want to start playing against non-HBCU's.  Unfortunately, the 
University of Rochester is not located near any HBCU's, so it is not 
realistic to expect any to travel all the way to Rochester for a 
tournament, although we did invite several to our tournament in 
September anyway.  That is why I am encouraging other schools, 
especially those in the southeast, that are near HBCU's, to continue 
inviting HBCU's, if you are in the habit of doing so, or to start 
inviting them, if you've never done so before.  It is worth taking 
the time to invite these schools, to give the circuit a chance to 
grow substantially.  And besides, we may end up adding some pretty 
good teams to the mix.

Michael Adelman
Unviersity of Rochester