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6, 2013 | V
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MISSISSIPPIAN T h e S t u d e n t N e w s pa p e r
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M i ss i ss i p p i | S e r v i n g O l e M i ss
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UM Forensics WINS INTERNATIONAL EVENT Exotic trips SPECIAL TO THE DM
BY PETE PORTER tjporter@go.olemiss.edu
Two members of The University of Mississippi forensics team emerged victorious in the finals of the China Open held in Xian, China Sunday. Austin “Woody” Wood, a political science senior, and Isaac Lichlyter, a May graduate of the Croft Institute, were named the top two speakers at the tournament, the team’s first ever international debate as well as its first ever team debate. Ole Miss also sent David Miller, a political science senior, who was paired in the competition with a Mandarin student named Amy, a Chinese national attending Xi’an Jiaotong University. “This is our biggest win this year by far,” the team’s coach JoAnn Edwards said., the team’s coach who was unable to make the trip. Edwards was unable to make the trip, however, via text with Debra Yancy, assistant director of forensics who accompanied the team as coach and judge, she was able to keep track of the debate throughout the competition. “We had no idea what to expect, but to win the first time plus with a host of panels, this is huge as we make our first international splash,” Edwards said. The Ole Miss team competed against a field of approximately
150 teams, consisting mainly of universities from the West Coast of the United States and China. The team was impressed that all the Chinese teams were fluent in English, as the debate was held in English. The Ole Miss team made it through the first round, reaching the “out rounds” beginning with the quarterfinals consisting of 24 teams. During this round the team was asked to discuss China’s potential expanded presence in space. The team then advanced to the top four for the finals against three Chinese teams. For this final, they were asked if the international community should be focusing on domestic policy or foreign policy, with the team responding the focus should be on domestic. The trio felt comfortable at the event from the very beginning. At the end of the opening welcome speech from a man named Shadow, head adjudicator of the tournament, he said, “Please take the first steps with us towards brilliance.” This is strangely close to Ole Miss’ forensics team’s motto, “Be brilliant,” something Coach Edwards tells the team before every event. “This has always been an Ole Miss policy,” Edwards said. “That’s all you can do before events like this, and obviously the students respond to it well. Hearing that during the opening
entice Ole Miss alumni BY CAMILLE CONDREY
Ole Miss forensics team members
COURTESY OF UM FORENSICS
University of Mississippi alumni not only have a Rebel network to keep in touch with lifelong friends, they also have unusual opportunities to travel the world with other graduates. Tim Walsh, executive director of the university’s Alumni Association since 2008, has been expanding the university’s 23-year-old travel program. One of the most recent additions is a 23-day a trip around the world by private jet − with a price tag of $67,950. So far the trip has been well received, “exceeding the expectations” of Walsh’s friend who went on the trip in January of this year. Since Ole Miss’ first trip around the world in 2012, the two offerings have completely sold out and the trip scheduled for 2014 already has two people signed up. “The rep was very nice when she pitched the idea to me but then she told me the price and I was like ‘Aw, we’re not going to do this,’”
speech was even more motiva- er it’d be limited preparation, tion.” interpretation of literature and Edwards was impressed with prepared speaking,” Edwards her team’s showing consider- said. “Doing team debate gives ing this was its first ever team us the ability to reach multiple debate. audiences, not just the academic “We usually have plenty of See TRAVEL, PAGE 4 individual tournaments, wheth- See FORENSICS, PAGE 5
COLUMN
Longhorn Network set to televise Ole Miss vs. Texas game next season BY DAVID COLLIER dlcollie@go.olemiss.edu
As if Ole Miss fans weren’t already feeling a knife in their stomach from another baseball season that ended without meeting expectations, Texas and ESPN cut a little deeper Tuesday when they announced Ole Miss’ Sept. 14 road trip to Texas would be televised on the Longhorn Network. The announcement sent fury throughout the Rebel fan base and rightfully so. A matchup that was supposed to give Ole Miss national exposure is immediately made into one that Rebel fans will
be lucky to see. First, Texas limits the ticket allotment to Ole Miss to a measly 4,000 tickets, and now, the game that was likely to be on ESPN’s flagship network like last year’s contest between the two programs in Oxford, can only be seen by roughly 10 million LHN subscribers. The only major cable or satellite provider that carries LHN is AT&T U-verse. Not only is that not fair to Ole Miss and Texas fans who aren’t lucky enough to have tickets to the game, but it virtually blacks out all of the Southeastern Conference country that would have a
lot of interest in watching the game. Instead of having a marquee matchup between the SEC and Big 12 to watch following Alabama’s contest at Texas A&M, which is set for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff on CBS, college football fans will have to look to watch conference matchups such as Vanderbilt at South Carolina or Mississippi State at Auburn or nonconference matchups such as UCLA at Nebraska or Louisville at Kentucky. After Tuesday’s announcement, the Ole Miss football account sent out a tweet that said, “Ole Miss and ESPN are
working on TV accommodations for Rebel fans for the Texas game.” That likely will result in the game being available in Mississippi in some way, possibly as a pay-per-view option. However, what about the fans who live outside of the state? It’s easy to see LHN and ESPN messed this one up, and it is sure to have a longterm impact on the way Texas schedules nonconference opponents in the future. Would you want to play a home and home with the Longhorns without a clause in the contract prohibiting LHN from broadcasting the game? Ab-
solutely not. For now, it appears all Ole Miss can do is try to work out something to make the game available to some of the fan base, but that won’t change what really matters. Rebel head coach Hugh Freeze and his staff still have the same job to do, and if they go in to Austin and get a win over the Longhorns, you can rest assured that Ole Miss fans won’t care what they had to do to see it. For continuing coverage of Ole Miss football, follow @DavidLCollier and @thedm_sports on Twitter.