At any rate, I think people liked the experience and I hope that more people would consider doing undergrad-onlys or other "social mixer" comps to help expand our base to be more inclusive and get more teams hooked to play at the various nationals. ----- Tournaments of these types will certainly do that. Ideally, though, you want to encourage people to do more than just play at the various nationals -- you'd like to see them make an impact at nationals. By and large, this is where the classifications, junior birds, and the like help less. Late in my freshman year, it was nice to play a Junior bird, and get a sense of where my team ranked among peers. However, we NEVER considered our peers at the Junior Bird to be our real competition. I think one should be careful with the J-birds and "social mixer" competetions. It might help expand the number of participants but it also perpetuates the domination of grads. After one or two tourneys, separating younger players from the rest of the circuit will retard their growth as players. You won't develop as a player unless you get challenged. I've seen DivII and Undergrad titles used as cop-outs because it's easier than swimming in the big pool. Maybe I'm looking for arrogance, but I'd rather see freshman, sophomores and other undergrads angling to beat everybody or lose trying, rather than settling for a D2 or Undergrad title.
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