Call for ideas: Getting other districts involved here

[USC MissingLink]

Hey everyone,

Net Benefits is growing, which is great. Currently, however, membership is composed of primarly Districts 1 and 2. Does anyone have ideas about how to get more participation from the rest of the community?

Here's what I know:

-People from other districts come by, they read, but they don't post.
-There's a perception of "cliquiness" in the community; that we're all friends and tend to exclude those not in our group (ironically, many of use are friends <em>because</em> of this site).
-I am not saying that there is <em>no</em> representation from other regions... this simply isn't true. I do, however, think that it would benefit everyone if this forum was seen as more accessible to everyone.

Some ideas I have to solve this problem:

1) If you're lurking - <em>post</em> something. Say hi.
2) If you're a regular, be sure to include new voices as much as you can. Of course, I'm not saying that this isn't happening, but I'd like to counter the perception that this is just a soap-box for D1 and D2.
3) Tell people about the site and get them to check it out when you're around the country on travel tournaments. I'm not traveling anymore with Northridge, so I'm out of the loop in the rest of the country (which is one of the reasons for this post). Word of mouth.

Any other thoughts?

jEd

[joecool12321]

I think your picture is scaring people away. :cool: It's just too intimidating

--Joey

[stannard67]

I think district nine is well-represented here. Maybe we'd post more if we thought it was worth our time...?

(just a gentle ribbing for Jed)

stannard

[WWUPhil]

I don't know what ya all are talking about... Do to a little game, we all hate each other, esp. Jed. The only thing that really brings us together here is a mutual distaste for Jed and a taste for roasting him whenever possible. If only everyone understood that, we would have a million viewers of Change of Heart on this board.

[NoGraveButTheSea]

Hey,
Just wanted to say that I stumbled on this board and joined it unaware that a couple of my friends (Liz and Phil) were regular posters. I have been made to feel very welcome here and already feel like i've made nice w/ a handful of people that I may not have been able to do otherwise. Next year I will be in Kentucky at Cumberland College competing so I will rep whatever district that is in and fo sheezy on the sell NB to my debate friends at tournaments.
Thanks for all your work Jed...
Will C

[Xopher2]

I might be considered one of the "lurkers" that Jed mentioned earlier. I was introduced to this board by Brian and when I first got on there was an apparent clique-ness (try to find that word in the dictionary). And I was kinda intimidated to post, because I was afraid of being bashed. But then I realized that everyone gets bashed, and no one takes offense, they just plot their next strategy. I think what makes the site seem cliquey (ive got plenty of them) is the openess of discussion. People are able to throw ideas out and hear responses to them, something not commonly found in a forum of this type. If someone sticks around long enough to read the posts they will soon realize it is not clique-alation (last one I promise) but an open exchange of ideas. I have learned so much form "lurking" and, occasionally put my two cents in. So, in conclusion: not clique-alicious (ok I lied), accepting.
Thanks,
Christopher

[pattybar]

I'd love to see some D4 students just pop-up to say they are reading....so, if you are out there, please chime in...

Us cold and frozen coaches are here enough (do I get two areas represented, as I started in Omaha and moved to St. Paul??) Michael Dreher is around on occasion and so is Jason... so 3 coaches from the frozen tundrea are here... how about some students?

Patty

[scooter]

I don't even know what district the Northeast is in-- but then again I'm not coaching either...and NPDA doesn't exist here much... but hey! I still write a bunch of annoying messages anyway! Now __that's__ the wonder of community: Arguing with friends that you have not and will not see for or in ages! Ahh, ain't debate grand!

S

[pattybar]

Scooter,

Careful what you wish for, you may end up in Minneapolis... then you'd see me every time I came to beg you to cover judge slots :) )))

There are lots of schools here :) .

Patty

[Klingler]

As far as I see it, Net Benefits still fairly represents the population of NPDA, and has become a great alternative to the Parli List for discussions of all types.

I guess Jed would consider me a lurker, but I find Net Benefits to be a great resource for the University of Florida to undertstand what's going on out West. It's simply a lot cheaper to log on then to fly West every now and then.

I don't post a lot, simply because I don't have much to say on most posts.

I wouldn't think that anyone in the debate community would be afraid of posting simply because they were the only one in their district. In general, college debaters tend to be quite willing to speak up, no matter what the circumstances are.

