Sunday March 15 was to be a holy day… “Selection
Sunday,” but in an unprecedented move the NCAA cancelled the men’s and women’s
Basketball tournament for 2020 to help slow the spread of COVID-19. The
decision ends the dreams of 100’s of teams and hundreds of thousands of fans
who have looked forward to this tournament all season. It also ends all the fun
social interactions in thousands of office pools where even the people that
have no idea what state Gonzaga University is from or what is a Billiken
attempt to overcome the 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 odds to make a perfect
bracket!
It also meant that KSTUAA’s annual Cossa
Challenge event and fundraiser was cancelled.
KSTUAA Steps up to revive the fun
The KSTUAA Communication and Events Committee
went to the drawing board to create something to replace this annual tradition
for our alumni.
“This is a big deal! March is a huge month
for sports, probably the biggest of the year and it’s all gone. Our alumni love
March Madness and the Cossa Challenge. We had to do something!” said Brother
Brad Mikes, Chairman of the committee and the annual “Grand Master of
Brackets.”
The committee is organizing a new virtual
tournament they are calling the “Cossa 60 Second Challenge” with all the best
features of the annual tournament but with considerations made for “Social
Distancing” guidelines. The tournament will feature 64 contestants,
seeding, brackets and a three-week basketball tournament with contests
available for watching for free on YouTube.
“It’s got it all! Great competition
and surprising upsets! Basketballs! Alumni can watch the competition on your
mobile device, computer or TV at home working or relaxing with beer! We even
have instant reply to determine if the ball was released before the buzzer!”
said committee member, Brother Wes Bren.
“There is a big demand and a huge void for
sports right now with everything else cancelled! In fact, when I was
filming the instructional video, one of my neighbors ruined the take because
she yelled out ‘Can I watch?’” Bren said.
The new sports programming is also important
for KSTUAA. The brackets enable Alumni
to participate in the annual “split-the-pot” type fundraiser to fund KSTUAA
mailings, events, communications and this year’s special project to help the
“Star and Crescent Society” a student group at Miami University interested in
bringing Kappa Sigma back to campus.
Moving Fast to fill the void
“Once we have our field collected, we will
seed the brackets as quickly as we can,” said Mikes. “KSTUAA will publish team
bios and send out brackets for Alumni to fill out return. Then the competition
will begin.”
The committee hopes to be running just one
week behind the original NCAA schedule. Said Bren, “We hope to have the
Brackets seeded and ready for our version of “Selection Sunday” on March 22 and
start the competition on March 27.”
“Only our Dynamic Duo of Mikes and Bren
could have come up with something as wild as this and pull it off so quickly!”
said KSTUAA President Clay Hunt. “I am looking forward to being one of the
competitors myself. I’m probably a 12 seed. But I can’t wait to see 64
alumni on video in this competition, putting their reputations on the line, in
fun competition with other alumni, helping a new generation of Kappa Sigs. This
will be great fun. This why I am a Kappa Sigma!”
The committee is accepting registrations
starting now. Register here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RTBV5CF
The instructional video is be available on the KSTUAA YouTube Channel where the tournament will be available: https://youtu.be/266UtEd_OTE
This site will contain bracket updates throughout the challenge.
No comments:
Post a Comment