Welcome to the 2020 College Championship, today featuring these contestants:

• Sirad, a senior from Princeton, is studying a lot of things;
• Emma, a senior from Carnegie Mellon, aims to become a field engineer; and
• Marshall, a sophomore from University of Texas at Austin, looks to go into finance.

Emma opened a huge lead in round one, then Marshall was correct on both DDs in DJ to close the gap, going into FJ with $8,800 vs. $12,200 for Emma and $2,600 for Sirad.

DD1, $800 – MAMMALS – The mnemonic device “D” has one hump, “B” has 2 helps us remember these 2 types of camels (Emma won $2,000 from her leading score of $4,000.)

DD2, $1,600 – OFFICIAL LANGUAGE IN COMMON – Burundi, Switzerland (On the first clue of DJ, Marshall won $1,000 on a true DD vs. $9,400 for Emma.)

DD3, $2,000 – WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR? – The last name of this British mathematician is the “T” in CAPTCHA, a computer security test (Still very early in the round, Marshall won the table limit of $2,000 from his score of $800.)

FJ – WONDERS OF THE MODERN WORLD – Nicknamed “The Big Ditch”, in 2014 this modern wonder celebrated its 100th anniversary

Only Marshall was correct on FJ, advancing by nearly doubling up to $17,599. Emma, who played for the win, lost $5,401 for a very tenuous early lead in the wild card chase at $6,799, while Sirad dropped $2,500 to finish at $100.

Collegiate conundrums: No one knew the ‘Cardinal school” of the Pac-12 is Stanford, or the “numerical group of northeastern schools” in the book “Uncommon Women and Others” is the Seven Sisters.

One more thing: The College Championship has a new EDM-flavored theme song, replacing the old rock-oriented one, as well as new “Think!” music done in a marching band style.

Correct Qs:
DD1 – What are dromedary and Bactrian?
DD2 – What is French?
DD3 – What is Turing?
FJ – What is the Panama Canal?