State BBQ Assoc. questions

[MoGreen]

Sitting here dialing in my new smoker and looking up next years possible competition schedule I noticed something. Alabama and Georgia both have a state championship. Why in the world hasn't someone done this in Tennessee yet? It would make picking my schedule a lot easier and I wouldn't be looking for places all over the south east to compete. I like Ga schedule looks like they have a warm up contest in January and then 11 after that..Sure wish one of you big time organizers would jump on this opportunity.

[dmprantz]

There used to be a three competition championship in TN, but it's gone now. A couple years ago Lewisburg and College Grove had a two competition championship, but when College Grove went away, so did that. It's a shame because I was going to try to encourage that to be expanded to a three comp championship. I'd be all for a state series, but who's gonna do the work? Are you volunteering? :)

dmp

[MoGreen]

hoping to get you in on it with all that spare time you have

[dmprantz]

I'll do it if you tell Kim and she agrees :)

[Brew-B-Q]

How much work would it really be? Let's say a state has 10 championships during the year. I see it working one of two ways:

A) Identify a set of key contests, 3 or so, and sum the scores of those three. Teams would obviously need to compete in all three to have a legitimate chance of winning the state championship.

B) Take the best three (or so) scores from all of the contests a team cooks in the state, thus dropping low scores similar to how KCBS does for TOY.

As for tracking, an excel sheet pulling data from the KCBS website would be sufficient, especially since they now provide scores. This doesn't seem too difficult. I could probably calculate the state champion for IL under both scenarios in less than an hour.

I suppose the real work would be in promoting it and giving the cooks an incentive to give a damn. Ideally, teams would pay a modest entry fee of $25-$50 to participate in the series, with all of the entry fees being returned to the winner(s).

[dmprantz]

I was kinda thinking on the same lines. At it's simplest level, it's a spreadsheet of the scores from a subset of all TN contests. Maybe do something besides KCBS score so as not to encroach on their IP?

Maybe Tony Stone's family would be interested in doing it. They could name the award in his honor.

dmp

[ThomEmery]

CBBQA ToY is Best Five Scores in State
Best of luck with your idea
It really is a great deal of fun
The CBBQA Rookie of the Year is HUGELY popular

[gmholler]

We have a "Top 10" for cookers in the LA Pit, those that are members of the Louisiana BBQ Cookers Association - best 5 scores from IBCA contests in the LA Pit during a calendar year. Started out informal, just a "bragging rights" kind of thing, but the cookers wanted a formal award, as well as one for a first-year LABCA cook...the notion of "rookie of the year" is hugely popular here, too!

Lynn H.

[Red Valley BBQ]

Check out the one NY has had in place for a few years. http://empirestatebbqchampionship.com/

[JD McGee]

Originally Posted by ThomEmery

CBBQA ToY is Best Five Scores in State
Best of luck with your idea
It really is a great deal of fun
The CBBQA Rookie of the Year is HUGELY popular

Same here for PNWBA...only we include all of the Pacific Northwest states...Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, and British Columbia (Ok...they aren't a state but they are our good neighbors and we love 'em!)...

We are fortunate to host the "Evergreen State BBQ Championship" right here in Duvall!

[Jeff_in_KC]

Maybe they just haven't gotten them approved again for 2012. There were nine in Tennessee this year.

EDIT: I see five in Tennessee in 2012.