Comparison of collegiate quiz bowl formats

The following is a comparison of collegiate quiz bowl formats in the United States. There are four major academic quiz bowl championships for collegiate teams: Academic Competition Federation (ACF), College Bowl Incorporated (CBI), Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (HCASC), and National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT).

Player eligibility and team composition

Format	Number of team members	Credit hours needed for eligibility	Maximum years of eligibility	Campus Tournament required	Graduate student restrictions	Substitution allowed in-game
ACF	1–6	1	no maximum	No	None	At half and before overtime, and players may enter if a team starts shorthanded
CBI	3–5	3	6	Yes	at most 1 per team	No, excepting "incapacitating illness or injury"
HCASC	3–4	7	4	Yes	No grad students allowed	No
NAQT	1 or more	3	no maximum (Div. I) 4 (Div. II)	No	No restrictions in Div. I; prohibited in Undergraduate and Div. II	At half and before overtime, or during a timeout

Player eligibility notes

Match format

All four formats use the toss-up and bonus format in a game consisting of two equal halves. A team that correctly answers a toss-up question receives 10 points and the opportunity to answer a bonus question for a stated number of points. An incorrect interrupt by the first team to signal incurs a 5 point penalty; there is no penalty if the question is complete or the second team interrupts incorrectly.

In all four formats, only the team that answers the toss-up correctly may answer the corresponding bonus; the opposing team may not receive points.

Format	Number of toss-ups and bonuses per packet	Time limit per half	Powers	Bonus value	Overtime rules
ACF	20	none	No	30	1 toss-up; +10 or −5 ends the game
CBI and HCASC	28 toss-ups 25 bonuses	7 min. (CBI Campus Tournament) 8 min. (Regionals, Nationals and HCASC Campus Tournament)	No	20, 25, or 30	1 toss-up; +10 or −5 ends the game
NAQT	26 (Div. I) 24 (Div. II)	9 min.	Yes	30	3 toss-ups with no bonuses; if still tied, additional toss-ups are read with the next +15, +10, or −5 ending the game

Match format notes

Toss-up execution

On toss-ups, the first player to signal gets the chance to answer. A player may signal during the reading of the question (in which case the moderator stops immediately) or up to a specified time limit after the question has been read completely. No conferral is allowed on toss-ups. The player must answer within a certain time limit after being recognized. In some cases, the player must wait to be recognized before answering, with an answer before recognition counting as incorrect.

Format	Question time limit	Must be recognized	Time to begin answering	Conferral definition
ACF	5 sec.	No	5 sec.	"verbal, written or analogous communication among team members that can convey information pertinent to what the possible answer to the question is."
CBI and HCASC	3 sec.	Yes	immediately	"obvious non-verbal cues"
NAQT	3 sec.	No	2 sec.	verbal or written communication, or communication that can "convey any information about the substance of the answer"

Distribution

All formats have a distribution: a proportion of questions from various disciplines that will appear in a packet or a tournament. While all formats have a majority of questions academic in nature, there are differences in the exact composition of a packet.

(All values in the table below are percentages.)

Format	Literature	History	Science	Fine Arts	Religion, Mythology, and Philosophy	Social Sciences	Geography	Current Events	General Knowledge	Pop culture and sports	Special
ACF	20.8	20.8	20.8	12.5	12.5	4.2	4.2	0.0	0.0	4.2	0.0
CBI	11.3	11.3	11.3	5.7	5.7	5.7	9.4	5.7	11.3	15.1	7.5
HCASC	8.9	12.5	12.5	5.4	5.4	5.4	8.9	5.4	8.9	14.2	12.5
NAQT	16.1	19.1	19.1	8.1	7.2	4.6	5.3	6.0	5.8	8.8	0.0