Next year's J! College Tournament: A team affair?

[colonial]

Jeopardy announced this morning that its College Tournament appears to be on for 2021, and it is casting on a nationwide scope through its "Anytime Test." But a few things in the announcement have caught the eyes of more than a few fans.

https://www.jeopardy.com/be-on-j/national-college-championship

For one, it appears the tournament is now called the "National College Championship."

But the big surprise comes near the end of the announcement ... "The best players from each of 15 schools will be teamed up to compete in shows that will air in early 2021."


Unclear if J! is looking to do a replay of its "All-Star" tournament format from a few years back (which had teams of 3) or some kind of variation (Teams of 2, players huddled at the same lectern, etc.).

While many expected some changes when Mike Richards became EP, changing the format of the College Tournament seems like the least of the show's worries by a country mile.



JD

[TLEberle]

Probably just inartful word choice saying team instead of group.

[Strikerz04]

Considering "Wheel's" only change has been the white condoms things, I'm all for experimenting.

[Ryanmo97]

The way I read the website it looks like teams of two. My guess would be one plays the Jeopardy round. The other plays Double Jeopardy. Then the team will pick who plays Final Jeopardy after they see the category.

[colonial]

Based on the announcement, I'm presuming the show may try to record this while most college students are on their holiday break (and hoping they can allow contestants from outside California and neighboring states to participate).

Given the fact that the announcement specifically talks about "finding a teammate," we can presume the show is looking for two-player teams from the same school.

Maybe it's me, but perhaps the show could have experimented with a tournament that has somewhat lost its luster in recent years, such as the Teen Tournament. That tourney usually airs over the summer, has long been overshadowed by the traditional TOC and College Tournament, and hasn't given a TOC bid to the winner in years. I'm guessing that, with the two-player format, the TOC bid for the College winner will be eliminated.


JD

[Kevin Prather]

Being in a pandemic, this seems like an awfully bizarre time to increase the number of contestants twofold.

[Jeremy Nelson]

Maybe it's me, but perhaps the show could have experimented with a tournament that has somewhat lost its luster in recent years, such as the Teen Tournament. That tourney usually airs over the summer, has long been overshadowed by the traditional TOC and College Tournament, and hasn't given a TOC bid to the winner in years. I'm guessing that, with the two-player format, the TOC bid for the College winner will be eliminated.

I think the ToC bid is gone too. It seems like the College Champ doesn’t make enough waves in the ToC to justify giving them a bid, whereas Teachers Tournament winners have performed really well in the ToC.