I've posted something about an interesting conversation at http://brostron1.blogspot.com. Actually, I've long thought that some of what we experienced in the mid 1990s might be similar to what some of those Georgia Tech teams experienced in the late 1980s. You know, the drama, the excitement, the close finishes. Some things didn't change. CBI was still did not put all correct answers on cards. I honestly think that this was just sloppiness or laziness or lack of resources for fact checking. Kind of like recycling questions at 1988 Regionals. They also didn't have the best protest adjudication system. CBI literally stated that one way that they adjudicated a protest in the first game of the 1997 NCT final was by discussing the matter, related to a political party in a foreign country, with someone of that ancestry. The question was ultimately declared a "do-over," which was and is fine with me because it seemed that officials were trying to find a fair solution. People talked about hose questions back in the day. I mercilessly never heard any of the "A city in North Dakota, an archipelago, a German chancellor, a duck, which one of these is not named for Bismarck?" type questions that were dismantled thoroughly in, what, the Stanford Guidelines or something of the sort? I did hear one deliberate hose in three years, which interestingly occurred on the first question, I believe, of the second round of NCT final in 1996. It was an "Alien Act" or "Alien Acts" that at best was going to invariably hose a fast and knowledgeable player. Peter Freeman, who was and is a great player and contributor to the game, was moderator for that game and in reviewing the questions saw the question and the problem it would cause. After the game, which we won and thus did not have to protest, Peter Freeman actually came up and explained what he done, almost by way of apology for the question. Then there were the wildcards. And people can come up with explanations for and against any opinion. I am sure someone such as Tom Michael, who is now an employee at CBI, can talk about repressed memory and the damage false accusations. I seem to recall that he had an interest in that at one time, perhaps when he was at Auburn-Montgomery. He also told us in 1992-1993 that many people thought that one could look at the list of regional runners-up each year and based on knowledge on CBI and its associations one could pick the wildcard with uncanny accuracy. I'm not entirely sure why CBI would employ someone who discussed with new players such suspicions, but CBI makes some interesting business decisions.
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