Here are answers to some of the questions brought up in the thread!
Easy-e: You do not need to be part of a club or organization inside of your university to compete in these tournaments. As long as you meet the major requirements, 9 credit hours, 2.0 GPA for undergraduate, 6 credit hours 3.0 GPA for graduate school, and you can get someone to sign your eligibility form from the university and pay your registration you should be able to compete. (There are more eligibility details
here) I put in an e-mail to the Coordinator of the program to ensure online schools are eligible, but I would not see that being an issue.
However, I do not believe Columbia Southern University is a paid member of ACUI, so the registration cost for the Sectional Qualifier tournaments would be $50.
Poolbum: A student
does not need to first qualify at their university to compete in any of the ACUI tournaments. However, some schools do host tournaments on campus and as the prize, give paid entry to an ACUI sectional tournament. However, this is not required. Again, if you meet the major eligibility and can pay your registration and travel costs, anyone can play!
Vivian: The biggest thing we can do is raise awareness and involvement for the program. ACUI has had this program running since 1937 minus a few wartime years. So if you are near a university and want to get involved helping, go to their pool hall, if they have one, and start talking to the students who play a lot. See if the school has a club, encourage them to start one if they don't. Be a coach and an advocate for these young players to learn the game and compete.
Also, the reason why I got defensive about Landon and his choice to go to college over pursuing pool full on after high school is because the kid still has time and can be successful coming out of this "college pool" scene.
Take a look at this winner's list.
http://www.acui.org/content.aspx?menu_id=14&id=13181
There are quite a few "champions" on there that have went to college, came out the other side with an education, and still went on to dominate either locally or nationally. Nick Varner, Max Eberle, Bob Jewett, Eleanor Callado, Lars Vardaman, Ray Linares, Matt Shilinski, and now Landon and Briana from Lindenwood. And those are just the folks I know. To win this championship, you have to know how to play. I am a younger guy and don't recognize a lot of the old-time players, but I am sure that all these players on the list are/were great at the game. Additionally, there are a lot of players not on this list that have dominated regionally that I know of just from the past 4-5 years.
There are a ton of schools that have great programs. Now none really compare to what Lindenwood University is doing by having an esteemed coach like Mark Wilson, but there have been great players that have come out of big name universities.
The University of Michigan has been hosting a university team tournament since 2004.
To find out more about the program and it's atmosphere watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxMCNGGHuAQ
Or visit:
https://uunions.umich.edu/billiards/article/umtpc-general-info
The teams you see represented in this tournament are generally the big names in the field of collegiate pool.
Radford University, West Virginia University, and Virginia Tech have all hosted "team tournaments" less consistently throughout the past 10 years as well.
Again, if you are interested in seeing when things are announced and what's going on in college pool, I recommend following these pages on Facebook.
College Pool Players:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/926289810769221/
ACUI 9-Ball:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2206805860/
Thanks for the great discussion on the subject and please let me know if there are other questions you have about the program and how to get involved.
-Ben
