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The Regional Championship Tournament weekend is six weeks away! Early registrations look promising – this could be the largest and most competitive field in several years.

There’s still time to hold a Campus Program Tournament and become eligible for the RCT’s. Orders can be placed by mail, by phone at 1-800-234-BOWL, or on our web site at:
http://www.collegebowl.com/store/catalog.asp .

Be sure to let us know your tournament date, so we can get the question packets to you in time!

Posts over the next six weeks will discuss topics that will help players, coaches, and game officials prepare for RCT weekend. This post will be on some general reminders and hints for everyone.

Review the Rules

New teams need to learn them, and returning teams need to note several changes for this year. Earlier posts on this blog explained a lot of the changes, and they’re also explained on our web site at:
http://www.collegebowl.com/pub/rulechanges07.asp .

Game officials, coaches, and new and returning players alike should all review the rules quiz:
http://www.collegebowl.com/pub/rulesquiz/welcome.html

Finally, if there are things you are uncertain about, now is the best time to ask! Either send a comment or email me privately at tfm@collegebowl.com. Several earlier blog posts answering rules questions are already up.

Review the Resources

There are many sections on the College Bowl web site designed to assist coaches, players, and game officials. The most valuable are Chapters 3, 4, 6 and 7 of the Program Guide.

For Game Officials: Chapter 3 has job descriptions and instructions:
http://www.collegebowl.com/pub/campusvolunteers.pdf

For everyone: Chapter 4 has the rules and case studies of resolving scoring discrepancies:
http://www.collegebowl.com/pub/gamerules.pdf

For Coaches, or whoever is running the practices and selecting the team: Chapter 6 is for you:
http://www.collegebowl.com/pub/coachingyourteam.pdf

For everyone attending the RCT: Chapter 7 has some ideas and tips:
http://www.collegebowl.com/pub/attendingtherct.pdf

Register Your Team for the RCT

Teams attending the RCT need to register on-line, and must submit eligibility forms through the mail, by February 5, 2007. Campus Coordinators have received email telling them how to register on-line, and will get a reminder next week. Contact me if you have any questions or problems.

Want to know who is already registered and coming? Team rosters are posted as we receive them at:
http://www.collegebowl.com/teamrostersrpt.asp

Six weeks in advance, four schools have already selected their teams and sent-in their rosters.

Make Your Travel Plans and Reservations

The College Bowl web site is currently up-to-date with schedules and hotel information:
http://www.collegebowl.com/regionalinforpt.asp

You’ll also be getting updates directly from your Regional Coordinator. Many of the hotel blocks are reserved in conjunction with the ACUI Regional Recreation Tournaments, and those blocks may fill up early! If you need hotel space, you should probably reserve it soon.

Practice Your Team

The next blog post is going to be on ways to get the most out of practices. There are already some tips in the Program Guide, Chapter 6, referenced and linked to above.

As I mentioned before the holiday break, one of the best ways for players to improve their game is to write questions for practice. There are some resources for this on our web site, including writing templates and links to question content resources:
http://www.collegebowl.com/games/writing.asp

sample RCT packets:
http://www.collegebowl.com/games/samples.asp

and our guidelines for how we distribute subject areas within a packet:
http://www.collegebowl.com/games/qdistribution.asp .

Some players are very resistant to writing questions, seeing it as a burden. But it really is one of the best ways to improve quickly with a reasonable amount of effort. Players who set a goal and achieve an output of writing just five toss-ups and five bonuses each week show marked improvement in both the number of questions they answer, and the speed with which they answer toss-ups.

Read This Blog

The College Bowl Blog will be focused on the RCT for the next six weeks. Topics I plan to cover include, in no particular order: efficient practice strategies, team selection, resolving procedural and factual discrepancies, more rules case studies, more tips for moderators, tips for judges, tips for scorekeepers and reset/announcers, and sports psychology at the RCT. Some of these may take up more than one post, and some may be combined.

And, if you there are other topics you want addressed, or if you have any questions about the RCT, please let me know!