Don't worry that it's not good enough,
For anyone else to hear,
Just sing
Sing a song
       -- "Sing", by The Carpenters

Karen Carpenter. What did she know?

Since the ICCA championships began in 1996, competitive collegiate a cappella has evolved to resemble more and more a varsity sport. A performance itself lasts 12 minutes, and a group forfeits points if it exceeds that limit by even a second. Judges analyze pitch, harmony, choreography and the arrangement of the song, which in itself can require months to do.

"It's amazing how dedicated and serious these kids are," says Gooding, himself a 1980 alumnus of Yale's Whiffenpoofs, the seminal college a cappella group. "Sometimes I want to say, 'It's just singing. Don't take it too seriously.'"

But they do. And in greater numbers each year. Columbia's Nonsequitur auditioned more than 100 prospective members for two or three openings last September. In a case of life imitating art, tenor Joey Goldberg went Simon Cowell on a prospect, sighing with exasperation and saying, "Enough!" in the midst of the audition. Goldberg himself tried out for "American Idol" last summer.

"You have to understand," says Goldberg, "how excruciating it is to listen to off-key vocals hour after hour."

Eligibility is as much of an issue with the ICCA as it is the NCAA. Consider the case of Nathan Reiff of Eugene, Ore. In 2003, Reiff, precociously gifted both vocally and academically, was a senior who desperately wished to compete in a cappella. The problem? Reiff was a high school senior.

What did Reiff do? He enrolled in a course at the University of Oregon in order to try out for their all-male a cappella group, On The Rocks. The following year Reiff matriculated at Yale, where he would later be accepted into The Whiffenpoofs.

"In my final year of competition we finished second in our region to a group that everyone strongly suspected had brought in ringers from the outside," says Amanda Grish, the former vocalist at Illinois. "We were furious, especially when that group went on to win the national championship."

The alleged cheaters in question? A group from the University of Michigan called -- I kid you not -- the Compulsive Lyres.

Grish channeled her outrage into action. She and Rob Newman, her musical director from No Strings Attached, purchased Varsity Vocals, the company that oversees the ICCA, from Gooding. The two of them put a uniform judging system in place and adopted policies for eligibility as well.

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"Before we arrived the ICCA was, in my opinion, mismanaged," says Grish. "We take it every bit as seriously as a college basketball team would a big game."

Grish and Newman are engaged to be married, by the way. They really are making beautiful music together.

In the future Grish and Newman may want to examine the issue of seeding. This  Saturday's West Semifinal at the Marin Center for the Performing Arts in San Rafael, Calif., will feature the previous two national champions, Noteworthy and Vocal Point (both from BYU). Oregon's all-female group, Divisi, which has a budding distaff rivalry with Noteworthy, will also take the stage. As will Fermata Nowhere, which will not have the unknown factor working in its favor this time around.

"It's going to be extremely tough to come out of the West," says Stevens, whose Vocal Point was founded in 1991. "I shouldn't say this, but I think we're going to struggle. We had a vocalist leave us in December, and we've had only two months to break in the new guy."

Vocal Point is a gritty bunch, though. A few days before their quarterfinal competition on Feb. 9, first tenor Scott Sackett suffered an ankle sprain at a trampoline park. Sackett was on crutches on the day of the competition, but Vocal Point is one group that strongly emphasizes choreography.

"We wrapped Scott's ankle best we could," says Stevens, "and he threw down the crutches, walked out onstage, and gave it everything he had for 12 minutes. When we were finished he had a nice black and blue swollen ankle.

"But that's competitive a cappella," Stevens says. "Sometimes you gotta take one for the team."

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