Honda Campus All-Star Challenge is a quizbowl tournament administered by College Bowl for Historically Black colleges and universities. The sponsor of the program is Honda Motor Company.
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The program started in 1989 when Honda proposed a program to the College Bowl Company for Black colleges (HBCUs). To that end, College Bowl created a program in which all 4-year degree granting HBCUs are eligible to enroll teams, and all enrollees receive money (Unlike modern College Bowl, which had no cash awards until lesser monies were awarded in 2000 and 2001). From 1990 to 1995, the gameplay format consisted of sectional matches that led up to televised National Championship games on BET (all of them hosted by Clint Holmes). The current basic format was adopted in 1996, which abandoned the sectional games and the televising of games in favor of an all-encompassing 64-team National Championship Tournament (NCT) held each year in March or April. Since the 2010 season, only 48 teams have been invited each year.
Gameplay takes place during two eight minute halves. Questions are split into toss-ups and bonus questions. The toss-up questions are always ten points in value, while bonuses have varying point values, no more than thirty possible points. The toss-up questions do not permit conferring with other team members, with buzzers (using a lockout system) being used to designate who rings in to answer a question. The signaling player must be designated by the announcer, or the question is thrown out. The players may interrupt the moderator, but if an incorrect answer is given, the team is given a five point deduction, and the question is completed for the other team (who may chose to interrupt it without a penalty). If the moderator has finished the question and a team member incorrectly answers it, the team is not given a penalty. If the player is correct, then the team has an opportunity for a bonus question, on which players a team may confer. If team members have conflicting answers, then the captain will speak on behalf of the team.
As part of a qualification process, each college/university must host a campus tournament to determine which players will represent the school's team. Afterwards, another set of documentation is processed by the school's team and coach. If the school wishes to, it may attend or host a Pre-NCT tournament. These tournaments do not affect how the schools will qualify for the NCT. All registered Pre-NCTs are split up into two groups- participating schools are limited to attending only one Pre-NCT in each group.
After all of the pre-NCT tournaments are over, the final contest is the NCT. Sixty-four schools attend the NCT through 2009 (in 2010 the number was reduced to 48), and they are placed into eight divisions. The divisions are named after famous Blacks, with two of the eight divisions renamed each year on recommendation from the HCASC Advisory Committee. Two days of the NCT consist of divisional play, reduced to one day in 2010. The two teams from each division with the best win/loss record move onto the second round, which takes place on the same day that division play ends. From there, eight schools will advance to quarterfinals and then four schools will advance to the semifinals. The third day of play through 2008 resumed with the semifinal games and the final game. Starting in 2009, the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final matches are all held on stage on the final day. The "sweet sixteen," "elite eight," quarterfinal, and semifinal matches are single elimination, with the final two teams playing a best two-of-three series of final matches. Clint Holmes, who hosted the BET broadcasts, moderated the semifinal and final matches on Sunday through 2008. Starting in 2009, moderators from the Round Robin have been used during the on-stage games on the final game day.
The tournament begins with an opening banquet, and concludes with a closing banquet/awards ceremony. Both banquets include speakers and entertainers. Since 2004, the opening banquet has also introduced new members into the HCASC Hall of Fame.
For their efforts, the representative schools are awarded grants
Numbers in parentheses denote multiple championships