Summary

The following are the most crucial points of the Eligibility Rules:

• In general, to play for a school, a player must be enrolled in classes that are offered for credit as part of a degree-granting program at that school.
• NAQT must be notified about dual-enrolled players (e.g., players enrolled in both a high school and a college) who intend to play for multiple schools. Regardless of enrollment situation, players are not permitted to play for more than one college in the same competition year, nor to play both collegiate and pre-collegiate championships in the same competition year.
• To compete at a specific tournament, no personnel associated with a school’s quiz bowl team may have previously played (or otherwise been exposed to) the questions for that tournament.

Players and coaches with unusual situations or questions should write to [email protected] for clarification.

Complete Eligibility Rules

1. Scope
   1. This document defines NAQT’s eligibility rules for collegiate tournaments.
   2. These rules apply to the Intercollegiate Championship Tournament (ICT) and Sectional Championship Tournaments (SCTs).
   3. NAQT suggests, but does not require, that other collegiate tournaments using questions from NAQT adopt these eligibility rules. NAQT recommends that hosts explicitly indicate the eligibility rules that apply to their tournaments.
   4. Collegiate tournaments not using questions from NAQT are welcome to use these rules—including linking to them, duplicating them, and distributing them to teams—so long as NAQT is credited as their creator. It is not necessary to inform NAQT that this is being done.
2. Schools
   1. By default, a school is an accredited academic institution that confers degrees at the associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, and/or doctoral levels, and which students may choose to attend full-time and in-person.
      1. This includes traditional four-year colleges and universities, community colleges, service academies, and single-subject institutions (such as, but not limited to, independent medical schools).
      2. Institutions that only offer certificates demonstrating coursework completion, and which do not offer degrees at any of the four previously listed levels, are not considered “schools” under these Eligibility Rules.
      3. The phrase “students may choose to attend full-time and in-person” does not mean that a particular student must attend the school full-time or in person to be eligible to compete for it. It only means that the school must offer one or more full-time programs that its students have the option to attend in person.
   2. Any school within a state university system (or any other similar system) that itself meets the definition of a school as outlined in Rule B.1 is considered a distinct school under these Eligibility Rules, and must field a squad composed solely of players eligible to compete for that specific school (under the rules of Section C).
      1. If an institution claiming (or informally seeming) to be one school is split over multiple campuses, multiple institutions share a single campus but informally seem to be different schools, multiple institutions are closely intertwined in other fashions, or an institution has no physical campus, NAQT will determine the institution’s or institutions’ status by reference to their name(s), classification by government agencies and/or other relevant groups (such as athletic associations), public appearances (such as their website(s)), student atmosphere, the cohesiveness of the programs mentioned above, and other information that may be provided by the institutions or may be acquired otherwise.
   3. If a group of schools is recognized as a consortium, or otherwise allowed to compete as a unit, by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, or United States Collegiate Athletic Association, then the schools will be treated as a single school for the purposes of NAQT competition.
      1. If the schools’ squads wish to compete separately, they may do so provided that the leaders of all relevant squads notify [email protected] at least 14 days before the first tournament of the competition year at which the squads will compete (whether together or separately). It is not possible to change this status after having competed in a given competition year. This notification must be repeated (if applicable) each competition year.
      2. NAQT may otherwise decide to allow groups of schools to compete as a single school at its discretion, generally based on precedent in quiz bowl and other intercollegiate competition.

   4. For a school to be eligible to play a given question set, no person connected with that school’s quiz bowl program (player, coach, advisor, etc.) may have previously played, heard, seen, or otherwise been exposed to those questions in any fashion, except as otherwise arranged with NAQT.

      When a person is connected with multiple schools’ quiz bowl programs, those programs/schools are considered to be merged for the purpose of this rule. For example:

      1. If a coach or player works at a tournament using a given question set, that person’s school cannot later enter a tournament using the same questions.
      2. If a player is dual-enrolled, then once one of their schools plays a question set, the other school is ineligible to play those questions (even if that player is not involved in one or both events).
3. Individuals
   1. For the purpose of determining eligibility, the competition year is defined to extend from August 1 through July 31 of the following calendar year (for example, the 2017–2018 competition year began on August 1, 2017). For eligibility purposes, courses or other degree work must be undertaken in an academic term for which the majority of its days falls within the competition year.
   2. A player establishes a student affiliation at a school for a given competition year by registering for at least one course normally offered for credit as part of a degree-granting program or path during the competition year at that school. This establishes an affiliation for the entire competition year, not just the duration of that term.
      1. A player must be registered for the equivalent of three semester- or quarter-hours.
      2. A player registered for a lower course load may be eligible, so long as the player is certified by their degree program(s) as making normal progress toward the degree(s) or that the lower course load is all that is necessary to finish the degree(s). This status must be confirmed according to the procedure of section H.
      3. A player who engages in work other than courses (including, but not limited to, thesis research) necessary for attaining the degree(s) the player is pursuing establishes an affiliation even if the player takes no courses in the competition year.
      4. Players taking courses in non-degree programs (such as, but not limited to, a professional or post-graduate certificate) are eligible if, as part of the non-degree program, they are enrolled in a course that is also part of the curriculum for a standard degree-granting program or path in the same field.
   3. If for the purpose of establishing a student affiliation a player is using a course undertaken in an academic term prior to the given event, such course must have been satisfactorily completed, or the player must have an approved extension or acknowledgment of satisfactory progress toward completion from the player’s school.
   4. A player may appear in an event prior to undertaking the course or engaging in non-course work; teams should note that failure to undertake the required course or non-course work renders a player retroactively ineligible and subjects the team to the penalty described in Eligibility Rule C.10.
   5. A squad consists of all players permitted to play on teams representing an eligible school. To be eligible to represent an school, a player must have a student affiliation at an eligible school as defined in Section B.
   6. A student that has an affiliation with a post-secondary school may also have an affiliation with a primary or secondary school and thus be eligible to join its high school squad in accordance with NAQT’s High School Eligibility Rules.
      1. A student in such a situation may compete for both the high school squad and the college squad in the same competition year. In some cases, the use of the same questions in high school and collegiate tournaments may force such a player to forgo a tournament for which they are otherwise eligible.
      2. This requires advance notification to NAQT pursuant to the requirements of Section H. Failure to do so will result in all appearances for the second squad being recorded as forfeit losses.
   7. A player may appear for only one squad representing a post-secondary school in a given competition year. If a player has or will have a student affiliation with more than one post-secondary school in a given competition year, the player must choose the squad for which they will play. Competing in Buzzword does not count as “appearing” for a squad.
   8. A team must be composed solely of players eligible to represent that squad. In no case may a team consist of players from more than one school or campus. In no case may a player without a student affiliation participate on a team.
   9. A team that used an ineligible player in an event must retroactively forfeit all games in which that player appeared along with any benefits (e.g. ICT invitations) based on those games.
4. Honor Code

