PA Academic Competition Guidelines

The following general guidelines apply to the Pennsylvania Academic Competition for the 2007/08 season only:

1. General Information
   • Schedule positions will be determined by lottery prior to the competition.
   • There will be no penalty for questions answered incorrectly.
   • All cell phones must be turned off to avoid disruption during the competition.
   • Matches tend to move quickly once the day has begun, however, some matches may run over and cause the competition to be delayed and the championship match and awards ceremony to start and end later than anticipated. Students who have evening commitments for Friday, April 25, 2008 should be aware that they may not be able to keep them and should plan accordingly.
   • The Championship team will have the opportunity to represent Pennsylvania in the Panasonic Academic Challenge in Disney World in June.
   • Students should wear appropriate business casual attire. Please, no jeans or T-shirts.
2. Tournament Officials
   • The academic competition coordinator will be responsible for the operation of the competition.
   • The academic competition judge(s) will be responsible for the decisions made during matches, including disputes regarding correctness of answers, incorrect scoring, time-keeping, etc. All decisions by the academic competition judge(s) are final.
   • The term academic competition judge includes the coordinator's designated agents or committees.
   • Each match will have a quizmaster. The quizmaster will read the questions, enforce time limits, determine the correctness of answers, award points, and otherwise enforce the rules of competition.
   • Each match will have a scorekeeper and timekeeper (may be combined when necessary).
3. Equipment
   • Matches should be played with a buzzer, electronic equipment that determines which player signals first. Should no working buzzers be available, tournament officials may require players to signal by physical means. If the equipment fails during a Fanfare round, ten (10) seconds will be allotted for each question remaining.
   • Teams may agree to use a partially working buzzer system. If any team objects, the game will be played or resumed without a buzzer.
   • In the absence of a completely functioning buzzer system, the academic competition judge will be the final judge of which player signaled first. These determinations are not protestable.
   • Each player is responsible for monitoring whether his or her own buzzer is operating properly throughout a match. If a buzzer malfunctions, only the current question or the just completed question can be replayed, subject to the judges ruling that the malfunction affected play of that question.
   • Timed matches should use a clock clearly visible to all teams.
4. Participants
   • All participants are responsible individuals and will be treated as such. Players and schools are responsible for any liability arising from their conduct while at the competition, or while traveling to or from such events.
   • Each competing team may bring up to six (6) high school students. Four (4) students compete in each round. All six (6) students need not compete.
   • Substitutions may only be made between rounds.
   • No player may play for two different teams.
   • An adviser is a person who acts in a recognized advisory role to a particular team. An adviser may not be a player for any team in the competition. A team can have an unlimited number of advisers, but only one person may be designated the official adviser. The person who is to be the designated official must be announced to the academic competition coordinator prior to the competition.
   • It is the responsibility of the designated adviser to ensure that all members of his/her school's team fully understand the competition's rules and code of conduct.
   • Students are not permitted to bring pens, pencils, paper, and/or cell phones to the contestant tables. Students who bring these items to the contestant tables risk being disqualified from the competition and having their team forfeit the match.
5. Questions
   • Questions will be generated from the following areas:

     Literature/Fine Arts/Grammar
     World History/Geography
     American History/Geography/Economics
     Science
     Contemporary Events
     Potpourri (any subject)
     

   • All questions are worth 5 points.
   • Great effort will be made to ensure the consistency of questions asked from round-to-round. The sequence of questions in the toss-ups will be:
     

   World History - Literature - American History - Science - Potpourri
   World History - Literature - American History - Science - Potpourri
   

   The sequence of questions for the fanfare will be:

   Contemporary Events-World History-Literature - American History - Science - Potpourri
   

