Jeopardy! College Championship
The Jeopardy! College Championship is one of the traditional tournaments held each season on the TV quiz show Jeopardy!. Contestants in this tournament are full-time undergraduate college students with no prior degrees and traditionally wear a sweater bearing the name of their college or university during their appearances. The existence of this tournament does not disqualify college students from auditioning for the regular shows, but tournament participants cannot later compete in regular play. The tournament began during the 1988–89 season (Season 5) and has been played every season (except for seasons 31 and 35), always during any one of the three traditional sweeps ratings periods (November, February, or May) with the exception of being held in April 2018 due to Alex Trebek's brain surgery. Some contestants for the inaugural tournament were selected through contestant searches held in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Palm Springs, California, during the Spring break season in 1989.[1]
Format
The College Championship uses a ten-game format similar to that used for the Tournament of Champions and the Teen Tournament: 15 players, in groups of three, play in five quarterfinal games; the winners of those five games and the four highest-scoring nonwinners as wild cards become the nine semifinalists who compete in three games, with no two players rematching each other in the semifinal round. The three semifinal winners advance to the two-day final round, in which contestants play two separate matches, with the contestants' combined scores for both matches determining the champion (contestants start with $0 each day).
Prizes
Cash
All College Championship contestants receive cash prizes, based on their progress through the tournament. Contestants eliminated prior to the finals receive fixed payouts, while contestants in the finals receive guaranteed minimums, but can earn more. Over time, the prizes have increased in value, as shown below:
| Period | Finalists (minimum guarantees) | Semifinalists | Quarterfinalists | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 1st runner-up | 2nd runner-up | |||
| 1989–1997 | $25,000 | $10,000 | $7,500 | $5,000 | $1,000 |
| 1998–1999 | $15,000 | $10,000 | $2,500 | ||
| 2000–2002 | $50,000 | ||||
| 2003 | $25,000 | $15,000 | |||
| 2004–present | $100,000 | $50,000 | $25,000 | $10,000 | $5,000 |
Trophies
Winners also receive a small replica trophy of the larger College Championship trophy, which is retained by Jeopardy! in Southern California. On the larger trophy are engraved the names of every year's winner.
Vehicles
From 1993–2004, the winner also won a new car (Dodge from 1993–1994, Volvo from 1995–2003, and Volkswagen in 2004), and the company who manufactured the car matched each finalists' totals and set up scholarships in those amounts earned for the finalists' schools.
Tournament of Champions
In addition to the above-mentioned winnings, the winner earns an automatic position in the next Tournament of Champions, though two winners (Vinita Kailasanath in 2001 and Joey Beachum in 2008) deferred their berths in their intended tournament until the following installments due to scheduling conflicts. Three College Champions have made the Tournament of Champions finals (Tom Cubbage in 1989, Jeff Stewart in 1994, and Cliff Galiher in 2007), but only Cubbage won the event.
Many college champions have been invited to later Jeopardy! "all-time best" tournaments as well, with varying degrees of success:
- 1989 winner Tom Cubbage competed in the next year's Super Jeopardy! tournament, losing his opening quarterfinal match.
- Every College Championship winner to that point competed in 2005's Ultimate Tournament of Champions, with 2000 winner Pam Mueller advancing to the semifinals, and 1996 winner Shane Whitlock advancing to the quarterfinals.
- Cubbage, Mueller, Whitlock, 1993 winner Phoebe Juel, and 2001 winner Vinita Kailasanath all competed in 2014's Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades, with both Cubbage & Mueller advancing to the semifinals. Whitlock, 2008 winner Joey Beachum, and November 2010 winner Erin McLean were among the past champions in the fan favourite online voting to earn one of three slots in the tournament, but only Whitlock won the fan vote for his decade.
- 2017 winner Lilly Chin was the alternate of the All-Star Games appearing in the audience on Facebook Live.
- Mueller and 2012 winner Monica Thieu both competed as team members in 2019's Jeopardy All-Star Games; Mueller was drafted to team Colby Burnett while Thieu was drafted to team Ken Jennings. Both teams advanced to the finals with Thieu's team finishing second and Mueller's team finishing third.
References
- ↑ Richmond, Ray (2004). This Is Jeopardy!: Celebrating America's Favorite Quiz Show (1st ed.). Barnes & Noble. p. 70. ISBN 0-7607-5374-1. Search this book on
External links
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