Illinois Scholastic Bowl

Illinois Scholastic Bowl is the high school quizbowl format used in the State of Illinois. Scholastic Bowl is governed by rules and policies set forth by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA).

History

Little Quizbowl on the Prairie (1960s-1985)

Quizbowl in Illinois can be traced back at least as far back as the 1960s, and was originally more popular in Downstate Illinois than in the Chicago area. One of the first tournaments in the state to gain notability was the Senior Challenge held in Streator, which had the distinction of being (as the name implies) open only to high school seniors. Questions were written by locals, and lockout systems were of the homemade variety. Local busineses sponsored the tournament which was organized by the local Rotary Club.

Certainly, there were other tournaments, with each tournament having a unique twist to their format. This became the key thread running through Illinois quizbowl throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s; there was no universal set of rules. Nonetheless, quizbowl eventually gained a notable following in the Chicago suburbs, and it was only a matter of time before an attempt at standardization was made.

The Open Era (1986-1991)

By 1985, the popularity of the activity was notable enough for numerous coaches and school administrators to petition the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) for formal recognition as a competitive activity. With recognition came a codification of the rules, and the recognition of a true State Champion. Originally, Scholastic Bowl was a Spring activity, with the State Championship Series held in the Spring. From 1986 to 1991, all teams competed in one Class, and were placed into 16 geographic sectional tournaments. The 16 winners of those tournaments advanced to a single elimination tournament.

Two Classes (1992 - 2000)

By 1991 the growth of the competition was such that there were enough teams to split into two classes of schools. The Class A schools would consist of the smaller schools, while the Class AA schools were the larger schools.

While IMSA had already won two state titles in the Open Era, it would dominate this era winning five Class AA State Titles in nine years.

One System (2001-present)

By 1999, two problems had evolved that could no longer be ignored.

The first problem revolved around the unified rules codified by the IHSA in 1986. While there was only one set of rules to govern Scholastic Bowl in Illinois, there had grown many regional interpretations which had, in effect, returned Illinois to a state prior to having a single set of rules. The original rules, which are fairly similar to today's Terms & Conditions, contained many details about tournament structure but little information on match mechanics such as the acceptability of certain answers.

The solution was twofold: The first response was a rewriting of the rule book, organizing it based on standard National Federation of Athletics Rule books to make them more user friendly. Even though the rule book became quite long, the new rules were a defense against coaches and officials who attempted to use minor details in rules to swing matches. The new rules put more focus on opening up game play, and de-emphasizing "behavior oriented" rules which were commonly used to penalize teams over exceptionally minor infractions. The new rules also added the first permissibility of challenges to questions and answers.

The second part of the solution was to proactively prevent another degradation of the rules into regional interpretations. An addendum to the new rule book was created: a case manual of illustration on how to properly apply rules in game situations.

The Question-Writing Cabal

The second problem to be addressed was question quality. Illinois quizbowl had, over its history, been almost exclusively tied to short "buzzer-beater" questions, with bonus questions that were often patterned and varied wildly in difficulty. Teams had learned to expect incorrect answers in packets and vague questions that led to arguments. As more and more teams began to see how quizbowl was played in other states, the demands for better questions crescendoed.

While individual tournaments could easily change their questions, the IHSA State Series was contractually tied to a question vendor which provided free questions to the IHSA in return for resale rights. Despite pleas from coaches, quality did not improve over the decade of their use, and with the IHSA run by people more interested in keeping costs low than in good quizbowl, there was little chance that these questions would change, despite numerous complaints every year to the IHSA. Because these questions were used in the State Series and were fairly repetitive, many coaches felt obliged to purchase them independently and continue supporting the vendor.

In 1999, a new proposal was made to IHSA leadership: the IHSA could hire a group of current coaches from outside the state and former coaches to write questions for a fee, while the IHSA retained the rights to the questions and their resale. Estimates showed that the program could be cost-neutral or nearly so. That, paired with the higher than normal complaints over question quality, convinced the IHSA to go in a new direction.

The question-writing cabal remains secretive; even those inside it are deliberately kept as in-the-dark as possible. After the questions for 2009 were particularly awful, Jonah Greenthal explored several channels to find out as much as he could about it; what he discovered is documented here. Writers who have outed themselves include Greenthal and Matt Laird (beginning 2010), while self-outed former writers include Tom Egan, Donald Taylor, Trygve Meade, Kelly Tourdot, and Matt Weiner.

This change eventually resulted in somewhat more pyramidal questions in the State Series. While there were complaints about question length and difficulty from downstate schools, the effect was to push for more tournaments with more pyramidal questions, and to better introduce Illinois teams to the quizbowl beyond the State. Progress is uneven, since question choices are left to individual Tournament Directors. Since 1999, more and more Illinois teams have been attending out-of-state tournaments, bringing Illinois into the greater circle of national quizbowl. Actual IHSA questions still vary widely in pyramidality, since many of the writers appear uninterested in pyramidality, the Terms & Conditions only specify that pyramidality is "preferred", and the head editor does not keep up with modern quizbowl standards.

