With one round remaining in the College Bowl semifinals, team captain Shomik Ghose (’19), a junior at Columbia, and his teammates were trailing Auburn by 150 points, but after answering 16 questions correctly in the final round, Columbia punched their ticket to the championship with a 735-695 victory. 

“I was thinking about where to eat dinner to celebrate just being on the show,” Ghose said. “Then we won the semifinals, and I could only stand there, shocked.” 

On Tuesday, Sept. 7, Columbia will compete against the University of Southern California for the College Bowl Championship on NBC at 9 p.m. locally. The network is promoting it as “A Battle of the Coasts,” with the winners each receiving a $125,000 scholarship.

College Bowl, often called “The Varsity Sport of the Mind,” is a new game show in which eight universities compete head-to-head in trivia, with categories ranging from Caribbean history to witchology. The competition, hosted by former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and featuring his older brother Cooper, requires players to have a sharp memory, broad-based knowledge and quick reflexes. The show aired from 1959 to 1970 before NBC revived it this year. 

In February, Ghose received an invitation from a producer to audition. After he was accepted, he met his fellow Columbia teammates, seniors Tamarah Wallace and Jake Fisher, in Los Angeles to discuss their strongest areas of knowledge and time management.

To reach the semifinals, Columbia won their first two matches against Morehouse College and the University of Tennessee. After falling behind in their first match, they pulled ahead during the two-minute “lightning round.”

“I love the rapid-fire decision-making of the two-minute drill,” Ghose said. ”It makes for an exciting game.” 

Ghose’s mastery of trivia formed long before college. He competed with the SJS quiz bowl team all four years of high school and is the second-highest career scorer in school history behind Carlo de Guzman (’14). 

“I haven’t played quiz bowl in two years,” Ghose said. “I was shocked by how much I remembered when I went on the show.”

For Ghose, the thought of being on TV can be distracting, but his two years as SJS quiz bowl captain has helped him lead Columbia.

“I’m really thankful to my past high school teammates from St. John’s who prepared me for this and to Mr. Nathan for being a great coach in high school,” Ghose said.

Ghose taped all episodes over the summer, but due to a standard non-disclosure agreement, he cannot discuss how the tournament ends. “Whatever happens in the finals, our run will be something to celebrate.”

This story was updated at 2:31 p.m. with additional information.