NAQT High School Eligibility Rules
A. Events
These rules apply to all Official NAQT events, including the High School National Championship (HSNCT) and NAQT State Championships. Note that some state tournaments run by state activities associations use NAQT questions but are not NAQT State Championships.
Other events, including Unofficial NAQT events, NAQT-style events, and events that are in no other way associated with NAQT may also be run according to these Eligibility Rules in accordance with the desires of their tournament directors.
When using these rules at an event, it is necessary to credit NAQT as the source of the Eligibility Rules, but it is not necessary to explicitly notify NAQT that its rules are being used.
B. Schools
Tournaments run according to these Eligibility Rules are open to students in grades K through 12 at all primary and secondary educational institutions. This includes senior high schools, junior high schools, elementary schools, public schools, private schools, religious schools, magnet schools, charter schools, and military academies.
Tournaments run according to these Eligibility Rules are also open to students in home-school collectives provided that those collectives have registered with NAQT.
All schools and players participating in Official NAQT events are assumed to know these Eligibility Rules, and will be held responsible for violations thereof.
C. Individuals
For the purpose of determining eligibility, the competition year is defined to extend from September 1 through August 31 of the following calendar year. The 2005 competition year extends from September 1, 2005, through August 31, 2006.
A player establishes a student affiliation at an institution for a given competition year by enrolling in an academic term (typically the entire school year) the majority of whose days fall within that competition year.
A player may appear in an event prior to the beginning of the academic term during which s/he intends to enroll (and thereby establish an affiliation); failing to actually enroll in the academic term renders a player retroactively ineligible and subjects the team to the penalty described in Eligibility Rule C.9.
A squad consists of all players permitted to play on teams representing an eligible institution.
a. To be eligible to represent an institution, a player must have an affiliation at an eligible institution.
b. An eligible institution is any accredited primary, secondary school, or home school collective that has registered with NAQT. The squads of such institutions are high school squads (even if the school itself is not conventionally described as a high school).
Students on high school squads may also have affiliations with post-secondary institutions according to NAQT's College Eligibility Rules.
a. 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 s/he is otherwise eligible.
b. A player in such a situation must notify NAQT 7 calendar days before s/he competes for the second squad.
A player may appear for only one high school squad in a given competition year. If a player has or will be eligible to compete on more than one high school squad in a given competition year, the player must choose the squad for which s/he will compete.
If a player does not attend a secondary school, s/he may make a request to NAQT to be granted an affiliation with the squad of a secondary school that is reasonably nearby. Such a player would still need to choose between competing for his/her original school and the selected secondary school.
A team must be composed solely of players eligible to represent that high school squad. In no case may a player without an affiliation participate on a team.
A team which used an ineligible player in an event must retroactively forfeit all matches in which that player appeared and all benefits (e.g., HSNCT invitations) based on those matches.
NAQT may bar specific players, coaches, squads, and organizations from NAQT events for a period of time determined by NAQT in accordance with its rules and procedures regarding improper conduct.
Appeals for exceptions to these Eligibility Rules must be made in advance to the NAQT Eligibility Committee. Please send e-mail to eligible@naqt.com. Requests must be received at least 7 calendar days in advance of the start of the competition or they will be summarily denied.
D. Experience
Tournament Directors may, at their discretion and without contradicting these Eligibility Rules, place limits on the prior experience of players or on the composite experience of teams as long as the limitations:
a. Treat all otherwise eligible institutions equally.
b. Are reasonably seen to further the overall interests of quiz bowl and the quiz bowl community.
c. Are publicized along with other details of the tournament.
d. Depend only on reasonable measures of a player's experience and not on irrelevant factors (sources of plausible limitations include, but are not limited to, years of competition, events, scoring average, and HSNCT attendance).
Tournament Directors may also, at their discretion and without contradicting these Eligibility Rules, divide teams into divisions based on reasonable measures of the teams' prior experience. The teams may or may not play interdivisional games and certain prizes may be reserved for teams or players in specific divisions.