That being said, there certainly is still a regional disconnect between the West and the East. With the exception of Colorado College at last year's DSR, and Colorado State last weekend at King College, we simply have to travel West to see teams from the West. Teams on the West Coast don't have to, as teams from the East go ahead and bite the coast to come West.

I recognize that it's cheaper for a few schools to go in one direction then a lot of schools to go in the other. However, for any individual school, once you've made the decision to fly, why not head to the Southeast every now and then?

For example, why not head down Feb. 8th and 9th to Gainesville, FL? Odds are, it will be a lot warmer here then it will be anywhere else (Southern California excluded).

Just my rambling cent (deflation and all),
Rob

___________________
Robert Klingler
JD/MBA, May 2003
Grad. Assist. Coach, University of Florida

[ML]

Hey Rob,

As an IE coach in addition to my parli duties, (limited though they may be), I'm pushing this year to get our kids down to the Southeast, since that's where NIET natz will be. The problem is one of calendaring, and not knowing where/when the best competition will be. For instance, we can't go to this weekend's NIET warm-up because we have a "designated" tournament in Idaho scheduled for that weekend. Ditto for your tournament in February. With limited offerings in our region, we can't forgo these opportunities where everyone makes a commitment to attend at year's start, promising good, diverse competition.

I've been looking into the Mardi Gras Classic, simply because it's on sort of an off weekend for us and the idea of being able to attend the festivities is sort of appealing, especially since, well, see above--we're going to Idaho this weekend for crying out loud. (no offense Bill, we're really excited to drive through the Gorge in the middle of the night and all, but I'm sure you understand...) But I have no idea who will be there or indeed, where and when the best place would be for us to invest our travel dollars. Any thoughts for us West Coasties on good IE/Parli tournaments in the East?

Merci,
ML

[erikUF]

This is my first post. I'm Erik Crocker, I debate for the University of Florida. I post occasionally on the Parli-l and have been checking this site out for a while. We travel a fair amount but we would like to get more exposure. So, here is what I think:

Alright.... I'm definitely a lurker. My problem is that often I just don't know what to say because I don't feel like I'm part of the group, although I would like to be.

I think the main reason for the percieved "cliequiness" of the net benefits is that we, or at least I, just don't know a lot of you personally. There are no faces to most of the names. Even if I happen to know who the person is, I never really talked to them. Also, I see that most of you are good friends, between rounds, when our school gets out west once in a blue moon, this semester being Claremont. So, that I see the exclusion effect being created here.

Thats my sociology lesson. Take it with a grain of salt. I'm a finance major.

What can be done about it? Not sure.... Travelling out east would help like my coach mentions. The problem is, aside from budget concerns, is that the competition is not so strong and there is no real incentive. What I think also needs to happen is that schools out east need make programs stronger and travel more, even it is only out east. We saw a lot of prgrams with potential at King College. If these programs travelled more and we could get a large number of teams to eastern competitions, we can possibly show western schools that there is reason to come over here after all. Then maybe we can break this regionalism.

I'll post more thoughts on this later on.

Erik

[USC MissingLink]

Hey Erik!

Thanks for your input and welcome to the group! To tell the truth, there's a lot of anonymity here. Would you be surprised to know that a lot of the people I know from Net Benefits I would have a hard time pointing out in person? The fact is, we know eachother from posts... So if you post, people will get to know you :) .

Anyway, I'd love to come to Florida, but I don't think we're gonna be able to pull that. I wonder how we can get the West and the East more involved with eachother...

jEd

[erikUF]

Fair enough... I guess I falsely concluded that all of the people here were the people I see at the tournaments out west.

I really should be studying but I have a few more thoughts:

Jed, why couldn't you make it? Money? Time? Class? Some combiations of those? It may be possible that your reasons may be similar to everyone else's.

As far as just involvement, perhaps marketing this website more at tournaments. I only tripped on this site randomly after wastefully following a bunch of links in the middle of a class a year ago. Just creating a buzz about the site might help people talk, learn about various tournaments, make friends, spark an interest, etc.

When it comes to travel, we need to shave costs as much as possible. Hotel rooms should only be used when absolutely necessary. I have no problem with people staying at my apartment and I know my teammates are equally as willing to house. plus, I'm sure tournament fees could be waived if need be. Could these minor cost cuts make a difference?

We were also thinking of some off-hand incentives, like showing everyone a good time in wonderful downtown Gainesville (heh) or maybe even hosting the tournament in possibly a place like Miami or Tampa. Keep in mind this is just student talk and we haven't cleared anything with our coaches yet. Just something fun. We went to San Diego and didn't get to SEE San Diego. Any thoughts on this?