6. Time
   • A match consists of two (2) rounds. Each round consists of a toss-up section and a fanfare section.
   • When the clock sounds the end of time, the question will end, except:
     1. If a player has buzzed in before the end of the clock buzzer, the player will be permitted to answer the question within three (3) seconds.
     2. During Fanfare, if the quizmaster has begun reading the question, the team will be permitted to hear the entire question and will be given three (3) seconds to answer.
7. Toss-ups
   • A Toss-up section contains ten (10) questions.
   • All teams have 15 seconds to buzz in after the question has been completed.
   • Team members may not engage in verbal or nonverbal conferral once their team has buzzed in.
   • If the answer given is incorrect, the remaining teams have whatever time is remaining on the clock to buzz in.
   • An answer to a toss-up must begin within three (3) seconds after the team has been recognized. An answer begun after the quizmaster and/or academic competition judge has said Time will be treated as no answer.
   • A player may signal to answer a toss-up question at any point after the quizmaster has begun reading the question.
   • When a player has buzzed in, the quizmaster will recognize the team by name. A player is not to answer a question until the team has been recognized by the quizmaster.
   • If a player buzzes in before the quizmaster has finished reading the question, the quizmaster will stop at that point. If the answer given is incorrect, the quizmaster will begin re-reading the question. The remaining teams may buzz in to answer the question.
   • If a player who was not the first to signal gives an answer:
     1. The quizmaster will ignore the answer, and will recognize the player on another team who actually is the first to signal. In the event the player answers the question incorrectly, only the one remaining team that has not yet answered will still have the opportunity to buzz in and answer the question.
     2. If the player who answers is a teammate of the first player to signal, the quizmaster will treat the response as an incorrect answer from that team.
     3. If a player answers because the quizmaster incorrectly identified who signaled first, the question will be replaced, and no points will be awarded regardless if the question was answered correctly or incorrectly.
8. Fanfare
   • A Fanfare consists of six (6) questions that are asked and answered by one team in rapid succession within sixty (60) seconds.
   • Each team gets one fanfare per round.
   • The time clock does not start counting down from sixty (60) until the first question is completely read or the team captain has begun answering. If the timer sounds during the reading of a question, the question will be completed and the team must answer immediately. The designated team captain will be required to give the answers. If another team member responds, the response will not be accepted and the next question will be read. If it is the last question, the Fanfare will be over.
   • Teams may pass on any question; however, they will not be given an opportunity to answer pass questions if time remains on the clock after all questions have been answered.
9. Correct Answers
   • The quizmaster will accept only the first answer given by a player.
   • A person's last name will be accepted unless the question specifically asks for a full name. However, if a full name is given voluntarily, it must be completely correct. Universally known nicknames may or may not be accepted. (For example, Babe Ruth may be accepted while the Home Run King might not).
   • First names of kings and queens will be accepted without their corresponding number. However, if a number is given, it must be correct.
   • Extraneous information preceding a response is disregarded (e.g., What is a wombat? or Theyre all Californians) unless the quizmaster and/or academic competition judge determines that the extraneous information was given in an unsportsmanlike attempt to delay the game, in which case the response is treated as incorrect. Harmless or inadvertent embellishment of responses will not be penalized, so long as the embellishment does not make the response wrong.
   • Dates must be exact (e.g. the year 71 will not be accepted if the answer is 1971).
   • If the quizmaster inadvertently reveals the answer to a question after a team has given an incorrect answer, but before the other teams have had a chance to answer, the quizmaster will read a replacement toss-up question for the remaining teams only. If none of the teams have had a chance to answer, the toss-up will be replaced with a new question.
   • If the quizmaster, the academic competition judge or any official member of the academic competition staff believes he or she has heard the answer to the question called out from the audience, the question will be replaced.
   • Only the answer on the quizmasters card will be accepted as the correct answer, whether or not it is correct, and whether or not a team can prove that it is incorrect. However, the academic competition judge may rule to accept an answer even if it is not on the card, if he/she determines the answer was correct and was the answer which the question sought.
10. Appeals
    • Mistakes happen no matter how hard everyone tries. Take a deep breath and treat the academic competition staff and the opposing teams calmly. We all want a perfect tournament, and will do our best to correct errors with your cooperation.
    • No appeals will be accepted. All decisions by the academic competition judges will be final. Coaches and team members are expected to accept the decision graciously. As in all team competition, unsportsmanlike conduct will not be tolerated and may result in ejection from the tournament, forfeiture of the game, or both.
    • During matches, the academic competition judge may only be approached by the coach between rounds to report a perceived error.
    • If it is determined that the scorekeeper inadvertently awarded points to a team that it did not earn, then the points will be removed and, if warranted, added to the score of the team to which they were to be originally awarded.
    • It is impossible to foresee every circumstance that may arise during competition. In the event a situation arises that is not covered in these guidelines, the academic competition judge will use his/her discretion to resolve the situation. The academic competition judges decision is final.
11. Semifinal Matches

