Collegiate Nationals
The Collegiate Nationals is a multisport event for college students across the United States. The events air annually on CBS College Sports Network.
The Nationals include competitions in sports not sanctioned by the NCAA. Events are open to accredited students at both four-year and two-year schools.
The telecasts are produced by Echo Entertainment and marketed by Highline Sports on behalf of CBS College Sports.
Sports offered
- Adventure racing
- Beach volleyball
- Boxing[1]
- Competitive eating
- Flowboarding (similar to surfing)
- Freeskiing
- Kayak
- Skiing[2]
- Snowboarding[2]
- Ultimate
- Wakeboarding
- Weightlifting
In addition, there are film and music competitions.
History
The Nationals were launched in 2006. The site of the first event was the Reno-Lake Tahoe area in Nevada. For its second year (2007), the Nationals expanded to include events at Mission Bay in San Diego, California.
There were more changes in 2008, as the snowboarding event was moved to the Keystone ski resort near Boulder, Colorado. The competitive eating, Ultimate, and freeskiing competitions were also added that year. Also, the Nationals debuted on terrestrial television when CBS Sports aired the first of eight one-hour episodes on May 25.
Hosts
The 2008 event hosts were Jonny Moseley, Olympic champion in moguls skiing, and Jenn Brown. Carter Blackburn was the boxing announcer, and Chris McGee and Holly McPeak called the beach volleyball matches.
Sponsors
Because the event is not NCAA-sanctioned, sponsors can display their advertising at the competition venues. In 2008, they included Edge shave gel and Jack in the Box.
Additional information
Of the events on the Collegiate Nationals program, only two have any ties to actual NCAA sports. Many of the beach volleyball players also play in the indoor version of the game, and boxing was a NCAA-sanctioned sport until 1961, when the death of a boxer who attended Wisconsin caused such outcry that the organization stripped the sanction.[3]