Overview

Building on the success of last year’s Excel on Rocky Top competition, the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge is launching multi-site international regional competitions on April 5, 2025. Students will compete both as individuals and as teams, with opportunities to advance to championship battles later this spring as well as the December World Championships in Las Vegas.

The Knoxville MECC Regional on Saturday, April 5 runs from 9am through mid-afternoon and includes four competition cases, Master classes, a panel discussion, and light breakfast items and lunch. For anyone planning to arrive Friday evening, we will organize an informal networking activity.

Registration for University of Tennessee Students

The Finance Department covers the cost for UTK students meeting one of the following criteria:

 - Currently taking or auditing Dr. Kelley's FINC 493 eSports class

- Competed in the 2024 MECC Las Vegas World Championships

- Taking or completed FINC 311

- Taking or completed one or more Finance honors course

- Member of one or more UTK Finance student organization

To register, submit your information here by March 28.

University Registration and Pricing

The team registration fee of $500 covers up to five students and two faculty members. Additional students may attend for $50 each. At this time, there is no cap on the number of students a University may bring.

Please email Prof. Eric Kelley (ekk@utk.edu) to register your team.

After registering, you can pay by credit card here.

All competitors must sign up with MECC

Go to https://Mecc.college and click the “Sign Up” button. Once you’ve done this, you will receive an email containing an ExPrep course code.

• If you already have an ExPrep account for a course at your university, login to ExPrep as you normally would. From there, click your name on the top right of the screen, select “Enroll in course” and enter the code you were provided.

• If you are new to ExPrep, go to portal.excelpreparation.com and create one using your university email. After logging in, click your name on the top right of the screen, select “Enroll in course” and enter the code you were provided.

• The MECC Ex Prep site will be your central hub for accessing practice cases and submitting work

Cases

The competition will feature four 30-minute cases, each of a different type. MECC provides example cases for each type in the “Case Explorer Challenges” folder of the Ex Prep site.

Case Type 1 - Speed Challenge: Solve the case as fast as possible. 

Examples on MECC Ex Prep Site: MECC Keyboarding Challenge (2003); MECC Keyboarding Challenge (2002)

Case Type 2 - Visual Case: Work with maps, visual references, and questions related to visual elements.

Examples on MECC Ex Prep Site: Horse Racing; Kickoff

Case Type 3 - Data/Logical Case: Analyze and work with large databases.

Examples on MECC Ex Prep Site: Meal Plan; Best Birthday Ever; Data Mix Up; Touchdown

Case Type 4 - Formatting Case: Pay close attention to proper formatting techniques.

Examples on MECC Ex Prep Site: Formatting and Functions Challenge

To learn how to get started with cases and access additional training resources, visit my Training Page. MECC also provides a host of tutorials here.

Divisions

Varsity and Junior Varsity divisions will accommodate different levels of skill and expertise. Students may choose the division within which they compete. The Junior Varsity division will use cases that resemble the Varsity cases, but with less complexity.

• In each of the January – March online rounds, MECC offered both a varsity and a junior varsity case. These cases are a mix of Visual Cases and Data/Logical Cases. We encourage students to try these various cases to gauge their skill level.

• The post competition versions of each of these cases are available in the “Weekend Battle Archives” folder of the Ex Prep site. Note: The March battle occurs March 27-30, so students can participate in the competition versions of those cases by signing up for MECC and accessing the cases during the competition window.

Scoring

Students will complete all cases as individuals. Each case will have an individual winner. We will also declare an overall individual winner. Overall team scoring will be based on the scores of the top three individuals. See the MECC website for complete rules.

Special Guests

We are honored to welcome two special guests: Britt Deaton and Ben Northern. Britt and Ben will provide Master Classes to demonstrate how they think about and solve cases in competition and answer questions about how their experiences translate to real-world problems.

In addition, a panel of student competitors will tell stories of their experiences and how the MECC competitions have elevated their career trajectories.

Questions?

Visit our FAQ page!