   All players, coaches, chaperones, school representatives, other people associated with a team, spectators, and tournament staff are bound by the NAQT Honor Code to behave responsibly and ethically. These people are responsible for knowing, understanding, and following the Honor Code.

   1. Misconduct in violation of the Honor Code may lead NAQT to ban a person, people, or entire schools from participating in NAQT quiz bowl.
   2. A ban precludes participation in events using NAQT eligibility rules (and qualification thereto) regardless of other eligibility criteria.
   3. NAQT will communicate bans to the banned parties unless NAQT determines that communicating the ban is unnecessary to prevent their participation or NAQT is unable to find contact information for the banned parties. In these cases, NAQT will communicate the ban to whomever NAQT deems relevant, such as (but not necessarily limited to) coaches, school administrations, etc.
   4. NAQT may also communicate (or not communicate, as NAQT deems appropriate) a ban to any party, including (but not necessarily limited to) tournament hosts, school administrations, other quiz bowl organizations, and quiz bowl community members.
   5. All participants are responsible for reporting known or suspected violations of these Eligibility Rules to tournament directors or to NAQT itself.
5. Competing at Multiple Levels
   1. If a player has affiliations with schools at different educational levels (middle school, high school, community college, college, etc.), they may compete for all such schools up to and including attending multiple national championships, except as excluded below.
   2. Such a player may be prevented from attending some such tournaments due to the use of identical or overlapping question sets.
   3. The provisions in this section do not override the requirements for notification in Eligibility Rule C.6.b (nor any other rules).
   4. In a given competition year, a player may only compete at NAQT championship events at the secondary or post-secondary levels, but not both. The secondary-level NAQT championships are the Middle School National Championship Tournament, Small School National Championship Tournament (SSNCT), High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT), and Individual Player National Championship Tournament (IPNCT); the post-secondary-level NAQT championships are the Community College Sectional Championship Tournaments (CC SCT), Community College Championship Tournament (CCCT), four-year Sectional Championship Tournaments (SCT), and Intercollegiate Championship Tournament (ICT). For example, a player may not play both the HSNCT and CC SCT (but may play both the MSNCT and HSNCT, if otherwise eligible). This applies regardless of dual-enrollment status and does not affect eligibility to compete in events other than the aforementioned NAQT championships, even if they use NAQT eligibility rules.
6. Restricted Fields
   1. By default, tournaments adhering to these eligibility rules are open to any team of players who meet these eligibility rules.
   2. Tournaments may choose to place further restrictions on the schools or players that participate. Any such restriction must be clearly publicized as it represents a departure from the default meaning of these eligibility rules.
7. Responsibility

   At all tournaments using these Eligibility Rules…

   1. Players are responsible for knowing these Eligibility Rules and ensuring their own compliance with them.
   2. The person who registers a team is responsible for ensuring that all players on the team comply with these Eligibility Rules.
   3. If a nonpseudonymous team’s program has one or more coaches, the coach(es) is (are) responsible for ensuring that all players on the team comply with these Eligibility Rules.
   4. If a school is found to have used ineligible players, NAQT may take actions that may also affect eligible players, such as disqualifying results or rescinding invitations.
8. Exceptions and Special Rulings
   1. Requests for exceptions to these Eligibility Rules, requests to evaluate unusual and/or unanticipated situations under them, and notifications of dual enrollment (see Rule C.6) must be received by the NAQT Eligibility Committee at [email protected] at least 14 calendar days before the start of the first relevant event. Retroactive requests will not be considered.
   2. Such requests must come from a verified official coach or verified official club president (as recognized by NAQT) at the relevant school.
   3. If multiple schools are involved in a request (e.g., for a player for one school to also play for an additional school), a verified official coach or verified official club president from each school must affirmatively sign on to the request. If one of the schools involved is a secondary school, that school’s representative must be a verified official coach (not a club president). Schools that do not have quiz bowl programs are excluded from the requirement of this paragraph.