The ACG Cincinnati Cup

About ACG Cincinnati Cup Register Your Team School Contacts Competition Timeline Collateral Information Questions

Presenting Sponsor

GE Commercial Finance

Gold Sponsors
Advanced Testing Laboratory
Cooney, Faulkner & Stevens
Duke Energy
The E.W. Scripps Company
KeyBank
Fidelity Investments

Award Sponsor
The Malibu Group

Recruiting Sponsors
ComStock Advisors
Merrill Lynch
PNC Bank
Strategic Employee
Benefit Services

Competition Timeline


October 30 to mid-December: Sign-up of school teams. Teams must be comprised of at least two and no more than four graduate students, currently enrolled at the participating schools. Based upon experience, however, we recommend a team consist of three to four students. The competition is open to all graduate school business, accounting, finance or other students at participating universities, whether they are full-time, part-time or executive track students.

January: Release of the case study via email. While the exact nature of the case will not be revealed ahead of time, the focus of the work will be related to a private equity-type scenario, also drawing on skills related to investment banking and management strategy/consulting.

January: Teams work on the case and prepare for on-campus rounds. Student clubs and faculty sponsors will communicate with your team, as necessary, throughout this process and be available to answer questions (other than related to the case itself). Each team will analyze and present their recommendations and supporting rationale for a complex investment case that requires corporate strategy, finance and valuation skills. Complete details and presentation guidelines will be provided upon release of the business case.

Late January: First round on campus competition. The specific date and time for on campus rounds will be communicated by your respective school. Questions should be directed to those individuals on the School Contact page. Judges will include faculty and possibly non-conflicted students using a set of criteria provided by ACG for evaluating the presentations. Evaluation criteria will be provided upon the release of the business case. Date and location for this round will be determined by each school and will be communicated to teams by the faculty and student sponsors.

Early March: The finals will include the winning on campus teams from each university going head-to-head, representing their schools. A panel of judges representing private equity and investment banking professionals from the region will determine the winning team as well as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place prize winners. The total prize pool will be $10,000 with division between each of the finalists: First place is $4,000; second place $3,000; third place $2,000 and fourth place $1,000.

Note that EVERY team making it to the finals will receive a financial prize. The winning team will also be awarded the "Cincinnati Cup" trophy with the winner's names engraved on the base. This trophy will be on loan to the 1st place school for the coming year. Date and location of the regional finals is to be determined and will be communicated to teams accordingly.