What you're describing can't be a problem unless these teams know about the tournaments. If HBCU's choose not to come to the tournaments, for whatever reason, that's fine. All that I'm saying is that as a community, it would be worthwhile to make more of an concerted effort to try and bring these schools into the fold. In the post that Robin from Georgia made in response to my original, she said that the only HBCU they invited was Morehouse, since that was the only one that is listed on the Maize Pages. Whether other HBCU's can afford to attend or not, why would it hurt to invite them? I'm not trying to bring about any sort of cultural or social changes here; I'm just trying to remind people that there are many schools out there that play quizbowl that are often overlooked because they are not listed in the Maize Pages and because they don't post on this message board. I would wager that 95% of the people on this board completely ignore the HCASC every year, and there is no reason to. I'm also willing to wager that more teams than just Morehouse would go to a tournament if someone told them about it. The HBCU's, for example, host invitationals of their own before the HCASC, and they have to pay for those, although on the average not as much as one of our invitationals; that means that they can't be completely opposed to going to other tournaments besides the HCASC. I'll give you another example: one of the schools that we invited to our Frederick Douglass Invitational Championship was South Carolina State, who finished second at this year's HCASC. We heard back from their coach who said that while they would like to participate in the tournament, Rochester was a bit far away from them to travel. A couple of weeks later, I passed on an anouncement to them about a tournament at the University of South Carolina. They sounded very enthusiastic about that, and will hopefully be able to attend that tournament. Anyway, Kenny, you're right, financial constraints are a big obstacle preventing HBCU's from participating in circuit tournaments, but that obstacle is in the way of the HBCU's, not the people running the tournaments. And I know that you have volunteered at the HCASC before (something which I might consider trying to do next year), so you probably have more insights than I do as to why the HBCU's would choose not to play on the circuit. But, there is no reason why financial concerns should get in the way of inviting a team. If they have to say no, or even if they just want to say no, so be it, but at least let them make the decision for themselves rather than deciding ahead of time that they won't come. You never know, someone may surprise you. Michael Adelman --- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, Kenny Peskin <kenneth_peskin_at_y...> wrote: > While I understand your sentiment, I think you are missing a key part of the whole problem. Cost. HCASC is free to every participating school. The questions are free, the buzzer systems are free, travel and housing at nationals are free, and every school receives some scholarship. > > It is very hard to convince any club (especially one coached, controlled, and run by school administrators) that instead of being paid to play, their school should pay their own way (and eventually write questions) and arrange for its own travel. Even moreso considering the financial situation of many HBCUs and many of their students. > > The cost issue is a HUGE obstacle for anyone considering attending non-CBCI tournaments (even for the CBI-only schools, administration will pay for CBI entry fees; anything else requires raising other funds). Far more than any cultural or social issues IMHO. > > Kenny Peskin > > > madelman1 <no_reply_at_yahoogroups.com> wrote: > 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 > > > > > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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