Thanks to a WSM user and winner. Hope you all sent Vincent a BIG thank you for this posting to the CBBQA forum.
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#7 Vincent Carrocci
CBBQA Team of the Year 2008 & 2009
Group:CBBQA Board Of Directors
Posts:1,710
Joined:18-September 07
Location
hoenix, AZ
Posted Today, 01:00 AM
To answer your questions, there are a number of ways that a team can gain "automatic" entry into the Jack both prior to the Draw and then based upon things that happened during the Draw. Let's focus on the pre-draw ways first. Keep in mind that this is only for US based teams. International teams have a somewhat different set of guidelines.
The winners of the following contests all are automatically invited:
Winner of the previous year's Jack - Quau
Winner of Memphis in May - Big Bob Gibson's
Winner of the American Royal Open - Lotta Bull
Winner of the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Show - Texas Pepper Jelly
The next way is to win 7 qualifying Grand Championships in a single "Jack Season" which begins on September 1 and runs through August 31 of the next year. This year Munchin Hogs at the Hilton had 8 qualifying GCs and I think Southern Exposure had 7.
Another way is if a team has competed at the Jack nine times, the next time they win a qualifier, they get an automatic invitation. IQue got in that way this year. In past years, Jack's Old South and Smokin' Triggers have as well.
Yet another way is to win the only qualifying contest held in a state during the Jack Season. We got in the way from Boise, ID and Piggy D's got in that way from Stevensville, MT. There were others too but I don't have that breakdown with me at the moment.
A team could also become an automatic by winning all the qualifiers in a given state. Since the state draw would only contain one team, that team would clearly win that state draw.
I think that covers all the pre-draw ways but if I missed one, I'm sure someone will post it so let's move on to how a team could become an automatic during the draw period. There is one example from this year's draw that we can use to explain the first way. Here it is...
Nevada had 3 qualifiers this past season. They were Mesquite, Las Vegas and Boulder City. As it worked out, the team that won Las Vegas (Munchin Hogs at the Hilton) was an auto with 8 GCs so they were out of the Nevada state draw and the winner of Boulder City (The Smokin' B.A.R.) did not file an draw entry form so that left the winner of Mesquite, (Smoked to the Bone) as the only team in the Nevada state draw thereby making it an Automatic. There was no way for anyone to know that only one team would file their entry form prior to the draw so we all expected it to be a 50/50 chance for both teams but because Smoked to the Bone was listed among the automatics, it could only be because they were the only team left in the state draw.
Keep in mind that just because you won a contest does not mean you are in the Draw. It means you have the opportunity to enter the Draw. Teams have to return their entry forms by the deadline or they will not be invited. This goes for the the Automatic teams too. For instance, if Quau, the reigning Jack Champion, did not return their draw form, they would not be able to compete. Otis and The Bird in Arizona qualified for the Draw but Jaybird knew he wasn't going go even if he was drawn so he didn't return his entry form. (Got a headache yet?)
OK, another during the Draw way would be if a team had had draws in multiple states was drawn in one of them. That team would then be removed from all their remaining state draws and, if that left just one team for another state, that lone team would become an automatic.
I think that covers the only during the Draw ways so now we can try to tackle Home State Rep. Fortunately we have an example we can use from this year's draw for that too but first let me explain what Home State Rep means.
Jack Daniel's not only wants a Grand Champion from every state in which a qualifying contest was held, they also want a Grand Champion from every state in which a Grand Champion resides. That is why they created Home State Rep.
This year, Whiskey Ranch BBQ was invited as Home State Rep for Arizona. "How can that be?" you ask since both Smoked to the Bone and Rhythm 'n QUE are also from Arizona. Well, Home State Rep only applies to teams that went through the actual Draw. The Automatic teams don't count for this situation. Here's what happened: Since RnQ was an Automatic before the Draw, they don't count when figuring since we didn't go through the Draw. Smoked to the Bone was Automatic too so it didn't count either. That meant that since Whiskey Ranch was the only Arizona team that actually went through the Draw and was not selected, Arizona would not have a team that made it into the field via the draw so they were selected as Arizona Home State Rep. Now, let's suppose that Otis and The Bird had decided to file their form and they were also not selected via the Draw. Jack Daniel's would have held a draw for Arizona Home State Rep and it would have been a 50/50 chance between Whiskey Ranch and Otis and The Bird.
Usually, every team that receives an invitation to compete in The Jack makes the trip but sometimes a team can't make it for one reason or another, often due to uncontrollable circumstances. For example, in 2008, Otis and The Bird was the winner of the Boulder City, NV contest and at that time it was the only qualifier in Nevada so it was an Automatic. In mid-September of that year, Monica had a very bad turn of health, (she had been battling cancer for many years) and Jaybird and Monica were not able to make the trip. Sadly, Monica passed away a few months later. Well, word of this made it back to Jack Daniel's and so they decided to offer Jaybird an invitation to the 2009 Jack even though he didn't actually win an automatic or a qualifier in 2009. They simply wanted to him to be able to use the chance he had already earned but was unable to due to Monica's illness. I think that was a very classy and understanding thing for Jack Daniel's to do.
Finally, the Wild Card is a last chance draw for all the teams that were in the Draw but did not get drawn in any state or become any kind of automatic or Home State Rep. Each of these teams gets one bung and that team is probably the luckiest team that makes it into the field. The odds of winning the Wild Card draw are probably in excess of 200 or 300 to 1.
I hope this epic tome made some kind of sense and helped to answer your questions. (Now I have a headache!)
