The Collegiate Nationals was a multisport event for

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most The Commonwealth, commonwealth countries, a "student" attends ...

s across the United States. The events aired annually on

CBS College Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...

from 2006 through 2012. In 2009 the name was changed to "The Alt Games." The Nationals included competitions in sports not sanctioned by the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA). Events were open to accredited students at both four-year and two-year schools. For at least nine of the sports, the contests were the established national championship competitions that had previously existed and were conducted by their respective collegiate sport governing bodies. The telecasts were produced by Echo Entertainment and marketed by Highline Sports on behalf of CBS College Sports.

Sports offered

Adventure racing Team Wild Rose setting out on the paddling section at Full Moon in June 2009, Panorama Mountain Village Adventure racing (also called expedition racing) is typically a multidisciplinary team sport involving navigation over an unmarked wildern ...

Beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side o ...

Boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

Competitive eating Competitive eating, or speed eating, is a sport in which participants compete against each other to eat large quantities of food, usually in a short time period. Contests are typically eight to ten minutes long, although some competitions can l ...

Flowboarding Flowriding is a late 20th century alternative boardsport incorporating elements of surfing, bodyboarding, skateboarding, skimboarding, snowboarding and wakeboarding. The FlowRider and the FlowBarrel are artificial waves that are called "shee ...

(similar to

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suita ...

) *

Freeskiing Freeskiing, or new school skiing, is a specific type of alpine skiing, which involves tricks, jumps, and terrain park features, such as rails, boxes, jibs, or other obstacles. This form of skiing resulted from the growth of snowboarding combi ...

Paintball Paintball is a competitive sport, competitive team sport, team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules called Paintball equipment#Paintballs, paintballs that b ...

Skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...

Skydiving Parachuting and skydiving are methods of descending from a high point in an atmosphere to the ground or ocean surface with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or multiple parachutes. For hu ...

Snowboarding Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralym ...

Surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suita ...

Triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the ...

Ultimate Ultimate or Ultimates may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums *Ultimate (Bryan Adams album), ''Ultimate'' (Bryan Adams album) *Ultimate (Jolin Tsai album), ''Ultimate'' (Jolin Tsai album) *Ultimate (Pet Shop Boys album), ''Ult ...

Wakeboarding Wakeboarding is a water sport in which the rider, standing on a wakeboard (a board with foot bindings), is towed behind a motorboat across its wake and especially up off the crest in order to perform aerial maneuvers. A hallmark of wakeboarding ...

Weightlifting Weightlifting or weight lifting generally refers to physical exercises and sports in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells, barbells or machines. People engage in weightlifting for a variety of different reasons. These can ...

Whitewater kayaking Whitewater kayaking is an outdoor adventure sport where paddlers navigate a river in a specially designed kayak. Whitewater kayaking includes several styles: river running, creeking, slalom, playboating, and squirt boating. Each style offers ...

In addition, there were

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

and

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

competitions.

History

The Nationals were launched in 2006. The site of the first event was the

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; Washo language, Washo: ''dáʔaw'') is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the Western United States, straddling the border between California and Nevada. Lying at above sea level, Lake Tahoe is the largest a ...

area in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. For its second year (2007), the Nationals expanded to include events at Mission Bay in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. There were more changes in 2008, as the snowboarding event was moved to the Keystone ski resort near

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

. The competitive eating and ultimate competitions were also added that year. Also, the Nationals debuted on

terrestrial television Terrestrial television, or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the content is signal transmission, transmitted via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV rece ...

when

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

aired the first of eight one-hour episodes on May 25.

Beach volleyball

In 2006, the AVP sanctioned a combine that selected 8 players from 8 colleges and paired them into teams (title was won by Bibiana Candelas (

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

)/Paula Gentil (

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

)). In 2007

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

(Jordan Larson/Sarah Pavan) won an invitational competition of 8 colleges, which featured only two players per school, as opposed to entire teams. 2008 saw

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

win an invitational, sponsored by

AVCA The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) is an organization of over 9,000 members, incorporated as a private non-profit corporation, non-profit educational corporation in 1981, as the Collegiate Volleyball Coaches Association. It is cur ...

and AVP, involving 6 schools with four pairs teams each. In 2009,

prevailed over an invited field of 8 colleges with four pairs teams each. In 2010, the competition reverted to one pairs team per school, with 12 colleges invited; it was won by

Loyola Marymount Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. LMU enrolls over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it the largest Catholic university on the west coast of the ...

(Emily Day/Heather Hughes). The two-player team format continued in 2011, except that players were paired with different partners from other schools for every match, until the semi-final winners were determined. That year there was also a men's competition in the same format. In 2012, the event was conducted by the

American Volleyball Coaches Association The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) is an organization of over 9,000 members, incorporated as a private non-profit educational corporation in 1981, as the Collegiate Volleyball Coaches Association. It is currently headquartered in ...

and featured Long Beach State vs. Pepperdine in the final.

Hosts

The 2008 event hosts were

Jonny Moseley Jonathan William Moseley (born August 27, 1975) is an American freestyle skier and television presenter. He is the first person born in Puerto Rico to become a member of the U.S. Ski Team. He is also known for hosting three seasons of MTV's '' ...

, Olympic champion in moguls skiing, and Jenn Brown.

Carter Blackburn Carter Blackburn (born March 30, 1979) is an American sportscaster. He currently works for CBS Sports after leaving ESPN in 2014. Early life and education Blackburn was born in Dallas, Texas, and grew up in Kerrville, in the Texas Hill Count ...

was the boxing announcer, and Chris McGee and

Holly McPeak Holly McPeak (born May 15, 1969) is an American retired indoor and beach volleyball player. McPeak was three-times an Olympian in beach volleyball. In the professional circuit, she garnered 72 career beach volleyball titles, with career earnings ...

called the beach volleyball matches.

Additional information

Of the events on the Collegiate Nationals/Alt Games program, only two had any ties to actual NCAA sports at the time. Many of the beach volleyball players also played in the indoor version of the game; beach volleyball later became an NCAA sport that held its first official championship in 2016. Boxing was an NCAA-sanctioned sport until 1961, when the death of a boxer who attended

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

caused the organization to drop the sport.''The Great American Sports Book'', by George Gipe. (1977)

References