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. 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 season 31), always during any one of the three traditional sweeps ratings periods (November, February, or May). 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:

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.

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.

Other prizes

• Participants in the Season 17 College Championship received custom Jeopardy! jackets by L.L. Bean.
• Participants in the Season 27 College Championship received a Nintendo Wii and the Jeopardy! Wii game.
• Participants in the Season 30 College Championship received "Jeopardy!" tote bags and picture frames.

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.

List of participants

The following is a list of contestants and where they placed in the tournament. Finalists who earned more than the minimum guarantee are as indicated.

^1 Milo Dochow was a losing contestant in the Winter 1999 Teen Tournament but was invited to participate in the following year's College Championship after being potentially disadvantaged by a questionable judges' ruling in Final Jeopardy!.

^2 The first quarterfinal match of the 1992 College Championship ended in a tie, between Chris Montplasir and Ken Kansa, and Chris Montplasir won a spot in the semifinals and Ken Kansa earned enough money to earn a wildcard spot (although two other tie-breaker clues were given and correct responses were given for neither, resulting in editing out of the broadcast). The first semifinal match of the 1997 College Championship also ended in a tie, between Steven Beiver and Brian Chan, and Steven Beiver gave the correct response to the clue and earn a spot in the finals.

^3 Kevin ended up with $0 going into the Day Two Final Jeopardy!, and ineligible to play. He was kept to have his first day score tabulated for purposes of the final score in the two day total dollars format.

^4 Kate, Hannah, and Michael tied at $14,400 in the quarterfinals at the end of Final Jeopardy. Hannah led going into Final Jeopardy, while Kate and Michael tied. Kate led going into Double Jeopardy, eliminating Michael from that spot.

Stanford University is the only college to have two winners.

As of 2012, the College Championship no longer rerun episodes during the summer sweeps period.

The only College Champion from an Ivy League school is Terry O'Shea of Princeton University in 2014.

References

External links

• The official Jeopardy! website
• Official Jeopardy! Season 32 College Championship website
• Official Jeopardy! Season 33 College Championship website