Also, are the various district message boards useful? I see a combined 20 posts for Districts 5-9. The district 1 activity shows the more California involvement in the site.

And what exactly was net benefits survivor? I think if i keep looking through the 4000+ posts, I could discern something, but I'm lazy.... Please help

Erik

[USC MissingLink]

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Jed, why couldn't you make it? Money? Time? Class? Some combiations of those? It may be possible that your reasons may be similar to everyone else's.[/quote]Speaking unofficially, our school isn't successful enough yet in debate to justify traveling across the country, especially when we have a number of very strong tournaments within driving distance. Also speaking from experience, I know that we traveled to D9 a lot last year because that was where NPDA Nationals was. I know that Florida had a bid for 2003, and all I can say is if you eventually get that bid, there's a much better chance that people would travel out there - to get used to the judging pool etc.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>As far as just involvement, perhaps marketing this website more at tournaments. I only tripped on this site randomly after wastefully following a bunch of links in the middle of a class a year ago. Just creating a buzz about the site might help people talk, learn about various tournaments, make friends, spark an interest, etc.[/quote]Of course, I've tried to do this, and been reletively successful at tournaments in regions where I've competed. I mentioned it last year at NPDA as well as sent numerous emails to the Parli-L. The trick is for <em>other</em> people to tell <em>other</em> people; word of mouth is crucial.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Also, are the various district message boards useful? I see a combined 20 posts for Districts 5-9. The district 1 activity shows the more California involvement in the site.[/quote]I've wondered the same thing. Many times I've been tempted to get rid of those forums...

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>And what exactly was net benefits survivor? I think if i keep looking through the 4000+ posts, I could discern something, but I'm lazy.... Please help[/quote]:lol: NBSurvivor was (and will be again) a game of survival played by debaters and non-debaters across the country for the prize of some cases and $100. I think I'll let the players themselves tell you more about thier experiences...

jEd

[properwinston]

This site would be much better (even though it is already an amazing site) if non west-coasters would post on a regular basis. Occasionaly I read a post from the Midwest, but the Midwest still has the word west in it, so it doesn't count. Some people say that the West coast is spearheading parli debate (towards what goal I have no clue). Yet, from the judges I encounter on a regular basis, I have trouble believing this. I'd like to know if there are any significant differences in either debate style or substance.

I think the cliqueness of this site is ostensible. Once you start writing, no one cares who you are. And if you don't want people to know who you are, then keep all of your info private. Net-benefits is superior to the list-serve because you don't have to worry about catering to the tastes of the entire parli community, especially coaches and judges. The site isn't free of censors, but it is close to perfect.

[kircher25]

This is my first post, as well: my name is Jeff Hannan, I debate for UF with Erik.

A lot has already been dealt with which I doubt I could add much to, so I'll try to keep it fresh.

Our basic concern is that we don't get exposure: exposure to judges, exposure to trends in theory debate, or plain exposure of our own name and school. This website and the parli-l go a long way in keeping us up to speed, but it's still no substitute for tangible interaction in rounds, in warm rooms, and at hotels.

Jed is right on the mark when he points out that many teams need not bear the cost of flying out east when there are fantastic tournaments every month within driving distance: on our end, we make every effort to travel to national tournaments at least a couple of times before NPDA in the spring. It's our only chance to expose new teams to quality, national debate, and the only chance for old teams to work on team chemistry issues before they really matter.

So...solutions.

First, start a website, call it, let's see, "Net-Benefits", and encourage parli debaters from all over the nation to post and interact with one another. Ah, check.

Second, try to come out past the old Mississippi, or at least close to it. This year, and with no intention to malign any other tournaments that I can't think of right now, there are three big opportunities to do so: our tournament, as Rob mentioned above, in February; The Mardi Gras Classic, at LSU, also in February; and DSR, which I believe is in Kentucky. I know we will probably be at all three, and, at least as far as our tournament goes, just about any school that does parli in District Six will attend: a perfect chance to scope out what we're up to on this side of the River.

Anyway. It's getting on towards late, and I have papers to write. I hope this wasn't repetitive, and I hope that some teams take us up on the invitation.

jeff

[ML]

Hey guys,

Can you tell us a little more about the Mardi Gras Classic? How big is it generally, who do you know who is going, do we really get out early for festivities? I'm really interested in sending people out there, but I haven't gotten a lot of solid info.

