Do you know if they are willing to ship?
On the original question...I cooked a select and a choice 2 different times and did the blind judging thing with the folks I was feeding. The Choice won by a landslide both times. Since then I have only cooked choice.
I am not surprised. The USDA knows what they are doing when they label a meat select or choice. I have have done similar tests with the same result, but it is nice to have it confirmed by someone else.
In my opinion a BBQ competition is all about the meat. You can be the greatest grand master of bbq in the world, have the most secret magic dust and potions to sprinkle on and inject into the meat, cook the meat on the greatest bbq rig ever created by man, and if you are cooking a crappy piece of meat, the end product will only be marginally good, if not just down-right tough and bland. Spend the time and money to find the best meat in your area, it is one of the few things we have under our control when we go to these competitions. Wine, dine, and woo your butcher to work his butt off to find the best meat he possibly can and compensate him for his efforts, or at least put him on your Christmas Card list.
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To make a financial argument--at most of these comps it costs you around $50 to enter a meat. That 50 dollars is a sunk cost and costs $50 regardless if you bring hand selected $200/lb Wagyu shipped directly from Kobe Japan, or pay a $0.25/lb for Grade C sourced from your buddy's backyard. To me it makes sense financially to spend a little more to get better meat in order to extract as much value as possible from the sunk cost of $50. Not all the time will the better meat be more expensive, but generally cost is a function of demand and people demand more naturally tender and flavorful meats. I think the judges as well demand the same, as they are always told by the KCBS--"Judge the meat. Its not a sauce contest or a garnish contest, it is a meat contest."
Of course there is always an issue of what a person or team would like versus what they can afford--especially in these troubling economic times, but it comes down to priorities, and for me quality meat is a priority. Just me two dollars worth--sorry, sometimes I get carried away.
