JT USA NCPA Championships DVD - 2007

Review by Bill Mills - Dec 2007

Every spring, the National Collegiate Paintball Association provides the battlegrounds for the country's top college and high-school paintball teams at the College National Paintball Championships.

The NCPA breaks college teams into two major classifications, A and AA. The AA class plays a 5-man format, and events are open to all college teams, with the High School Classification playing a similar format. College teams can step up to the big time and compete in the A Class, playing in a conference structure throughout season, which follows the academic calendar.

NCPA Class A tournaments are played in the league's repeating score game format, very similar to X-Ball, culminating in the finals at the National Championship tournament.

For the last several years, this series has risen to such prominence, that the games from the nationals have been nationally cable cast on College Sports Television and Fox College Sports. The 2006-2007 season was no exception.

In addition to broadcast, the shows are available from NCPA on DVD disk. The 2007 DVD includes the semifinal between Purdue and U. Conn, the semifinal match between Penn State and Tennessee, and the nail-biting overtime championship game.

All told there are over two full hours of video on the DVD. Because it was produced for broadcast television, the DVD has professional production values throughout, with sharp graphic packages, and on-screen scoring compliment the action heavy coverage well edited from RS Media's 10-camera crew. Matty Marshall and Bea Youngs provide commentary throughout, with occasional information about beginning paintball gear from the event's sponsors fitted cleanly in during the commercial break bumpers. Brief staging pit interviews with the team coaches provide additional background into some of the challenges they face on the field

Both the DVD and the broadcast show follow through on their promise of delivering action filled college paintball in a family-friendly format with no profanity and no fighting – just paintball. The 2007 JT NCPA Championships DVD is available directly from the NCPA via their web site, and also bundled with the 2005 championships DVD.

Illustrating images from DVD, Copyright 2007, Courtesy NCPA