Please Floridians, Share with Us!
ML

[erikUF]

Well... I've never been to the LSU tournament. But, Everyone on the team agrees that it is crazy good times (and pictures to prove it). There were about 30-40 teams from what I heard last year and it consisted of a various collection of schools from around the southeast.

What I hear about this year's tournament is that it is a week before Mardi Gras.... How much of a difference that will have on the competition, I don't know. But, hey, its New Orleans! I'm sure that relative to any other debate weekend, LSU really all that it has been cracked up to be.

My partner did go last year, he may be able to tell you more about it.

Erik

[DreinCali]

Hi Erik and Jeff! Congrats on King College. Not that you even know me, but I watched you debate once, so Arun refers to you as "those quarters kids from Point Loma"...heehee. Say hi to Bo.

Anyway,I was thinking of going out to the Mardi Gras tourney this year to "judge"- seems like a good weekend trip from Houston. So when that time comes I'll probably offer to cover 2 teams from somewhere, anywhere, unless the hired judge fee is, like crazy money (unlikely).

Dre

[pattybar]

Proper...

Being from the Midwest is not the same as being from the West... not in parli and not in MANY things...

Ask ML if Southern Minnesota is like Southern California --- she'll laugh so hard that whatever she's drinking will shoot out her nose.

Debate-wise and otherwise, we are different... You know, y'all could meet here in the great Twin Cities -- some travel east, some travel north/west and y'all would fly on Northwest, come see us.... if we offered a fall tournament, would you come?? See the leaves turn and hope it doesn't snow in October??

Patty
U of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN

[darkcloud4579]

I've always thought that a more concerted central effort would be best. APDA dominates the east and NPDA dominates the west. A South-Central League would be better because like Patty says, parli in the midwest is different. I don't see a whole mass of teams being able to travel extensively to the midwest. Not only is it not feasible, it does imply that "the west is the only place where it's happenin"

I know that there are some obvious logistical issues involved with such a monster. But perhaps NPDA itself could establish a "Central-Southern Conference" or something like sports have where you travel amongst the region (which I might add is quite vast itself, because depending on who you ask, it includes quite a few places) and then at the end of the year you could still do NPDA Nats, but in lieu of novice nats, maybe it could be the staging tourney for this CSC?

It's all kinda out there, but I really think the monster of NPDA like it is presently will never extend itself to the east coast in its present form. The outgrowth has been much slower than the organization itself and to me without the real support of a "community" to help the activity nuture itself you won't have anything other than lots of regional leagues coming together where people rarely travel out of them.

But I agree with Patty. You people need to discover the wonders of corn. The midwest awaits you. :)

[Futballer]

Seeing as how Kimberly and I dropped the crazy cash to fly out to King and compete, I wanna pipe in. I think the issue goes back to what Rob, Erik and Jeff are saying. We from the West just don't get out to the east enough, and until we do I don't think there can be much expectation for "major" tournaments to be hosted out there.

This is unfortunate, too. Kimberly and I had such a great time at King College, we're going to try and scrap the money together to get out to Gainesville for the throwdown in the swamp. We owe Jeff and Erik a good ol' 1-2 after our semis round. If D9 schools could just send one team, I think the exposure would benefit all parties.

What it comes down to, is that the competition was good, and very different. And in time, the whole East Coast gig might turn out a Nats. Who's to say. I guess what I'm just trying to get at is that rather than propose complex solutions, buckle down, do some budgeting and maybe fundraising, and buy a damn plane ticket or train ride out East. It's well worth the trip...

Rob Lee
Colorado State

[scooter]

Well, I suppose that I am in a bit of a funk on this one.

I talk with the Temple debaters, they do APDA as do many of the schools here in the Northeast. I am not their coach; I hold no debate position. So, take my observations about APDA with the realization that my exposure to debate in the Northeast is limited.

I have not seen a great push for teams to suddenly become NPDA affiliates out here and frankly I do not believe that such would be a good move. Indeed, the schools here have differing needs and confines than what I saw in the West. From coaching to judging to stock issues to types of cases to time space shift to tournament expectations and schedules, it is just a different world here in APDA land. To assume that APDA schools would want to change their current identity is as verbose as thinking that NPDA schools would want to change to an APDA format.

