Tuesday, October 29, 2002
Daily Wrap-up
- Tim has just started another interesting contest, The Jukebox From Hell. I'm going to make a not-so-bold prediction that "Macarena" will be crowned the horrendous winner.
- Dwight has some more responses to my thoughts earlier today. There's not too much more to say on circuit expansion, so I'll just encapsulate it here:
- Perhaps we're two ends of the spectrum on travelling -- I love it, and always enjoyed going to see other campuses. Yes, even when we didn't see much, or do much else there. Any chance to go somewhere new and compare mental notes was a thrill. The travel was, and continues to be, part of the overall experience, in my book. Maybe I'm just a nostalgic old fogey. YMMV, I guess. Subtle pun intended.
- "Should it matter?" Perhaps, but that was not the point. Reality shows us that it does matter. Fact is, people are much looser when spending other people's money, and the idea that more money is going to stay within the circuit doesn't hold much water. The only thing that will stay "in-circuit" are limited tournament profits, and that really just functions as funding redistribution, along with helping to fulfill other functions of tournament fees. If we lower average expenses throughout the circuit, the only "in-circuit" benefit we'd likely see is perhaps a minor influx of new / repaired equipment. Money will be spent on other things, guaranteed.
- As for the density issue, I'm just not buying it. Sure, a school with an enrollment of about 1,000 should be capable of supporting a team for a tournament a year, and that's where we get CBI schools. But to have a program, club, whatever, you're going to need about 10 people, or 1% of the total enrollment. I don't know of any circuit program that can claim to have 1% of the university enrollment involved. But, that 1,000-student figure also describes at least 33% of the high schools in America today. Focus the efforts there, first, and you might start making inroads to the smaller schools, but that's 10 years down the road, not 5. If teams spring up there in the interim, it's going to be due to the cult of personality.
- Perhaps we're two ends of the spectrum on travelling -- I love it, and always enjoyed going to see other campuses. Yes, even when we didn't see much, or do much else there. Any chance to go somewhere new and compare mental notes was a thrill. The travel was, and continues to be, part of the overall experience, in my book. Maybe I'm just a nostalgic old fogey. YMMV, I guess. Subtle pun intended.
- No state flags tonight, since I'm going to take the time necessary to have some good homages worked up for Texas, the obvious winner of the contest. The question now is who gets second place. Maryland's currently ahead, but Tennessee could knock them down.
- Despite the underwhelming response to the State Flags, I'm going to follow that contest up with a series grading national flags. Will Old Glory reign supreme? Not necessarily ...
# posted by Eric @ 10:54 PM
