<<If circuit growth is to continue, one must take into consideration why College Bowl is the way it is. The answer is not "because they're a bunch of idiots (or at least not mostly).>> I think I've known since the late '80's that the answer is "Because it's run (on a local and regional level) by people who don't know a lot about quiz bowl". When "the circuit" was being born in the late '80's, I perceived right away that invitationals were higher-quality tournaments than CBI affairs because they were run by players for players. Now, ACF and NAQT are run by players, former players, and some deeply-involved current and former coaches: they know what players want. We want good questions and good game officals rather than good tablecloths. Substance IS more important than appearance. Not that I blame these folks for not knowing a lot about quiz bowl; running the campus tournament (CBI) at their school, or the regional tournament, is a very small part of the job of a student activities person. They don't think about it every day, or even once a week, as the players do. Unfortunately, that lack of knowledge has produced some of the more egregious bad regional tournament formats, etc., but fortunately, and to their credit, CBI have changed somewhat in response to competitors' feedback. From reports I hear, though, it's not nearly enough to bring them up to par (from many players' perspectives) with NAQT. Doug "In MY day, we had to walk TEN MILES uphill, both ways, to get to the tournament, and we had to buzz with our TONGUES!!!"
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