What I have also noticed, however, is that some schools out here have offered and will continue to offer NPDA style debate-- and the attendance is slight (good example: Penn is having an NPDA tournament as I write this note). I know that American used to have one and I have heard that Harvard has used NPDA style of resolutions. But with little exception there is not great NPDA involvement in "these parts."

But yes, in time, I could see a national tournament uniting the coasts, perhaps even with the Northeast.

S

[mdreher]

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>
I've always thought that a more concerted central effort would be best. APDA dominates the east and NPDA dominates the west. A South-Central League would be better because like Patty says, parli in the midwest is different. I don't see a whole mass of teams being able to travel extensively to the midwest. Not only is it not feasible, it does imply that "the west is the only place where it's happenin"
[/quote]

This attitude concerns me obviously for a few reasons...

1) There is a distinct difference -- as Patty will be glad to tell you -- between the upper Midwest and the "lower Midwest" (i.e., Creighton, Concordia, etc.). The differences are about as different as night and day.

2) Not feasible to get up here? Like my former colleagues from Florida (I used to coach in D6 - props to the Florida people!), I don't know that I can buy it. If people are flying to tournaments, the Twin Cities has tons of connections, not to mention a major hub (Northwest), several economy airlines, etc. If people can get to other places, they can easily get here.

3) What this post (and several others on this thread) really gets down to is a tremendous bias that I have long perceived against non-west coast debate. Just because it's different doesn't mean it's worse. Now, my debaters can get down with the kritiks if need be, but they can also debate against lay judges, non-policy parli judges, and the Stecks. If that isn't adaptation, what is? :)

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>
I know that there are some obvious logistical issues involved with such a monster. But perhaps NPDA itself could establish a "Central-Southern Conference" or something like sports have where you travel amongst the region (which I might add is quite vast itself, because depending on who you ask, it includes quite a few places) and then at the end of the year you could still do NPDA Nats, but in lieu of novice nats, maybe it could be the staging tourney for this CSC?
[/quote]

As the tournament director of Novice Nats, I'm leery when people start saying "in lieu of novice nats." Novice Nats has proven to be a *quite* successful initial proving ground for a variety of NPDA teams on both coasts. Last year's top novice team at NPDA's won Novice Nats (Abilene Christian). The 2001 runnerup team at Novice Nats had 1 representative which was on the 2002 NPDA runnerup team (Rob Gordon from Univ. of Utah). Teams from Claremont, Metro, Sheridan, King, Bethel (Kansas and Minnesota), Univ. of Utah, etc. have all done very well at Novice Nationals. So, before you discount Novice Nats, take a look at who has gone and who has done well there.

(Side plug: This year's tournament will be at Cameron University in Oklahoma -- electronic invite out this week; snail mail copies are in the mail. Contact me if you don't get one!)

[pattybar]

Hello,

I also have seen a big difference between west coast debate, plainstates debate and that of the upper midwest. I've also noticed a difference along the westcoast with CA and the northwest being different. I would say that I've always seen an institutional bias, simply due to the numbers of programs/competitors toward 'West' debate --- and the fact of it is that programs in such areas have a huge advantage simply due to geography. My tiny budget would go much farther in certain areas of CA than in the midwest -- going farther means more exposure etc...

The core of the problem is one parli has always had... what is considered 'good debate'? This problem increases in regions without exposure to good teams from elsewhere. The issue becomes one of frustration for students who compete on one circuit and then go to nationals and see debate that is pretty different from that in their home area.

This problem is reinforced in certain regions when a significant percentage of coaches/ judges don't have either the budget or desire to travel on the national parli circuit -- this is increased when they aren't involved in the national organization and look at debate as simply something to add to their IE programs.

Lack of exposure to 'good' debate elsewhere leads to a narrow view of what is 'good' at home. This same lack of exposure makes for frustration when national circuit teams visit less well-traveled areas, they don't do well and they don't do well... since they do well other places they conclude that the less-well traveled area is simply strange and they decide not to come back.

The result of this is that it is difficult to teach students good 'nationals' debate when the local payoff to doing such debate is losing rounds at home due to regional differences. Expecting students to be two different kinds of debaters is also impractical and unfair...

Changing a local circuit is even more difficult, as many are unwilling and unlikely to change what has been working for them in their area. On the other hand, if we don't do some changing on smaller local circuits, those who do well at nat's will be those who can afford to travel nationally and those whose home circuits are also national circuits. When the national champ trophy comes down to geography/budget I'm not too interested in supporting it...