    The teams will be seeded as follows:
    Match 1: 1 - 6 - 9
    Match 2: 2 - 5 - 8
    Match 3: 3 - 4 - 7
    

12. Championship Match

    The winners of each semifinal match will compete in the championship match. The winner of this match will have the opportunity to represent Pennsylvania in the Panasonic Academic Challenge in Disney World in June.

13. Tie Scores
    • Tie scores are possible in the following instances:

      At the end of the two preliminary rounds which determines the teams in the Semifinal matches.

      At the end of a semifinal match.

      At the end of the Championship match.

    • The ties will be broken as follows:

      If a tie exists between two or more teams at the end of the two preliminary rounds, and only affects their placement in the top nine teams entering the semifinals, a numbered slip of paper will be drawn by each team to determine their placement in the semifinals.

      If a tie exists between two or more teams at the end of the two preliminary rounds, and determines whether they will play in the semifinal round, a tossup round consisting of five (5) tossup questions will be given to the tied teams as follows:
      World History - Literature - American History - Science - Potpourri

      If there is a tie in the semifinal or championship match, the tied teams will play a tossup round consisting of five (5) tossup questions as follows:
      World History - Literature - American History - Science - Potpourri

      If teams are still tied, sudden death tossup questions will be given one-by-one. The team who answers the first tossup question correctly will be the winner.

14. Code of Ethics

It is the responsibility of the coach to ensure the members of his or her team are aware of and adhere to the code of ethics.

• Good sportsmanship is required.
• Use of profanity, temper tantrums, and other unsportsmanlike behavior will be considered grounds for removal from the match.
• Students exhibiting unsportsmanlike behavior may be removed from the game with or without prior warning.
  a. No mid-round substitution will be allowed if a student has been removed for unsportsmanlike behavior.
  b. Teams will continue to play with the remaining three players until normal substitution time.
  c. The player that has been removed from the game may not re-enter the round of which he/she was removed and must also sit out the following round.
  d. Depending upon the severity of the students behavior, he/she may be suspended for more than one match or for the entire season.
  
• Coaches are expected to serve as role models for their students. Therefore, coaches exhibiting unsportsmanlike behavior may be removed from the room with or without prior warning. The coach that has been removed from the competition room may not re-enter the room for the remainder of the match from which he/she was removed.
• The school districts will be held responsible for the actions and behavior of the students and coaches representing their school. Misbehavior, vandalism and unsportsmanlike behavior will not be tolerated and will be the responsibility of their school district.
• At the discretion of the academic competition judge, a spectator may be removed from the competition room.
• Further violations of the above rules will result in the teams forfeiture of the remaining rounds of that match.
• All players, coaches, institutional representatives and other persons associated with a team are bound by an honor code to behave responsibly and ethically. This includes, but is not limited to: treating all other participants and staff with courtesy, not receiving or giving impermissible assistance, not creating the temptation for another to cheat, abiding by all decisions of the academic competition judge and the tournament staff, not colluding with another person to fix a match result, not intentionally throwing a match, honestly reporting details of game situations to tournament officials, and promptly reporting violations of the honor code to a tournament staff member.
• Violation of any game rule can be construed as unsportsmanlike conduct and may result in the coach, player, or spectator being removed from the room for the remainder of the match, and/or forfeiture of the match.