College Bowl
Career Program Area
The College Bowl is designed to test knowledge of agricultural students against the clock. The career program area allows students to develop self-confidence related to knowledge gained through studying at a postsecondary agriculture institution.
Goals
The College Bowl program is designed to:
- Develop self-confidence, leadership and management abilities in agriculture/agribusiness and natural resources.
- Encourage cooperation among students in various curricular areas.
- Provide recognition for outstanding scholastic accomplishments of PAS members.
- Encourage cooperation between education and industry.
- Strengthen the PAS organization by encouraging active participation.
General Rules
Though not required, each Team is highly encouraged to write a general un-sealed thank you to the College Bowl area sponsors. Thank you letters are to be submitted to the College Bowl coordinator at the orientation of the competition. In the event that a thank you letter was not submitted, it would disqualify the team from the event. If possible, write the thank you letter on local or state PAS stationary. Therefore, the Team will be responsible for their own thank you stationary and their own writing utensils.
College Bowl Specific Rules
1. Teams must have five participants each. Under extenuating circumstances the team will be allowed to compete with less than five team members. Examples include (family emergencies, conflicting competition/events, school or PAS disciplinary action(s) taken against a team member). These must be approved by the College Bowl Coordinator. Teams may be comprised of students representing one or more colleges/institutions within a state.
It would be to the team’s advantage to have each team member represent a specific discipline area.
If a Team Member is still competing or active in another event and the Team has been called to compete they will compete with the remaining team members. No substitutions will be allowed following the Team Captain Meeting, no exceptions.
2. Teams will compete in a series of head-to-head competitions in which points are earned by correctly answering questions about:
- Agricultural Business/Farm Management
- Agricultural Mechanics
- Agricultural Sales
- Animal Science
- Crops/Soils
- Horticulture
- Natural Resources
- PAS & Current Agricultural Events
3. The career program area will be a single-elimination tournament. Pairings will be made by a random drawing or as stated elsewhere within the regulations. Byes will be used only when necessary.
4. All rounds of competition will consist of 10 minutes or 21 questions (7 bonus and 14 tossup). If time is called, indicating the end of a round, during the reading of a toss-up question, the question will be completed. If a bonus question remains, the toss-up team correctly answering the question will be eligible to answer the bonus question.
5. In preliminary rounds, practice questions will be read and answered before the match begins.
6. All rounds will be closed to the public except for the championship round. New questions will be used for each of the rounds.
7. Once the clock has started, it will be stopped only for discussion on procedure or a contested answer. The question being asked at the end of each half will be completed, even though time has expired.
8. In cases of procedural controversy, the decision of the career program area coordinator
will be final.
9. Toss-up questions must be answered by the individual member of the team buzzing in without conferring with teammates. Toss-up questions will be in the form of multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank. An electronic board will be provided (if available) for each competing team, and the student who first presses the button will be allowed to initiate the answer to the question within five seconds. The answer is to be completed within 15 seconds of initiation. If a participant signals before a question is completely read, the moderator will stop immediately and recognize the participant. If the answer is incorrect, the question will be reread for the other team. If no participant signals within the five-second period, the moderator will give the answer and go on to the next question. No team member, of the interrupted question, will be able to ask for a question to be repeated. If the answer is correct, the team will earn 10 points. If any conferring has occurred the judge will treat as if an incorrect answer was given and will move the question to the opposing team.
10. Bonus questions (one per category) will be available in each round. When a team wins a toss-up question (s), it will be randomly assigned a bonus question. Bonus questions will be worth 12 points and will consist of subparts. Teams will have 30 seconds to initiate the answer to the bonus question and 15 additional seconds to complete the answer. Teams will be awarded full or partial credit depending on the accuracy of their answers. Teams may request clarification of bonus questions within their 30-second time period. The opposing team may not respond to incorrect bonus questions. Team members may confer with each other on bonus questions. The Team Captain is the only member of the Team that can answer the Bonus Question. Cellular phones, Palm Pilots, crib sheets or any other type of programmable device will not be allowed during the College Bowl event.
11. If a tie score occurs at the end of a match, a toss-up question will be asked. The first team to signal will be allowed five seconds to answer. If the question is answered correctly, that team will win. If the question is answered incorrectly, the question may be answered by the other team. In the event of an incorrect answer, the above procedure will be repeated until a winner is decided.
12. The third place team winner will be the highest scoring non-advancing team.
13. Anyone who has competed on a first place team cannot compete again on any National competing College Bowl Team.
14. Each team must remain the same through out the entire competition. There are no individual or team substitutions allowed once the competition begins.