National Academic Quiz Tournaments - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC is a question-writing and quizbowl

Quizbowl

Quiz bowl is a family of games of questions and answers on all topics of human knowledge that is commonly played by students enrolled in high school or college, although some participants begin in middle or even elementary school...

organizing company founded by former players in 1996. It is unique among U.S. quiz organizations for supplying questions and hosting championships at the middle school

Middle school

Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...

, high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

, and college

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

levels.

The format is a set of questions that are read until the time expires, making it similar to College Bowl

College Bowl

College Bowl was a format of college-level quizbowl run and operated by College Bowl Company, Incorporated. It had a format similar to the current NAQT format. College Bowl first aired on US radio stations in 1953, and aired on US television from 1959 to 1970...

. However the question difficulty for the college level is 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

Game show

A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...

QuizBusters. Its model is more centralized than Academic Competition Federation

Academic Competition Federation

ACF is one of the major formats of collegiate quizbowl. The name refers to two related things:*The actual organization, founded as the Academic Competition Foundation in 1991, which changed its name to the Academic Competition Federation in 1997 and presently continues to run a national...

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).

Division I Open

NAQT's eligibility rules state that any student taking at least 3 credit hours towards a degree

Academic degree

An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the 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).

Division I Undergraduate

At Sectional Championship Tournaments (SCTs) and the Intercollegiate Championship Tournament (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 an 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.

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.

Winners of NAQT Intercollegiate Championship Tournament

Year	Host	Division I Overall	Division I Undergraduate	Division II Overall	Division II Community College
1997	Penn University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...	Chicago University of Chicago The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...	N/A	N/A	N/A
1998	Vanderbilt Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...	Stanford Stanford University The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...	Swarthmore Swarthmore College Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....	Harvard Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...	N/A
1999	Michigan University of Michigan The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...	Chicago	Carleton Carleton College Carleton College is an independent non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. The college enrolls 1,958 undergraduate students, and employs 198 full-time faculty members. In 2012 U.S...	Princeton Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....	N/A
2000	Boston U Boston University Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...	Illinois University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...	Princeton	Harvard	N/A
2001	Washington, St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...	Chicago	Princeton	Pittsburgh University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...	N/A
2002	North Carolina University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...	Michigan University of Michigan The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...	Princeton	Yale Yale University Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...	Valencia CC Valencia Community College Valencia College, formerly known as Valencia Community College, is a public state college in Orlando, Florida, United States. Valencia is the third-largest member institution of the Florida College System....
2003	UCLA University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses... and Caltech California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...	Chicago	Harvard	Cal-Berkeley University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...	Valencia CC
2004	Washington, St. Louis	Cal-Berkeley	Illinois	UCLA University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...	Valencia CC
2005	Tulane Tulane University Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...	Michigan	VA Commonwealth Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University is a public university located in Richmond, Virginia. It comprises two campuses in the Downtown Richmond area, the product of a merger between the Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in 1968...	Chicago	Faulkner St CC Faulkner State Community College Faulkner State Community College is a two-year public college located in Baldwin County, Alabama established in 1965. Faulkner State has three locations. The administrative campus is located in Bay Minette, Alabama...
2006	Maryland University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...	Cal-Berkeley	Williams College Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...	Stanford	Broward CC Broward Community College Broward College, previously known as "Broward Community College", is a state college in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., and part of the Florida College System. It was established in 1959 as part of a move to broaden Florida's two-year community college system...
2007	Minnesota University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...	Chicago	Carleton	Maryland	Valencia CC
2008	Washington, St. Louis	Maryland	Harvard	Carleton	Valencia CC
2009	Dallas, Texas Dallas, Texas Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States... No Host	Chicago	Harvard	Chicago	Northeast Alabama CC Northeast Alabama Community College Northeast Alabama Community College is a community college near Rainsville, Alabama. As of the Fall 2010 semester, NACC has an enrollment of 3,370 students. The college was founded in 1963, and built on the border between DeKalb and Jackson Counties....
2010	Chicago, Illinois No Host	Harvard	Minnesota University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...	Brown Brown University Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...	St. Charles CC St. Charles Community College St. Charles Community College is a St. Louis-area two-year college in suburban St. Charles County, Missouri. Established in 1986, SCC's first fall semester in 1987 had an enrollment of 1,547 students...
2011	Chicago, Illinois No Host	Harvard	Harvard	Yale	Chipola Chipola College Chipola College is a state college located in Marianna, Florida, USA. Chipola College is a member institution of the Florida College System.The College was named for the Chipola River, which is located less than a mile from the campus...

