August 23, 2007
Texas MBA Team Yields to Yale on Final Question in CNBC MBA
Challenge
Team Texas came on strong once again as they faced off against Yale in the final round of CNBC's "Fast Money MBA Challenge” August 22, which aired live from Nasdaq in New York .
Leaping ahead in a barrage of correct answers to business and
financial questions, Texas maintained a nearly overwhelming lead
right up to the very last question, which was worth as much as
$100,000 in the point total. Yale answered their question correctly,
adding $80,000 to their score, putting pressure on Texas to
ace their final question for a win. Sadly for Texas fans, the team
missed the final question and Yale slipped by for the win.
(See
championship highlights.)
Throughout the competition, the four Texas team members—Ben Jones,
Tim Killgoar, Justin Sander and Chris Semain—represented McCombs
with poise, confidence and grace under pressure.
(See the
team profile.) Classmates Brad Gurasich and Ryan Nixon filled
out the team as alternates.
"We came into this competition knowing we had as good of a chance as
anyone to take this (win) home," said Semain.
Yale's team members take home the $200,000 prize money, but Texas clearly impressed a national TV audience with a powerful presence among some of the top MBA programs in the country.
 Chris Semain,Tim Killgoar, Justin Sander and Ben Jones at the Fast Money MBA Challenge. |
Showing Texas Means Business
Team members took leave from summer internships to fly to New York
and take part in the business-themed game show.
The show premiered August 1, with Texas beating top-seeded MIT in the first round. In the second round, Texas knocked off Columbia and earned a spot in the championship. Encore presentations of the championship air Sunday, August 26, 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Austin local time on CNBC.
The team from Austin was happy with the overall experience.
“We enjoyed matching wits with students from other top business schools," Kilgoar said. "I believe we represented Texas well on a national stage.”
The other competing schools were NYU, Columbia, MIT, Yale,
Chicago, UCLA and Dartmouth.
Shining in a National Spotlight
For Team Texas, it was their first dose of TV magic.
“I was surprised that only about 10 percent of the time was spent actually filming the game show,” Semain said. “The rest of the time was filming B-roll, prepping for shots, shuttling from one studio to the next. It was pretty intense, but fun.”
The future Texas MBAs said they enjoyed themselves so much because they were able to stay loose and just have fun. They successfully tuned out the obvious pressure associated with representing an entire university on national television.
“The six of us were able to find a lot of humor with the whole
experience,” Killgoar said. “I think we were more relaxed than
some of the
other teams. That’s one of the things that attracted me to Texas for
my MBA. I like the down-to-earth nature of my classmates, in
addition to their intelligence.”
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
