Columbia Wins NBC Capital One 'College Bowl'

Upper West Side NY

08 September, 2021

11:39 AM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY BELLA DRUCKMAN SEPTEMBER 7, 2021 The Columbia "College Bowl" team reigned victorious in the NBC competition after four tight matches against competing universities. The final round—which was against the University of Southern California—ended abruptly after Columbia succeeded during the Two-Minute Drill, an essential "College Bowl" challenge. The competition began with 12 teams representing colleges of all sizes from across the country. Hosted by Cooper and Peyton Manning, the trivia show features the brothers' witty commentary along with college students competing for $1 million in scholarship money toward their tuition. Shomik Ghose, SEAS '23; Tamarah Wallace, CC '22; Addis Boyd, SEAS '22; and Jake Fisher, SEAS '22, were the four members of the Columbia "College Bowl" team. "Some people have said that they've been watching and keeping up with it and their parents have been watching," Wallace said. "I was an orientation leader, and some of the parents would come up to me and be like, 'Oh my God, we've been watching 'College Bowl.' So it has been nice to hear that people have been watching and supporting us." According to TV Series Finale, an average 2.4 million people watched "College Bowl." Each round consisted of team members picking from categories like "Feminism in Film" and "Comparative Adjectives." As the competition progressed, a Dropout Round made the competition more intense. This round entailed members of both teams naming answers belonging in a specific category one at a time. When a team member gave a wrong answer, they would be eliminated. The first team to lose all their players would have to tackle the Two-Minute Drill—a round in which teams have two minutes to answer as many questions as possible—without one of their players. For the Columbia team, winning did not seem like a possibility at first. Seven minutes into the semifinal against Auburn University, the team had zero points while Auburn had 110. The match ended with Columbia amassing 735 points against Auburn's 695. Despite its victory, the Columbia team remained humble. "I think I speak for the whole team when I say how impressed we are with Auburn," Fisher said. "This was a crazy match for us, and they were fierce competition. But obviously, we're so happy to be moving on." During the final "College Bowl" match, USC and Columbia had similar scores. Until Columbia solidified its victory in the final Two-Minute Drill, neither team could sense victory. However, Wallace and her teammates thought of Boyd, the team's alternate who watched in a room backstage, when they were asked a question about the capital of Kenya in the final Two-Minute Drill. He had coincidentally asked them the same question before they started filming that day. Despite the fun-loving attitude many team members maintained throughout the competition—including encouraging words and fist pumps—nerves still affected the team. Wallace experienced headaches and sleepless nights as a result of her nerves. Fisher's nerves only disappeared during actual filming because he was concentrating on "playing the game." "At every stage of the way, all the teams were fantastic. So you never have anything guaranteed at all. And especially in the finals, we knew that USC had performed really well in the past, so there was nothing guaranteed whatsoever, and we didn't want to expect anything," Fisher said. Nevertheless, the team fought on. Even when USC lost the Dropout Round, leaving them with one less player for the Two-Minute Drill, Columbia could not predict its victory. When the final round ended, Columbia amassed 790 points. USC could not surpass Columbia because its Two-Minute Drill occurred first. Throughout the competition, the team members have received text messages from their friends congratulating them on their victories. Some have held "College Bowl" watch parties with those they care about. As the four "College Bowl" competitors return to campus after many COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, they hope that the Columbia community celebrates their victory with them. The University has publicized the event on multiple platforms including Instagram and the school website. "I have heard from a couple of people [that they have watched the show]," Fisher said. "Columbia has been posting about it on Instagram and things like that. So that's been pretty cool. I hope our Columbia peers are watching." Editor's note: Tamarah Wallace is the publisher at Spectator. She was not involved in the writing or editing of this article. Deputy Editor Bella Druckman can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @bella_druckman. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.