Huskers win $6,000 in inaugural accounting case competition

Nearly 140 University of Nebraska–Lincoln students recently competed in the inaugural Intermediate Accounting II Case Competition. Acting as junior credit analysts, the students worked in groups to prepare a loan analysis and then pitch it in less than eight minutes for the opportunity to win cash prizes totaling $6,000.

“A case competition offers students the chance to engage with a real-world scenario while honing their critical thinking, communication and teamwork skills,” said Jill Trucke, associate professor of practice in accountancy. “To benefit the most students, we decided to integrate it into a class as an assignment but also make it a competition.”

Divided into 29 groups of four or five, the students worked together for two weeks outside of class time on their analyses. The competition scenario placed them as junior credit analysts for a large, well-known bank in good financial health with a well-diversified portfolio of loans.

“The students were to include the amount, interest rate and term length for a business loan for BJ Wholesale Club Holdings, Floor and Décor Holding or Spotify,” Trucke said. “To do this, they had to assess the creditworthiness of the publicly traded companies and evaluate their ability to repay loans, which involves analyzing financial statements, market conditions and other relevant data. They also needed to ensure the bank has a good return on their investment through these loans.”

All teams presented to accounting faculty judges during the first round of the competition. The top five teams presented a second time to the School of Accountancy Junior Advisory Board, and the top three teams earned cash prizes, sponsored in part by Deloitte.

“Through the competition, I learned a great deal about bank loans, interest rates and covenants, which was all new to me,” said Nikolas Mancio, a senior accounting and finance major from Porto Alegre, Brazil, whose team won first place and $3,000. “It was fascinating to see how the ratios we discussed in class, like the quick ratio and interest coverage ratio, are applied in real-world scenarios. We used these ratios to assess various aspects of each company, which played a crucial role in our decision-making process.”

Mancio’s team also included Sophia Gagnon, a junior accounting major from Lakewood, Colorado; Brooke Hester, a senior accounting major from La Vista, Nebraska; and Harry Hueners, a senior accounting and finance major from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

“The hardest part of the competition was trying to pull everyone’s ideas together,” said Jackson Harvey, a junior accounting and finance major from Underwood, Iowa, whose team took second place and received $2,000. “We also tried to figure out what questions they were going to ask us in the second round of the competition. We had a lot of accounting minds in the same room and having them analyze your product from a professional standpoint while staying in the role of a junior analyst was something we tried really hard to do.”

Harvey’s team also included Rachel Grant, a senior accounting and music major from Goddard, Kansas; Bree Havlat, a senior accounting major from Lincoln, Nebraska; Brayden McPhail, a junior finance and accounting major from Lincoln; and Khanh Do Van Nguyen, a junior finance major from Thu Duc, Vietnam.

“Speaking in public definitely is not something I enjoy,” said Camden Midgett, a junior accounting and finance major from Lincoln, whose team finished third and received $1,000. “This competition took me way outside my comfort zone.”

Midgett’s team also included Daniel Cutler, a junior accounting major from Plattsmouth, Nebraska; Willem Larson, a junior accounting major from Leawood, Kansas; and Xavier Roy, a junior accounting major from Elkhorn, Nebraska.

“I believe case studies are one of the best ways for students to learn,” Mancio said. “Having participated in a few, I found it very rewarding to see the results after all the hard work my team and I put in. Even when we didn’t win, the learning experiences from these competitions were invaluable.”