At the high school level

Teams qualify to the High School National Championship tournament through a variety of methods. Most commonly, a team qualifies 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.

The small school award is given to a public school with a non-selective admissions policy and less than 500 students in grades 10-12.

Winners of NAQT National High School Championship

Year	Location	Champion	2nd	3rd	Small school
1999	Norman, Oklahoma Norman, Oklahoma Norman is a city in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, United States, and is located south of downtown Oklahoma City. It is part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, Norman was to have 110,925 full-time residents, making it the third-largest city in Oklahoma and the...	Detroit Catholic Central Detroit Catholic Central High School Detroit Catholic Central High School is a private, Catholic, all-male, college preparatory high school in Novi, Michigan. Founded in 1928 in Detroit, Michigan by the Archdiocese of Detroit, the school is operated by the Congregation of St. Basil...	Walton George Walton Comprehensive High School George Walton Comprehensive High School, usually referred to simply as "Walton High School," is public high school located in suburban Marietta, Georgia in the United States. It resides in eastern Cobb County and is a charter school in the Cobb County School District. It is a School of Excellence...	Brookwood Brookwood High School (Snellville, Georgia) Brookwood High School is an American public secondary school in Snellville, Georgia with a student body of over 3,500. Brookwood serves several areas of Gwinnett County, Georgia, including Lawrenceville and Lilburn.-Layout:...
2000	Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...	State College State College Area High School State College Area High School is the only public high school in the State College Area School District. Located within walking distance of Penn State University, the school offers a wide and diverse selection of electives, and is known for its academic, athletic, and musical prominence.State High...	Maggie Walker Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies The Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies is a public regional magnet high school in Richmond, Virginia....	Eleanor Roosevelt Eleanor Roosevelt High School (Greenbelt, Maryland) Eleanor Roosevelt High School , is a Maryland public magnet high school specializing in science, mathematics, technology, and engineering. The school was established in 1978 at its current location in Greenbelt, Maryland and is part of the Prince George's County Public Schools system...
2001	Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...	Detroit Catholic Central	Detroit Country Day Detroit Country Day School Detroit Country Day School is a private, secular school located in four campuses in Oakland County, Michigan, north of Detroit. The administrative offices, facility services, safety and security services, and the upper school are located in a campus in Beverly Hills, along with the middle school...	State College
2002	Austin, Texas Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...	St. John's School	Irmo Irmo High School Irmo High School is a four-grade public high school in Irmo, a suburb of Columbia, South Carolina. Around 2,000 students are enrolled in any single year...	Detroit Catholic Central	Kent City Kent City High School Kent City High School is a high school located in Kent City, Michigan. The principal of the school is Lynn Batchelder. The athletic teams are known as the Eagles. They compete in the Ottawa-Kent Conference Silver Division-External links:*...
2003	Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Myrtle Beach is a coastal city on the east coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is situated on the center of a large and continuous stretch of beach known as the Grand Strand in northeastern South Carolina. It is considered to be a major tourist destination in the...	Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is a Virginia state-chartered magnet school located within Fairfax County, Virginia, United States...	Dorman Paul M. Dorman High School Paul M. Dorman High School is a high school located in Roebuck, South Carolina. The school is part of Spartanburg County School District Six. It consists of a main campus for 10th-12th graders and a separate campus for 9th graders. The campus is located at the intersection of Interstate 26 and...	St. John's School	Cutter Morning Star
2004	Houston, Texas Houston, Texas Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...	Thomas Jefferson	Maggie Walker	St. John's School	Cutter Morning Star
2005	Chicago, Illinois	Thomas Jefferson	Lakeside Lakeside School Lakeside School is a private/independent school located in the Haller Lake neighborhood at the north city limits of Seattle, Washington, USA, for grades 5–12....	State College	Danville Danville High School (Kentucky) Danville High School is a public high school serving the ninth through twelfth grades in Danville, Kentucky, USA. It is one of five schools and the only high school in the Danville School district.-School information:...
2006	Chicago, Illinois	Richard Montgomery Richard Montgomery High School Richard Montgomery High School is a secondary public school located in Rockville, Maryland.Richard Montgomery High School is named for Richard Montgomery, an American General who died while attempting to capture the British-held city of Quebec...	State College	Maggie Walker	Danville
2007	Chicago, Illinois	Maggie Walker	State College	Thomas Jefferson	Danville
2008	Chicago, Illinois	Thomas Jefferson	Charter School of Wilmington Charter School of Wilmington The Charter School of Wilmington is a high school in Wilmington, Delaware, one of the first public/private charter schools in the United States, opening in 1996. It occupies the third floor and a wing of the second floor of the former Wilmington High School building...	Walt Whitman Walt Whitman High School Walt Whitman High School is a public secondary institution serving roughly the western part of Bethesda--an unincorporated suburban area of Washington, DC, in Montgomery County, Maryland. The school is named in honor of the American poet. It is fed into by Thomas W. Pyle Middle School.-History:The...	Russell
2009	Chicago, Illinois	Charter School of Wilmington	Dorman	State College	Ottawa Hills Ottawa Hills High School (Ohio) Ottawa Hills High School is a public high school in the village of Ottawa Hills, Ohio, United States, just west of Toledo. It is the only high school in the Ottawa Hills Local Schools district. The school's mascot is the "Green Bears."-Students:...
2010	Chicago, Illinois	Maggie Walker	State College	LASA	South Range South Range High School South Range High School is a public high school in Canfield, Ohio. It is part of the South Range Local School District in Mahoning County, Ohio.-External links:*...
2011	Atlanta, Georgia	State College	LASA	Bellarmine Bellarmine College Preparatory Bellarmine College Preparatory is an all-male, private secondary school located in San Jose, California, USA. Founded in 1851, it is the oldest secondary school in California....	George Mason George Mason High School George Mason High School is a comprehensive public high school serving the independent City of Falls Church. It is located in the unincorporated area of Idylwood, in Fairfax County, Virginia, adjacent to Falls Church City....

