National Academic Quiz Tournaments
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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 that 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, as well as the quiz bowl game show QuizBusters. 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).
Contents |
[edit] At the college level
[edit] Collegiate divisions
[edit] 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's campus, they may compete on the team for another campus of the same university, with the provision that they must leave that team should their home campus organize a program. 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).
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
Exceptions to the eligibility rules have been granted to deal with special circumstances in past years; however, as they are controversial when they occur, they do not occur often.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Winners of NAQT Intercollegiate Championship Tournament
| Year | Host | Division I Overall | Division I Undergraduate | Division II Overall | Division II Community College |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Penn | Chicago | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 1998 | Vanderbilt | Stanford | Swarthmore | Harvard | N/A |
| 1999 | Michigan | Chicago | Carleton | Princeton | N/A |
| 2000 | Boston U | Illinois | Princeton | Harvard | N/A |
| 2001 | Washington, St. Louis | Chicago | Princeton | Pittsburgh | N/A |
| 2002 | North Carolina | Michigan | Princeton | Yale | Valencia CC |
| 2003 | UCLA and Caltech | Chicago | Harvard | Cal-Berkeley | Valencia CC |
| 2004 | Washington, St. Louis | Cal-Berkeley | Illinois | UCLA | Valencia CC |
| 2005 | Tulane | Michigan | VA Commonwealth | Chicago | Faulkner St CC |
| 2006 | Maryland | Cal-Berkeley | Williams College | Stanford | Broward CC |
[edit] At the high school level
Team qualify to the High School National Championship tournament through a variety of methods. Most commonly, a team qualfies by finishing in the top 15% of the field at an invitational. If a school wants to send more than one team to nationals, the school must qualify all said teams at the same time during a single tournament. Currently, there are 144 spaces available at the NCT.
The small school award is given to a school with a non-selective admissions policy.
[edit] Winners of NAQT National High School Championship
| Year | Location | Champion | 2nd | 3rd | Small school |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | University of Oklahoma (Norman) | Detroit Catholic Central (MI) | Walton (GA) | Brookwood (GA) | |
| 2000 | Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta) | State College (PA) | Maggie Walker (VA) | Eleanor Roosevelt (MD) | |
| 2001 | University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) | Detroit Catholic Central (MI) | Detroit Country Day (MI) | State College (PA) | |
| 2002 | University of Texas (Austin) | St. John's School (TX) | Irmo (SC) | Detroit Catholic Central (MI) | Kent City (MI) |
| 2003 | Myrtle Beach, South Carolina | Thomas Jefferson (VA) | Dorman (SC) | St. John's School (TX) | Cutter Morning Star (AR) |
| 2004 | Houston, Texas | Thomas Jefferson (VA) | Maggie Walker (VA) | St. John's School (TX) | Cutter Morning Star (AR) |
| 2005 | Chicago, Illinois | Thomas Jefferson (VA) | Lakeside (WA) | State College (PA) | Danville (KY) |
| 2006 | Chicago, Illinois | Richard Montgomery (MD) | State College (PA) | Maggie Walker (VA) | Danville (KY) |
| 2007 | Chicago, Illinois |
[edit] Jeopardy!
Various NAQT employees and former NAQT players have appeared on the game show Jeopardy![1]. Over 30 NAQT players or employees have participated on the show, including 17 who qualifed for the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, including two finalists, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. Jennings writes questions and edits the literature and mythology categories for NAQT. Due to the success of these players, adults trying out must now declare any affiliation to NAQT or quizbowl on their information sheet. It is unclear whether this helps or hurts those trying out. (See Jeopardy! audition process for further discussion.)
In 2006, competitors in the High School National Championship Tournament were given the opportunity to audition for the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament and the Jeopardy! College Championship. Ben Schenkel of Moravian Academy (Allentown, Pennsylvania) qualified for the Teen Tournament at this tryout, and finished as the tournament's first runner-up.
