The follow are the changes to
the Academic Competition rules, for the last three years, as recommended by the
Academic Competition Advisory Committee.
2009-10 Academic Competition Rules Changes
1. The
Literature and the Language Arts categories of questions have been combined
into “Communication Arts,” and all sub-categories in the original areas have
been placed under this one new English-based category. This new area includes ten toss-up questions
and four bonus questions, and the three toss-ups and one bonus question that
were in the original Language Arts category have been added to the Fine
Arts/Performing Arts question requirements.
2. The
Miscellaneous/Vocational Education category has been renamed simply
“Miscellaneous” and the sub-categories of “entertainment” and “foreign
language” are included in this category.
3. The
Missouri format for bonus questions has been modified, to begin this year, from
four-part bonus questions worth five points a piece to two-part bonus questions
worth ten points a piece, with no change in the immediate rebounding rules. As a result, the “listing bonus question”
sections in the Academic Competition Rules (previously C-6 and C-7-a) have been
deleted.
4. Rule C-1-b,
Bonus Questions, was modified as follows:
“The entire team confers, but the answer or answers must come from
the team captain unless he/she defers.
The captain may defer to another team member to give the answer,
verbally indicating (example) “I defer to John.” A deferred answer must be started/completed
under the normal timing rules - no extra time is allowed.”
2008-09 Academic Competition Rules Changes
1. Rule B-3 was
modified by moving the first sentence to a new item, B-4, and expanding the
wording as follows (new wording is underlined): “The use of prepared
materials, calculators, cell phones and/or any other electronic devices
is not allowed. If a player is found
using such an aid during a contest, the player will be ejected from the
contest.”
2. Rule
C-1-a(1) was modified as follows (new wording is underlined): “INTERRUPT: If an individual interrupts a toss-up
question and answers it incorrectly, the moderator will begin repeating
only the sentence that was interrupted and finish the question for the
opposing team. At the completion of the
question, any member…” The word “entire”
was deleted in two locations.
3. Rule E-3 was
modified to read: “A team time-out must
be called before the category of the next toss-up or bonus question is
read.” The following sentence was
deleted.
4. Rule F-1 was modified as
follows (new wording is underlined): “Half-Time: Half-time shall be an intermission of no
more than 5 minutes between the end of the second quarter and the start of
the third quarter. The duration shall
be determined by a consensus of the two coaches, or shall be 5 minutes in
length.”
2007-08 Academic Competition Rules Changes
1. The phrase “on
site” was added to Section 4, letter I, to clarify that one school supervisor
must be on site, but is not required to be in the game-room at all times.
2. The order
of sentences was changed in Section 8, letter C-1a(1) to clarify the timing
rule for interrupted calculation questions.
3. Wording was
added to Section 8, letter C-1b(5) to clarify the timing of a bonus question
that is interrupted.
4. The phrase,
“which must be unique to the answer,” that was added last year to clarify the
rules on starting “a significant answer” was added in three additional locations
in Section 8, letter C.
5. Additional
wording was added to Section 8, letter C2a to help clarify ‘blitzing’.
6. Additional
wording was added to Section 8, letter E3 to clarify that time-outs may not be
called during bonus questions.
7. The word
“and” was added in Section 8, letter E4 to confirm that a coach can confer and/or
substitute during a 60-second time-out.
8. Section 8,
letter G7 was deleted, to allow a protest to be made following a time-out.
(Rationale: both protests and time-outs are limited in number, so if a team
wants to take a time-out to discuss a protest, the committee felt it should not
be limited.)
9. Coaches are
now allowed to protest (in addition to the team captain).
10. Team
captains are now allowed to call time-outs (in addition to coaches).