Alabama Scholastic Competition Association
The Alabama Scholastic Competition Association is the organization that organizes quizbowl in Alabama. They organize elementary, middle, and high school events. They host the ASCA High School State Championship, the ASCA Junior Varsity State Championship, and the ASCA Middle School State Championship. There is also an ASCA Elementary Open held concurrently with the middle school championship. Since 2018, Josh Rutsky has been the president of the association. ASCA was founded in 1989 as a response to the discontinuation of the state Scholars' Bowl tournament hosted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1988. ASCA sent teams to the PAC until that tournament's end in 2009. In 2011 and 2012 they switched to NAQT set questions.
In 1991, ASCA began sponsoring middle school tournaments. At the middle school level, ASCA hosts district tournaments, usually on the fourth Saturday in January. The top two teams from each district tournament pool plus a small number of wildcard teams selected based on points then compete at the Middle School State Tournament. Top teams from both district tournaments and the state tournament can qualify for the MSNCT. The system is similar at high school level except that only pool winners advance automatically to state. Since 2018, high schools have been split into two divisions: Division I, consisting of all Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 5A through 7A schools, all private schools, and all selective (e.g. magnet) schools; and Division II, consisting of public Class 1A through 4A schools.