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Novice Nationals at Towson

I also agree that there is something suspicious about being able to
simply dub your own tournament "nationals."

But, I will take issue with what appears to be an offhand comment
about bias at Towson's "Novice Nationals."

Berube Writes:

> I know, for example, there is a heavy bias against non-Eastern 
> representation at Towson and non-MidWestern at JCCC.

I always presume that a claim that a tournament is "biased" should
be followed by some kind of support.  

The tournament that is referred to as "Novice Nationals" at Towson
State University seems to me to be fairly national in character and
not biased toward any particular region.

Some support:  

     29 schools competed for Novice Nationals.  Of that number 18
     of the schools were "non-Eastern."

     Of the top 20 novice speakers, 14 (including the top four)
     were from outside of the district.

     More than half (Nineteen) of the teams in double octas were
     from outside of the district.  

     Half of the teams in quarter-finals were from outside of the
     district.

     Three out of four teams in Semi-finals were from outside of
     the district.  The Midwest as well as the West were
     represented.

     The second place team was from San Jose.  

Of course, all tournaments take place within some district or
other.  That placement, by nature, tends to foster *some* over-
representation of teams from that area.  I believe, however, that
awards and elimination round results indicate that Towson's novice
nationals is not biased against "non-eastern" teams.


                                   Ken Broda-Bahm
                                   Towson State University
                                   Broda@Midget.Towson.Edu
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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