My point was simply that the extra years of
playing time, which tend to give you a broader knowledge
simply because you've heard more questions as well as
experience, which I think serves as a general benefit in
terms of knowing when to go in early and such, can give
teams with grad students an advantage over those
without. They beat us in knowledge, as I noted, but there
are other factors as well. Also, as Stan mentioned,
there is a certain learning curve with a lot of
programs. Ours fortunately wasn't very steep, since the
four of us all played in high school (even if it was
mostly stupid Ohio format for some of us), and so we're
not at as big a disadvantage as, say, DePauw B in
this case. I agree with Dr. Levinson that easing teams
into the circuit helps the game to stay alive, and we
conceived this as one way to do so.
-- aam