ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ

Allowing Ineligible Teams to Play

In most cases, hosts may allow ineligible teams to play. This is most commonly done in the following manners:

• Allowing a “chimera team” to be formed, consisting of players from multiple schools…
  • to allow for a better tournament schedule or format
  • to allow extra players more playing time
  • to allow a player who does not attend a school, but is closely connected to it, to play with a team otherwise consisting of players who attend that school (e.g., an eighth-grader at a middle school “playing up” with players for the high school they expect to attend)
• Allowing a school to play a question set for a second time with a different set of players (see below)

For this to be permitted:

• The affected school must ask permission well in advance from the director of the affected tournament. The tournament director is not obligated to allow it at all and may impose conditions if they choose to allow it.
• There are significant downsides to allowing ineligible teams. All people involved must fully understand and accept these.
• ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ must be informed of the agreement as soon as it is established.

For certain types of tournaments, hosts must observe ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ eligibility rules strictly and cannot allow ineligible teams or players. This applies to Sectional Championship Tournaments (four-year and two-year) and other tournaments at ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s discretion. ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ also enforces its eligibility rules strictly for all national championships.

Failure to comply with these rules may result in forfeits being awarded and other sanctions to be determined by ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ, including but not necessarily limited to the cancellation of national championship invitations.

Playing Questions Twice

Once any person who is part of a school’s quiz bowl program has heard questions, teams from that school are ineligible to play those questions again later.

Examples:

• A school cannot enter teams in two different tournaments that use the same question set (even with different players).
• A school cannot enter teams in two different tournaments that use the same questions, even if they are not literally the same question set. For example, a school whose conference uses IHSA-style questions based on Invitational Series #213 cannot enter teams in a tournament that uses Invitational Series #213. These “sharing” arrangements are communicated to hosts of relevant sets, and hosts are required to communicate them to teams attending their tournaments.
• Suppose a player is dual-enrolled at Central High School and North Community College. If Central High School plays a given question set, then North Community College cannot play the same questions (even if the dual-enrolled player doesn’t attend).
• If a coach or player works at a tournament using a given question set, that person’s school cannot enter a tournament using the same question set.

These examples are somewhat simplified. For example, an exception to the first example is that if one tournament uses packets 1–6 of the set and the other tournament uses packets 7–12, there is no problem. These examples are also not exhaustive. The policy is that described in the first paragraph of this section; the examples are merely illustrations.

As described above, in most cases hosts can permit ineligible teams to play, including teams that are ineligible for this reason. However, doing so comes with significant downsides, ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ recommends against it, and the following additional rules apply besides the general rules regarding ineligible teams:

• No player may play both events.
• All personnel who attended the first event must be cautioned strongly, in advance, against discussing question content from that event with any other personnel in the program.
• If the school has access to the questions via the Study Library, they may not use such access in the presence of players who will play the second event.