Presenting the 2008 UW-Madison Campus Elite tournament

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Ladies and Gentlemen:

Welcome to the Campus Elite tournament selection blog post, sponsored by Jins Chicken and Fish.

The following is the much-anticipated list of campus elites as selected by the “campus elite selection committee” that shall remain anonymous for their personal protection. All members of the committee helped to create a list of the top 20 current campus elites. A few specifics that must be addressed before looking at those selected:

-Each match-up will be delt with by a public vote at the website noted at the bottom of this blog post. The “score” is kept secret as to add suspense. We strongly encourage you to add comments on the bottom of this blog post, and at the blog website where the voting is held. The comments discussing the aspects of each match up would be helpful.

-You can vote on whatever basis you want, however, it is important to consider the match-ups. Exactly what commitment does each person have to the campus? How elite are they in their sphere of campus (e.g. an elite from the Greek Community that dominates that sphere might be more impressive than someone more known to the rest of the student body)? How influential do yousee them? If the two had to show you a resume, which would impress you more? Which have you heard of more? Who has the potential to take on eliteness across a grueling competition (not to influence you, but ASM is known to… fall off items… if you know what I mean)? Hell, you could select by a coin-toss. Most importantly: basketball metaphors are very much appreciated to make this more fun. For example, Suchita Shah, being really short, is known as a fast paced team, with great guards, intense man-to-man defense, but a bit short when it comes to down-low play.

-Like the NCAA tournament, the last 10 games were very important. Therefore, someone who was “elite” years ago and remains on campus, was less likely to get the nod over a current/up-and-coming elite

-Strength of Schedule (SOS) and quality wins were very important. Leading an obscure group was less impressive than a major role in a larger or established organization

-This list is by no means perfect. Some people were forgotten or left off. There might be an NIT campus elite tournament, but I’ll let Something Verbose handle that.

-The 20 elites who made the list were ranked according to their current eliteness. Therefore, it is safe to assume the #1 is more elite than #20, according to the committee. However, like the NCAA tournament, head-to-head match-ups are far more important than seeding.

-Seeds 14-20 (the lowest 6) will be involved in a “play-in game” to move on to the first round. This will ensure 16 teams. For example, the winner of #16 vs. #17 will then take on the top seed in the tournament.

-Although there are not four #1 seeds, the top four in the tournament are considered the tops in their part of the bracket. Each four team pod will be in a different region. The names/locations of the regional match-ups will be put into an actual bracket after the play-in games are complete.

-And most importantly: the tournament is for the lulz.

Hopefully everyone had their name spelled correctly. Also, we added as much to their resume as we could think of, and most importantly, we wanted to note the most IMPORTANT aspect of each resume. But, should we be missing SERIOUS information, feel free to include it, although the committee does not feel responsible for not including everything, because by definition, it’s up to the elite to promote their own resume to get further in this competition. If they don’t care, so be it.

And now, for the seeding:

#1 Suchita Shah – The Queen Bee, College Democrats Vice Chair for two years, Jeopardy, Tour Guide,ASM, Honors, got into Harvard but turned them down, Medical Scholar, Badger Herald, Chancellor’s Search Committee, ISA

Suchita’s number one was solidified with her impressive win at Texas.

Jeopardy helped, too.

#2 Eli Judge- Madison Common Council (District 8), Students for a Fair Wisconsin/Students for Equality, College Democrats, Founder/Treasurer (2 years) of the Gay, bisexual, progressive male fraternity on campus, heavily involved with neighborhood associations and new ASM programs like the watch program, blogger — Judge’s win in his conference tournament (passing the photo ordinance) was important to the selection committee, but Suchita’s chance at $100,000 outweighed in the mind of the committee.

#3 Jeff Wright- ASM: Shared Governance Committee, ASM Council Rep, generally involved with campus politics, Students for a Fair Wisconsin

#4 Gestina Sewell- Chair of ASM, Class of 2008 President

#5 John Barnhardt- President of the Wisconsin Union. Leader on the new South Campus Union, helped with. Took the lead on the new south campus union and is involved with local issues (that involve the Union) like the Zimmermann vigil.

#6 Alex Gallagher- Well respected member of ASM, known for his work on the SSFC

#7 Jason Smathers- Badger Herald, WUD, ASM, House Fellow, WSUM show, video guru

#8 Mike Gendell – Editor-in-Chief of the Badger Herald

#9 Jill Klosterman – Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Cardinal

#10 Sara Mikolajczak – Chair of the College Republicans

#11 Brittany Wiegand- President of a large sorority, heavily involved with UW Greek government, ASM, SSFC

#12 Jess Pavlic- CNI/State Langdon, ASM (committee chair), Shared Gov.

#13 David Lapidus- DCB candidate, College Republicans e-board, Vets-for-Vets, People Opposing Prejudices, College Democrats blogger, former Herald editorial writer, intern with Pacific Economics, was nominated for Iron Cross as a Sophomore

#14 Jeff Rolling- President-Elect of the Wisconsin Union.  Former head of WISPIRG

#15 David Christopher- Student Involvement Coordinator for the Union building project, Big Ten Network show, WUD, Tour Guide Program Coordinator, various political activism, co-owner of what might be the largest television in the campus area

#16 Wyndham Manning- WUD, Dane County Board Supervisor-elect

#17 A. Kumar - Dane County Board Supervisor, SLAC, general progressivism on campus

#18 Dean Bumbaca- former President of largest frat on campus, chief justice of UW Greek Judicial Board, famous for being written on the stalls of College Library

#19 Ami ElShareif- Chair of Students for Obama, recently in the New York Times

#20 Claire Rydell- newly elected College Democrats chair, WUD-DLS

There will be several play-in games to determine the eight first round match-ups.

And thus, we are pleased to announce the play-in games. The voting starts now and will end at an undisclosed time on Saturday. The first round match ups will start Saturday night and run until Tuesday. The second round will go until Thursday and the final four will take place next weekend.

#13 David Lapidus vs. #20 Claire Rydell – To be held in Witte 301A

#14 Jeff Rolling vs. #19 Ami ElShareif – To be held at the WARF

#15 David Christopher vs #18 Dean Bumbaca- To be held behind the counter at Qdoba on State Street

# 16 W. Manning vs. #17 A. Kumar- To be held in the CFACT office

THE WEBSITE FOR THE TOURNAMENT:

www.campuselite.blogspot.com

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