Hosts of four-year NAQT Sectional Championship Tournaments (SCTs) will receive one or more automatic bids to the Intercollegiate Championship Tournament (ICT). The number of such bids depends on the team's performance at the previous year's ICT, and is broken down into two cases:
If an SCT host did not also host an SCT in the previous year, then it is given the same number of Division I automatic bids as it had Division I teams that earned invitations to--and attended--the previous year's ICT (not counting standby teams). Each Division I team that earns an invitation by competing at an SCT dissolves one of those automatic bids. If the school wishes to send teams to Division II, it must field teams at an SCT that qualify by their play.
There are two exceptions to the above:
If a school has no Division II teams that qualify, it may transfer one of its Division I automatic bids to Division II.
If a school had zero Division I teams attend the ICT in the previous year (or only had teams attend on standby), then it is given one Division I automatic bid rather than zero. This single bid may be transferred to Division II, if exception 1 also applies.
If an SCT host also hosted an SCT in the previous year, then it is given one Division I automatic bid. This single bid may be transferred to Division II, if the school doesn't qualify any Division II teams at the SCT.
Generally speaking, the intention of automatic bids is to allow a host to attend the ICT without having to play at the SCTs (thereby giving it the largest possible number of experienced staff to run its own tournament).
The motivation behind changing this policy for 2008-2009 was to give an extra incentive for larger and successful programs to host; historically, schools that qualified two Division I teams for the ICT in one year had very little incentive to host since it would make it nearly impossible for them to qualify two Division I teams in the current year.
Example 1: Chicago qualifies two Division I and two Division II teams in 2008, then hosts in 2009. It receives two automatic bids in Division I plus however many Division II bids its (Division II) teams earn at the buzzer. If none of its Division II teams qualify, then it may transfer one of its two automatic bids to Division II.
Example 2: Minnesota qualifies one Division II team in 2008, then hosts in 2009. It receives one Division I automatic bid, plus however many Division II bids its (Division II) teams earn at the buzzer. If none of its Division II teams qualify, then it may transfer its single automatic bid to Division II.
Please send any questions about this policy to NAQT at sct@naqt.com.