Match Format

Teams play five players at a time instead of the more standard four players found in most states. IHSA rules require that a team have five eligible players to start a match, though virtually no tournaments in Illinois enforce this during the season.

In the IHSA State Series, matches are untimed, and consist of 30 toss-up and bonus questions. Bonus questions, explicitly cannot be from the same category as the toss-up. During the regular season, almost no tournaments use more than 20 questions in a round.

Based on the 30 question round, the category distribution is as follows:

Mathematics (6 questions)
Science (6 questions)
Literature/Language Arts (6 questions)
Social Studies (6 questions)
Fine Arts (4 questions)
Miscellaneous (2 questions)

In the IHSA State Series, the final three tossups and bonuses of any round cannot be from the Miscellaneous category.

If a match ends tied after regulation, teams hear a toss-up (and bonus if the toss-up is correctly answered) until the tie is broken.

All toss-up questions are worth ten points. All bonus questions are worth a maximum of 20 points. There are no bonus points for powers, and no loss of points for incorrect interrupts.

Rules of Interest

The following rules are rather unique to play in Illinois.[1]

3-E-2 Players may not call time outs, but may quietly signal their coach to call one.

4-B-1b Players who give correct answers, but do so without being recognized, by name, by the moderator, earn only five points for the toss-up instead of the ten points. (This is a change from the rule which, until roughly 2004, forced moderators to rule the answer as incorrect.)

4-B-8 If a required form or constraint for an answer is specified in the question, answers in a different form should be ruled incorrect with no prompting, unless the alternative form is specified as "accept also" along with the answer on the question set. If the answer is given after an early buzz, before the required form or constraint is specified, and it meets the intent of the entire question and the answer given is justifiably equivalent to the printed answer but does not match the required form or constraint (e.g. decimal instead of fraction, noun instead of adjective, singular instead of plural, etc), then it should be ruled correct.

4-I-2 Players may not file protests. Only coaches can.

Under the more binding Terms and Conditions of play (VII-I)[2], all team members must have matching uniform tops to play, providing they are tasteful and appropriate. Of special note is the final case listed in the case manual, specifically forbidding prison jumpsuits, (the "Decatur-MacArthur case"). This particular case was ordered included from the then Executive Director H. David Fry after the team from MacArthur High School, protesting the new uniform rule, arrived at the State Tournament in orange prison jumpsuits stenciled with "IHSA Department of Corrections".

IHSA By Law 5.340[3] limits Scholastic Bowl teams from competing on more than 18 dates between late August and early March. Scholastic Bowl is the only activity with such a restriction, though it is common for sports. Until 2005, this also barred off-season practice and competition, though a proposal made at that time permitted off-season contact and very limited participation. Limitations on Scholastic Bowl Teams can be a bit fuzzy, however, since the IHSA only considers a match to be Scholastic Bowl if it is five-on-five.

Another controversial rule is the IHSA policy of advancing geographical representatives to their athletic and activity State Championship Tournaments, meaning that the final eight teams at that tournament are not intended to be the best eight teams in the state. While hardly unique to Illinois, this system occasionally inflames the long standing debate between "Downstate" Illinois and "Northern" (or Chicago area) Illinois.

Notable annual tournaments

A complete list of tournaments in Illinois can be found here:[4]

Based either on a statewide draw, or the selectivity of the invitees, the following are the most notable tournaments:

Ultima - mid-October - hosted by Loyola Academy, using the format of the Panasonic Academic Challenge; invitations are made on a points system based on the previous year's varsity and frosh-soph performance
Masonic State Tournament - mid-February - many sectionals are held across the state, followed two weeks later by the State Finals
IHSA State Series (Regionals - Sectionals - State) - early-mid March
NAQT State - late February - was formerly held at Loyola Academy, but was moved to the University of Illinois for 2008.

The IHSA State Series crowns the de facto State Champion. For most of its history, the two major problems with the tournament have been a failure to assure the advancement of top teams (deferring to geographic representation) and poor question quality. While the former is not likely to ever change because of the IHSA constitution, significant strides have been made to improve the latter.

The Masonic, while the oldest of the four (starting in 1983), has been regarded as a lesser championship due to the smaller pool of teams playing (less than 300 teams, compared to the roughly 500 in the IHSA tournaments). The tournament has also had the same long standing problem with advancement of good teams and poor questions. The use of Aegis Questions in 2008 did a great deal to solve the problem of question quality.

The NAQT State Championship is held to differing degrees of importance. While the question quality of the other two tournaments is now nearly as good (with less reliance on pop culture), there have never been more than 12 teams competing in the tournament (in 2008, only 9 teams attended, with no more than four being considered by any measure "good"; most top teams did not attend). The low attendance at this tournament, with the greater proliferation of pyramidal questions in the state over the past several years, is likely due to numerous factors.

