National Academic Quiz Tournaments
|
|
National Academic Quiz Tournaments (LLC) is a question-writing and quizbowl organizing company founded by former players in 1996. It is unique among U.S. quiz organizations for supplying questions and hosting championships at both the high school and college levels.
The format is a set of questions are read until the time expires, making it similar to College Bowl. However the question difficulty for the college level is significantly higher, and the question topics somewhat more academic. The company also writes practice questions and questions for high school and college invitational tournaments. Its model is more centralized than Academic Competition Federation in that all questions are centrally produced, rather than produced by the teams and centrally edited.
The national tournaments are divided into divisions, unlike other formats, so that a clear undergraduate champion is determined (all formats allow graduate students to compete in some form).
The 2004 NAQT Intercollegiate Championship Tournament (ICT) was held April 2-3 at Washington University in St. Louis and the 2004 High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT) was held June 5-6 in Houston.
The 2005 NAQT ICT was held April 8-9 at Tulane University in New Orleans and the 2005 NAQT HSNCT was held June 3-5 in Chicago.
| Contents |
|
|
At the College Level
Collegiate Divisions
Division I Open
NAQT's eligibility rules state that any student taking at least 3 credit hours towards a degree at a university may compete on that university's team, and indeed may not compete independently if such a team exists. If no program exists at their university, they may compete on another school's team, with the provisions that first, they must leave that team should their home school organize a program; second, unless that happens, they may not change teams during the competition year. In principle, a team can be as large as desired, but no more than four players compete at any time, and teams larger than seven players are rare. If any member of a team has an undergraduate degree, the team competes in the Division I competition, and is only eligible for the open championship (i.e. the overall championship).
Division I Undergraduate
At Sectional Championship Tournaments (SCTs) and the ICT, teams that do not meet the Division II requirements play together. However, awards are given, including bids to the ICT, for the top Undergraduate team. A team is eligible for the Undergraduate championship if all members of the team are undergraduate students, and none of them have played in four years of NAQT collegiate competition prior to the current year. The Undergraduate championship was first awarded in 1998.
Division II
Also introduced in 1998, Division II is intended to give first- and second-year students an opportunity to compete against other players and teams of the same level of experience. Division II plays an entirely separate competition from Division I at the ICT, but SCTs where there are not enough teams may merge the two.
The rules of Division II eligibility are that one must be eligible for D-1 Undergraduate (i.e. no degree, and less than four years of experience), and in no year prior qualified for or participated in ICT. Some schools do not send teams for all divisions, and a student eligible for D-2 may compete on a D-1 team at a SCT or ICT. If he competes on a D-1 team at a 2006 SCT, and the team does not qualify for the ICT, he may compete in D-1 or D-2 in 2007. If he competes in a D-1 SCT again in 2007, he forfeits D-2 eligibility for 2008 and beyond, but may play in the 2007 D-2 ICT. In addition, if his D-1 team qualified for ICT in 2006, he could compete in either division at the 2006 ICT, but could not compete in D-2 afterwards. While this last set of rules are quite confusing, they are rarely needed, because a student who competes in D-1 one year rarely returns to D-2 the following year.
However, it had always been true that a player who competed on a team that qualified for ICT or who competed at ICT was ineligible for Division II beginning with the following year. There has been controversy over an exception made to these rules in 2004. Specifically, members of the University of California, Los Angeles team that finished third in Division II at the 2003 ICT were allowed to compete, and won, Division II at the 2004 ICT in direct violation of the Division II eligibility rules. This occurred because NAQT, requiring an extra team to balance the schedule at the 2003 ICT, concluded an deal with the UCLA team whereby they would be allowed both to play, yet keep their Division II eligibility. As NAQT did not promulgate this deal, it only came to light generally after the next year's SCT results for the West Coast were made public and revealed that UCLA competed in Division II a second year, with NAQT's sanction, to the understandable chagrin of many.
Community Colleges
Two-year colleges usually compete in separate SCTs each February (it is permitted, but rare, for teams from these schools to compete in D-1). Eight teams qualify for the Division II ICT, where they compete alongside other D-2 teams in a manner analogous to that of D-1 Undergraduate teams. However, students at two-year colleges are exempt from the D-2 eligibility restrictions. In fact, they have three years of eligibility at the D-2 level. Valencia Community College of Florida recently had students at their second or third ICT, all in Division II, which many [some? a couple? was there a poll taken?] standard Division II students found unfair.
Winners of NAQT Intercollegiate Championship Tournament
At the High School Level
Winners of NAQT National High School Championship
| year | Overall | Small School |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Detroit Catholic Central HS | |
| 2000 | State College (PA) Area HS | |
| 2001 | Detroit Catholic Central HS | |
| 2002 | St. John's School (Houston, TX) | Kent City (MI) HS |
| 2003 | Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (Alexandria, VA) | Cutter Morning Star HS (Hot Springs, AR) |
| 2004 | Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (Alexandria, VA) | Cutter Morning Star HS (Hot Springs, AR) |
| 2005 | Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (Alexandria, VA) | Danville, Kentucky |
See also
External links
- Official NAQT Website (http://www.naqt.com)