NAQT policy for the fall tournaments has been
that the tournament directors have wide latitude with
regard to who they may allow to compete. If given an OK
by a TD (who also has the freedom to say "no"), it
is fine with us for ineligible teams to compete in
these tournaments, with the proviso that they would be
ineligible for any official titles. It is the TD's decision
as to whether they would be treated entirely as
exhibition teams--their games not counting in standings at
all--or just as teams ineligible for titles themselves
(but with other teams' wins and losses against them
still counting).
We don't mind this for the
IFTs, as these results don't count for anything beyond
the context of the tournaments themselves. (With the
single exception that IFT Division I champions who do
not later qualify for the ICT via the SCTs have the
possibility of qualifying via the backdoor route of a late
invitation based on that IFT title. For the vast majority of
teams, IFT results have no bearing whatever on later
invitations to the ICT.)
For the all-important SCTs,
with ICT invitations on the line, we ask that fields
be limited strictly to eligible collegiate
teams.
Eric Hillemann
Chair of the NAQT Eligibility
Committee