National Academic Championship

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The National Academic Championship was first run in 1983, created by quizbowl mogul Chip Beall and his company, Questions Unlimited. In 2007, the National Academic Championship consists of three phases in San Antonio, TX, the Washington, D.C. area, and Orlando, FL.

Loyola University New Orleans was the host of the first phase from the beginning of the multi-phase tournament in the mid-1990s until 2005, and was replaced by San Antonio in 2006 (presumably due to damage done in fall 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, though the fact that the tournament is not returning to New Orleans in 2007 may indicate that plans to move it were in the works before the hurricane). The Washington area (specifically, Marymount University in Arlington, VA) has been the second site ever since the multi-phase tournament began, and was the site of the overall finals until the third site was added in 2000. The third/championship site was Pepperdine University in Malibu from 2000-2003, a hotel in St. Louis in 2004 and 2005, and a hotel in Chicago in 2006.

When the tournament was on television as the Texaco Star National Academic Championship in the early 1990s, the entire event was filmed at Rice University in Houston. It is believed that Rice was the sole location of the untelevised NAC prior to that time, but this information is unconfirmed.

South Carolina is the most frequent winner of the National Academic Championship, claiming titles in 1986, 1989, 1991, 1999, 2001, and 2002. Irmo High School has won the most of any high school, three of those six titles.

[edit] The Texaco Star National Academic Championship

The tournament was syndicated on television under the above title at least in 1993 and 1994, and possibly for a few years prior to that. Texaco underwrote certain expenses during that time. Chip Beall was replaced as on-air host by Mark L. Walberg for the final on-air year, 1994. In some local markets, commercial stations purchased the syndicated episodes, while in others, the show aired on PBS stations.

[edit] Gameplay

The game is played in four quarters.

The first quarter, the "Warm-Up Round", consists of relatively easy toss-up questions worth 5 or 10 points each.

The second quarter, the "Bonus Round", consists of 10-point toss-up questions leading to four-part bonus questions. Each successive question increases in point value if the team answers correctly. The first correct answer is worth 5 points, the second is 10, the third is 15, and the fourth is 20. A wrong answer ends the bonus for the team that answered the toss-up and the opposing team is allowed to answer the question that was last read.

The third quarter, the "Sixty Seconds Round", consists of ten questions asked within sixty seconds. The losing team at the beginning of this round chooses one of four categories of questions and the winning team chooses one of the remaining three. Each question answered correctly is worth 10 points, and there is a 20 point bonus for answering all ten questions correctly within the time limit. After a team's sixty seconds has ended, any missed questions are given as 10-point bonus questions to the opposing team. This retaliatory period is referred to informally as the "bounceback".

The fourth quarter, the "Stump the Experts Round", consists of relatively difficult toss-ups worth 15 or 20 points each. At the end of this quarter, the leading team wins; if necessary, a 5-point toss-up question is used to break a tie.

[edit] Winners of the National Academic Championship

• 1983 -- Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda, Maryland
• 1984 -- Wheelersburg High School, Wheelersburg, Ohio
• 1985 -- Skyline High School, Dallas, Texas
• 1986 -- Irmo High School, Columbia, South Carolina
• 1987 -- Walnut Ridge High School, Columbus, Ohio
• 1988 -- Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Greenbelt, Maryland
• 1989 -- Paul M. Dorman High School, Spartanburg, South Carolina
• 1990 -- Collegiate School, Richmond, Virginia
• 1991 -- Paul M. Dorman High School, Spartanburg, South Carolina
• 1992 -- Booker T. Washington High School, Tulsa, Oklahoma
• 1993 -- Torrey Pines High School, San Diego, California
• 1994 -- East Brunswick High School, East Brunswick Township, New Jersey
• 1995 -- Maggie Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies, Richmond, Virginia
• 1996 -- Memorial High School, Hedwig Village, Texas
• 1997 -- Edison High School, Huntington Beach, California
• 1998 -- State College Area High School, State College, Pennsylvania
• 1999 -- James Island High School, Charleston, South Carolina
• 2000 -- Manheim Township High School, Manheim Township, Pennsylvania
• 2001 -- Irmo High School, Columbia, South Carolina
• 2002 -- Irmo High School, Columbia, South Carolina
• 2003 -- Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua, New York
• 2004 -- St. Thomas Academy, Mendota Heights, Minnesota
• 2005 -- Holland Hall School, Tulsa, Oklahoma
• 2006 -- Byram Hills High School, Armonk, New York

Differences between the four quarter format and question quality of the National Academic Championship and the NAQT HSNCT and PACE NSC national championships ensure that the different national championship tournaments call for different types of play and reward different skills (in the case of NAQT and NSC, knowledge of academic material; in the case of NAC, reflex speed and knowledge of trivia and game-show type material). Thus, teams accustomed to the NAC format often fare worse in NAQT tournaments. NAQT champions have done well in NAC in the past but often quit playing it due to quality issues with the NAC (for example, 1998 NAC champion State College never returned to the NAC but went on to win one NAQT title and four PACE NSC titles).