Patty

[ISamuel]

Well, bandwagon or no, I'll hop on.

This is my first post here. So hi, hello, my name is Ian. I think I know a lot of you. Truman is technically in District 5 although everyone else in Missouri is in D3. So classify and otherize me as you shall. :)

I'll go post something productive now.

Cheers,
Ian

[properwinston]

Everyone from my team would love to come to the midwest to debate, but we are barely able to go to the local tournaments. With no coaching or funding we have a lot of freedom but no institutional support.

[pattybar]

Proper,

Why don't you sit down with some of the non-comm faculty and ask for help?? They are unlikely to be able to get you cash, but they could help you with some coaching and some basic information. Ask them to watch practice rounds on a topic related to their specialty and see what happens.

We are in the first year of our program and it has been up to me to get everything rolling. The only reason I am here at all is that another faculty member in philosophy had a bee in her bonnet that there should be a debate team at St. Thomas. We developed a list of interested faculty members and have been keeping them up on our progress.

Once the faculty sees how poorly you are being treated by administration, money wise, they will be influential with a dean or two to get you some money... if only for entry fees. The key is to build the support of the faculty, then let them do some of the e-mailing etc for you.

Start with your current and former instructors. Have your team do the same. They will be impressed by your initiative and more than likely will help in some small way... and any small amount of help you get is more than you have now.

It was amazing to me to see how many of the philosophy faculty have a debate background... out of 28 of us, 6 have been (or in my case, am) actively involved in debate. In Jason's grad program alone, among his class there are three former debaters (2 ceeda/NDT, and Jason) -- fact of it is that debaters like to stay in academia... so there will be some of them around.

If you can convince one or two of them to travel with you to judge, you've just saved yourself from hiring a judge. About 33% of our budget this semester is from Jason being hired as a judge -- so if you can convince one of the faculty to be your champion and you have excess judging to sell... you can usually get it counted against your entry fees etc...

You can also often ask to have your entry fees waived, as you are poor etc... note, I would not ask for the hired judge fees to be waived also, as that is money that comes directly from the TD's pocket.. .as they have to hire to cover the slots.

Good luck,
Patty

[tutakai]

>1) There is a distinct difference -- as Patty will be glad
>to tell you -- between the upper Midwest and the "lower
>Midwest" (i.e., Creighton, Concordia, etc.). The
>differences are about as different as night and day.

While it is true that these differences exist in reality, I think it is not necessarily true that all differences are useful types of "diversity". When one regional set of preferences begins to harden, it has two negative sets of implications:

1) As is relevant to this forum, when regional preferences dominate it can serve to exclude or demean "outsiders". One reason people from outside the West Coast are sometimes unwilling to participate here is because their opinions are often treated with derision when they deviate from the preferences of the dominant set of people.

2) Exclusion can also exist within the region. Specifically, when one or two schools exist within a region that dissent from the dominant preferences in that region, the existence of (often unwritten and unexamined) "regional rules" may damage the ability of such schools to fairly compete or to practice debate as they find it most educationally and competitively useful.

Do we really want to have discrete regions with their own form of debate? I think it is not necessarily a good thing to embrace parochialism either as it relates to this forum or as it relates to competition formats at regional tournaments.

[erikUF]

Rob- You may get that opportunity sooner than I even thought. Thanks a lot for the accomodations. What other schools are going to Colorado State tourney? Can you do both IPDA and NPDA?

Andrea- I remember you watching that round.... that was rough. If I don't go to Mardi Gras with friends, I may head out for LSU for some rounds. We may be able to just let you stay with us as payment for judging? I don't know if we need but I can ask...

To all- check out the battles... what better a way to come together than to creatively knock on each other's schools and regions.


Erik

[Futballer]

Erik -

Yeah, IPDA and NPDA should be available to everyone who wants to do them..IPDA's nothing but a joke, though...it should be fun...

As far as the schools...I'm not 100% sure. Colorado State, Wyoming, Colo College, Arkansas, Florida...other than that, I'm not sure...although I know there are more coming than those schools. But between those five, there should be about 20 teams.

As for rippin' on each others schools, I don't think you want Colorado State to start. We surely don't, we can't come back with much...except against Wyoming, maybe...their football team is bogus, while we're in the BCS rankings, baby (15 is better than nothin'!!). And all they'll ever say is, "We've got a good basketball team!!" Yeah...great...you rule the sixth grade roost...

Had to get it out...

Rob...