The Ultima, relying on the Florida format, is held to varying regards. While the question content is strictly academic, and at what some would consider a higher level of difficulty than the other state tournaments, its quirky format is not held as a true test of quizbowl skills by some. Though, with its stringent qualification based on actual team performance, it may have the strongest field of competitors of any tournament in the state. With the NAQT State Tournament, it is the only one that attempts to determine a true ranking of teams based on team ability rather than geography.

There are also two individual tournaments of note:

Scobol Solo - mid-November - hosted by New Trier, it is a solo contest attracting over 100 top players each year.
UIUC Solo - late February - held in conjunction with the NAQT State Tournament starting in 2008.

Other Tournaments of Note

As Illinois has only recently begun to accept pyramidal questions, there are only a few tournaments that officially use pyramidal questions and/or nationally accepted ACF or NAQT formats.

UIUC Earlybird - October - Written by members of the Illinois team, this tournament is the first tournament of the season and uses a modified ACF format (negs, 30 point ACF style bonuses with Bounceback).
IHSSBCA Kickoff - mid-November - hosted in four locations across the state, this tournament marks the "start" of competition, although most notable teams have played multiple tournaments. Combined, it has the largest turnout of any tournament except for the IHSA and Masonic State Tournaments.
Wildcat - October - Held at Northwestern, this tournament uses timed NAQT format. As recently as six years ago, turnout was over 40 teams coming from as far as Michigan. This tournament has seen decreasing attendance, with 12 teams in 2006 and 8 teams attending in 2007. For many years this was the only NAQT tournament in Illinois.
The Decemberist - first Saturday of December - Held at Rock Valley College, this tournament uses untimed NAQT format.
New Trier Varsity - last Saturday before Winter Break - Started in 2005 by Carlo Angiuli and Nick Matchen, this marks the first tournament written by current students. The success of this tournament led to the beginning of Aegis Questions, and in 2007 it used the modified ACF format that Earlybird uses.

Top Teams from the IHSA State Championship Tournament

Clicking on the year brings you to the article showing the full results for each year's State Championship Tournament.

State Championship Results

Three or More Top 4 Finishes

15 - The Latin School of Chicago
10 - Illinois Math & Science Academy
9 - Wheaton North
8 - Auburn
6 - Quincy Senior
5 - New Trier
5 - Carbondale
4 - MacArthur
4 - Carlinville
4 - Winnebago
3 - Joliet Catholic Academy
3 - Streator Township
3 - Hinsdale Central
3 - St. Teresa

Three or More Consecutive Top 4 Finishes

8 - Wheaton North (2001-08)
8 - The Latin School of Chicago (2002-09)
8 - Auburn (2002-09)
4 - The Latin School of Chicago (1992-95)
4 - Illinois Math & Science Academy (1996-2000)
3 - Joliet Catholic Academy (1988-90)
3 - Illinois Math & Science Academy (1992-94)
3 - Winnebago (1993-95)
3 - Streator Township (1998-2000)

Famous/Infamous collegiate players

Notable former players who are famous for something else

Kristin Castillo - Macomb - Miss Illinois, 2001[5], [6], [7]
Hillary Clinton (nee Rodham) - Maine South - US Secretary of State

External Links

IHSSBCA Web Site[8]
IHSA Scholastic Bowl page[9]
IHSA Scholastic Bowl Champions and Tournament Results [10]
For an example of why people make fun of Illinois Scholastic Bowl, try:[11]

Years	AA Champion	AA Second Place	A Champion	A Second Place
1986-87	Quincy Senior	Salem
1987-88	Quincy Senior	Wheaton Central
1988-89	IMSA	Breese Central
1989-90	IMSA	Joliet Catholic Academy
1990-91	Centralia	Cary-Grove
1991-92	Hinsdale Central	Bradley-Bourbonnais	Rockridge	Harrisburg
1992-93	Quincy Senior	IMSA	Winnebago	Latin School
1993-94	IMSA	Bradley-Bourbonnais	Latin School	Brimfield
1994-95	Richwoods	New Trier	Winnebago	Latin School
1995-96	IMSA	MacArthur	Niantic-Harristown	Beardstown
1996-97	IMSA	Carbondale	St. Teresa	Byron
1997-98	IMSA	Hinsdale Central	Latin School	St. Teresa
1998-99	IMSA	MacArthur	University (Normal)	PORTA
1999-2000	Stevenson	Naperville Central	Byron	University (Normal)
2000-01	IMSA	Wheaton North	Warrensburg-Latham	Carlinville
2001-02	Wheaton North	Hinsdale Central	Latin School	Carterville
2002-03	Wheaton North	Auburn (Rockford)	Stillman Valley	Carlinville
2003-04	Wheaton North	Stevenson	Latin School	Carterville
2004-05	Stevenson	Wheaton North	Latin School	Eureka
2005-06	Fremd	Carbondale	Latin School	Illinois Valley Central
2006-07	New Trier	Wheaton North	Lutheran Schools Association (Decatur)	Columbia
2007-08	Auburn	Stevenson	PORTA	Byron
2008-09	Carbondale	Auburn	Latin	Litchfield