And like sports, the competitions have fired up the "Fighting Irish" in the business arena, resulting in a number of wins at events hosted by Cornell, Northwestern, and the University of Colorado last year, as well as a win at last month's first case competition of the academic year, hosted by Bearing Point.

These case competitions provide students with the opportunity to develop problem-solving and presentation skills under pressure, using real-world scenarios. Woolley also calls the competition "dress rehearsals for job interviews," because the judges are recruiters from companies the candidates may someday seek a job with. The backbone to the whole case competition exercise is that it gives confidence to the students competing against other top schools," says Woolley. "It builds great relationships with recruiters."

In upcoming competitions against such schools as MIT, UNC, and Texas, the key to success will be the ability for teammates to analyze a case across disciplines to arrive at an answer. The Notre Dame MBA curriculum, which emphasizes an integrated and a methodical approach to solving problems, is a great help, say team members.

2007-2008 Case Competition Wins

First Place: Notre Dame MBA students Margot Woolley, Keith Flatley, Gabriel Kacarab, Rohit Jacob and Clint Branam, the HABLA Case Competition hosted by the Johnson School at Cornell University.
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Competitors included Cornell, Carnegie-Mellon and Purdue Universities, and the universities of Rochester and California, Berkeley (November 2007).

First Place: Notre Dame MBA students Heather Burns, Chris Wittman, Anita Allen, Joel Rambaldini and Pete Travnicek, the Kellogg Biotechnology Case Competition held at Northwestern University.
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Competitors included Northwestern University and the universities of Chicago and Texas at Austin (January 2008).

First Place: Notre Dame MBA students Amanda Gunville, Vince Srejma, Matt Brewer, Bryan Quinn and Todd Nieto, Rocky Mountain Regional of the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) hosted by the Leeds School at the University of Colorado.
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Competitors included Northwestern University, Purdue University, the universities of Chicago, Michigan and Wisconsin (February 2008).

First, Second, Third Place: Notre Dame MBA students Karen Frevert, Joe Kindt and Mike Bott were team members on the first, second and third-place teams respectively in the Kenan-Flagler School of Business Marketing Case Competition hosted by the University of North Carolina, a competition that builds teams with students from different MBA programs.
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Thirteen top business schools were represented, including MIT and the universities of Georgetown, Duke and California, Berkeley (February 2008).