BASKETBALL ISN'T THE only thing getting college students riled up this time of year.

Last March, Brad Chisum, a recent business-school graduate from San Diego State University and co-founder of Lumedyne Technologies, a company that operates a patented sensor technology, was in the throes of Rice University's business-plan competition in Houston. "The Rice competition was very intense," says Chisum, who with the help of teammate Nick Rhea presented his business three times over a three-day period alongside 35 other teams from top MBA programs around the world.

Despite not winning their first formal contest in Houston, Chisum and Rhea went on to compete in five more b-plan competitions, taking first prize in the prestigious Global Moot Corp. Competition, an international contest hosted by the University of Texas at Austin. In less than six months, the team won more than $200,000 in prizes, rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq Stock Market and wound up with a heap of exposure. "We were suddenly famous on campus," says Chisum.

Beyond potentially attracting publicity for their businesses, entrepreneurs like these competitions because they can develop and pitch their fledgling business ideas to real investors and get professional-grade feedback. They also stand to win cash prizes -- typically, ranging anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 per competition -- plus coveted business services, such as accounting and marketing help.

Despite these benefits, Stan Mandel, the head of Wake Forest University's entrepreneurship program in Winston-Salem, N.C., says that "the competitive landscape is changing at various universities." Some contests are seeing fewer entries as start-up entrepreneurs flock to competitions that may be more lucrative or inclusive, such as those sponsored by nonprofits, product makers and even publications. Hosting a competition is "just like running a business," Mandel says. "A certain strategy is good for a period of time, and then you need to switch it."

To keep the entrepreneurial juices flowing in their direction, some schools are changing the rules to allow non-MBA candidates, alumni, and even people who aren't students to participate. Other schools are upping the stakes as well as adding unusual features to their business-plan competitions.

Broadening Horizons

New York University, for instance, has opened its competition up to students from all over campus, and this year received a record 155 teams, or 450 student entries to participate. The school offers a total of $150,000 in cash, in addition to each winner receiving $10,000 worth of pro-bono services. Today, underclassmen, medical students and doctoral candidates in study areas beyond business can participate in the contest, which takes place in mid-April, as long as at least one member of the team has some business-school affiliation. That includes alumni as well, says Cynthia Franklin, the senior associate director of NYU Stern's Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.

America's Next Top Start-Up

Want to win a business-plan competition? A bankable business idea helps, but it's hardly all you need. Here are four tips.

• Pick the right contest. If your business has a specific focus on, say, nanotechnology or social entrepreneurship, opt for a competition that caters to that specific interest. You're effectively narrowing the playing field, says Stan Mandel, executive professor of entrepreneurship at Wake Forest University.

• Get to know the judges. Once you know which contest to join, "familiarize yourself with the judging criteria," says Mandel. If a competition is growth-oriented or divvies out prizes consisting of venture capital, it's likely the judges will be thinking: Can your business provide a return on investment? In this situation, having a short incubation period — the time it takes to get a product to market — may serve you.

• Differentiate. Bill Joos, a frequent b-plan competition judge and founder of Go To Market Consulting, an early stage entrepreneurial consultancy in Palo Alto, Calif., urges aspiring entrepreneurs to switch up their pitch. "It's like advertising," says Joos. "The judges are seeing the same ads over and over again." Rather than embarking on some long-winded explanation of what your business does, tell an interesting story or have some other kind of hook, he says. "You have to change the judges' pulse rates," he says.

• It's better to be brief. As far as business plans go, many would-be entrepreneurs think (incorrectly) that more is better, says Joos. "When people write long they tend to get sloppy." Additionally, he says "they think a 40-page plan is harder than a 15-page plan." Instead, choose quality vs. tonnage and be as clear and concise as possible.Wake Forest recently added a new contest for social entrepreneurs, in which any student in addition to one nonstudent per group may vie for the opportunity to win $45,000 worth of prizes. "As long as you're a college student — from junior college to divinity school to master's degree candidates — you can participate," says Mandel.

Additionally, two years ago, the school began allowing student groups from around the world to participate in its traditional MBA business-plan competition, which takes place this weekend. "We decided that if we are going to be players on the national scene, we need some national (and international) competition," adds Mandel.

Upping the Ante

The amount of cash that schools such as University of Maryland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon can offer contest participants usually hinges on corporate sponsorships. To fatten their prize purses, some programs are now awarding venture capital.

In 2005, Rice University began offering funding in the form of equity investments pooled together by a few venture capital investors. This year's equity investment amounts to $325,000 while the total prize package weighs in at a $685,000, up from $42,500 in 2004, according to Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, which runs the business-plan contest.

"Initially, [VCs] get convertible debt, which gets converted into stock when some other outside investor invests in the company," says Burke.
This year's b-plan competition, which takes place during the first week of April, has attracted 234 teams, or 820 people, from the U.S. and abroad, up from 120 teams or about 420 people in 2007.

While the idea behind the competitions is getting a venture funded, equity financing isn't for every start-up, Mandel of Wake Forest says. Entrepreneurs are effectively giving up some control of their business when they mix in venture funding, he adds.

Standing Out

Hoping that students will respond to unique experiences, MIT hosted its first elevator-pitch contest this past October. The event, part of MIT's year-long business-plan competition, consisted of 170 contestants from 12 different schools pitching their business ideas in 60 seconds. Also new last year: letting the audience not only view the pitches but pick a winner. Such a move compelled 350 people wielding noisemakers, air horns and the like to gather together in the school's auditorium as a $1,000 cash prize, known as the "crowd favorite," was awarded to the pitch that received the most cheers.

"MIT is one of the big bastions of entrepreneurship," says Jeff Sabados, one of the MBA candidates heading up MIT's student-run business-plan competition. "The competition just emulates what our customer –- that is, what students -- are asking for."

Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., is ramping up for its second annual "Nascent 500 Business Plan Challenge," which is slated for this week. In the competition, students from various universities across North America will pitch their business ideas to venture capitalists and entrepreneur judges in the time that it takes to drive a speeding limo two laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The winner receives a victory lap in a pace-car, a quart of milk and $10,000 in cash.

"The idea is to simulate what would happen if you were sharing a cab from an airport to a hotel with an angel investor," says Larry Cox, head of Ball State's entrepreneurship program. Cox adds that student-entrepreneurs come to Indiana, "not just for the prize money, but also for the experience itself."

Other recent Starting Up columns:

• Starting Up: How to Market on Social-Networking Sites
• Starting Up: Avoiding Business Audits

("Starting Up," a weekly column written by Diana Ransom for smSmallBiz.com, follows entrepreneurs through the early stages of launching a business. Write to her at dransom@smartmoney.com.)