At the middle school level

For the 2010-2011 academic year, NAQT has introduced a program for middle school. There will be a corresponding middle school national championship in 2011 to be held at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

Jeopardy!

Various NAQT employees and former NAQT players have appeared on the game show Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...

. Over 30 NAQT players or employees have participated on the show, including 17 who qualified for the Ultimate Tournament of Champions

Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions

The Ultimate Tournament of Champions was a special fifteen-week single-elimination tournament that aired during the twenty-first season of the syndicated game show Jeopardy! that began airing on February 9, 2005 and concluded on May 25, 2005, covering 76 shows in all...

, including two finalists, Brad Rutter

Brad Rutter

Bradford Gates "Brad" Rutter is the biggest all-time money winner on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and the second biggest all-time money winner on a game show....

and Ken Jennings

Ken Jennings

Kenneth Wayne "Ken" Jennings III is an American game show contestant and author. Jennings is noted for holding the record for the longest winning streak on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and as being the all-time leading money winner on American game shows...

. 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

Jeopardy! Teen Tournament

The Jeopardy! Teen Tournament is one of the traditional tournaments held each season on the TV quiz show Jeopardy! Contestants in this tournament are primarily high school students, and between the ages of thirteen and seventeen...

and the Jeopardy! College Championship

Jeopardy! College Championship

The Jeopardy! College Championship is one of the traditional tournaments held each season on the TV quiz show Jeopardy! Contestants in this tournament are full-time undergraduate college students with no prior degrees...

. Ben Schenkel of Moravian Academy (Allentown, Pennsylvania

Allentown, Pennsylvania

Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...

) qualified for the Teen Tournament at this tryout, and finished as the tournament's first runner-up. Meryl Federman of Livingston High School qualified for the second edition of The teen tournament, called the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament Summer Games, and won.