Honda Campus All-Star Challenge

Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (also known as HCASC) is a quizbowl academic competition for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The game was created and co-founded by Richard Reid, president and owner of the College Bowl Company, which produces the program. The sponsor of HCASC is American Honda Motor Company.[1]

History

Honda Campus All-Star Challenge started in 1989 when Honda proposed a program to the College Bowl Company for HBCUs. To that end, College Bowl created a program in which all 4-year degree-granting HBCUs are eligible to enroll teams, and all participating HBCUs receive grants. From 1990 to 1995, the competition format consisted of sectional matches that led up to televised National Championship games on BET (all of them hosted by Clint Holmes). The current basic format was adopted in 1996, which abandoned the sectional games and the televising of games in favor of an all-encompassing 64-team National Championship Tournament (NCT) held each spring. Since the 2010 season, only 48 teams have qualified each year.

Game format

1989-2011

From 1989 to 2011, Honda Campus All-Star Challenge used the same gameplay structure as two of its sister shows, College Bowl and University Challenge.

Gameplay took place during two eight-minute halves and included toss-up and bonus questions. Toss-up questions were always 10 points in value and, and a correct response on a toss-up gave the team the right to answer a bonus question, which could be worth 20, 25, or 30 possible points. The toss-up questions did not permit conferring with other team members, with buzzers (using a lockout system) being used to designate who rang in to answer a question. Players could ring in before the moderator had completed the question (also known as an interrupt) but if an incorrect answer was given, the team would receive a five-point deduction, and the question was completed for the other team.

Teams could confer on bonuses, but responses were only accepted from the captain (or a designated player if the captain chose one). If team members had conflicting answers, then the captain would speak on behalf of the team. The bonus question might be one "all or nothing" question worth the full amount of the bonus, or could be a series of questions giving the team a chance to receive a portion of the maximum points (i.e. a 30-point bonus made up of three 10 point questions). Other bonuses might require a team to name items from a list at 5 points apiece, or award points based on how many clues it took the team to identify a famous person, place, or thing (a 30-20-10 bonus). Only the team who answered the tossup correctly got to answer the bonus question; there were no opportunities to "rebound".

At the end of two halves, the team with the higher score won the game. In case of a tie, toss-up questions were asked until there was a change in score (either one team answered correctly for 10 points, or interrupted with an incorrect answer, losing 5 points and the game.)

2011-Present

Beginning with the 2011–12 season, the format was changed to reflect that of the Zain Africa Challenge, another academic competition created by Richard Reid, owned and produced by College Bowl.

Game play takes place over four rounds. The first three rounds are called Face Off Rounds. In each of the Face Off rounds, there are two types of questions: toss-ups, worth 10 points each and bonuses, worth 20 points. In each of the three Face Off rounds, a different player represents the team answering Face Off questions. That player is the only one who can ring in and answer for his or her team.

Each round has four categories in play. The team who wins a coin toss decides the first category. After the entire question is read, the first player to signal gets to answer. If they answer correctly, the team gets a bonus question. If their answer is incorrect, the player representing the other team gets a chance to answer. Bonus questions come from the same category as their respective Face Off questions, are played by the entire team, and are always worth a possible 20 points. The team who answered the last correct tossup gets to choose the next category. In each category there are four face-off questions- once the fourth and final face-off question in a category is read, the category is out of play. At the beginning of Rounds 2 and 3, the face-off representative changes, and the team who is behind selects the category for the opening Face Off question.

At the end of the three face-off rounds, play moves to the fourth and final round, called the Ultimate Challenge. The team that's behind plays first, and selects one of four new categories. The team has 60 seconds to answer 10 questions, each worth 25 points. An incorrect answer is not penalized, but the moderator moves on to the next question, and as long as there is time remaining, teams can keep coming back to questions that they missed or passed on. After the trailing team plays, their opponents choose one of the three remaining categories to play. After both teams have played the Ultimate Challenge, the team in the lead wins. If there is a tie, the teams play Face Off questions until there is a change in score.

Personnel

  • A moderator, who reads the questions
  • A resetter, who opens and resets the lockout (buzzers) system as appropriate,
  • A scorekeeper
  • A division team leader, who assists the game officials and teams, enforces procedural rules, and is in charge of the game room
  • Two teams, each of up to three players and an alternate, and each team having one player designated captain
  • Coach for each team
  • A timekeeper (1990-2002); computer equipment made this position obsolete

Nationals

Qualifying Stage

As part of a qualification process, each college/university must host a campus tournament to determine which players will represent the school's team. Schools must qualify for the NCT by competing in one of the National Qualifying Tournaments (NQT) that take place in February. 48 schools are chosen for the NCT based on their NQT performance and previous years' performance at the NCT. Schools may increase their chances of qualifying via other ways announced by HCASC officials, including service projects and "Rep My School" contests. Defending champions automatically qualify for the tournament.

The National Championship Tournament

After the NQTs are completed, qualifying schools compete at the National Championship Tournament (NCT). Teams are placed into eight divisions and play every team in their division once. The divisions are named after famous Blacks, with two of the eight divisions renamed each year. The preliminary round consists of divisional round robin games. The two teams from each division with the best win/loss record move onto the round of 16 playoffs. Teams are seeded based on overall performance, and the "sweet sixteen," "elite eight," quarterfinal, and semifinal matches are single elimination, with the final two teams playing a best two-of-three series of final matches. Clint Holmes, who hosted the BET broadcasts, moderated the semifinal and final matches through 2008. Beginning in 2009, moderators from the Round Robin have been used during the on-stage games on the final game day.

The tournament begins with an opening banquet, and concludes with a closing banquet/awards ceremony. Both banquets include speakers and entertainers. Since 2004, the opening banquet has also introduced new members into the HCASC Hall of Fame.


Tournament format

Year Format
1990 16 team televised single-elimination playoff
1991-1993 16 team modified round robin, 8-team televised single-elimination playoff
1994-1995 8 team modified round robin, televised single- elimination playoff
1996-1998 64 team modified round robin tournament, 16-team single- elimination playoff
1999-2009 64 team modified round robin tournament, 16-team single- elimination playoff, best of 3 finals
2010–Present 48 team modified round robin tournament, 16-team single- elimination playoff, best of 3 finals

Trivia

  • An episode of A Different World entitled "Goodwill Games" revolves around the premise of Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert competing in Hillman College's Campus All-Star Challenge tournament.

Grants

For their efforts, schools that qualify for the NCT are awarded grants. The grant awards were updated for the 2015–16 season.

  • The NCT Champion school is awarded $75,000
  • Runner-Up earns $30,000
  • Semi-Finalists earn $20,000
  • Quarter-Finalists earn $10,000
  • Playoff Qualifiers earn $6,000
  • NCT qualifiers earn $3,000
  • An additional $1,000 grant is awarded to the schools of All-Star players, so designated as being the top individual scorers in each of the 8 divisions.
  • The recipient of the Sportsperson of the Year Award earns their school an additional $1,000 grant

National Championship Tournament History

Numbers in parentheses denote multiple championships

Year Winner Runner-up
1990 West Virginia State College Alcorn State University
1991 Florida A&M University West Virginia State College
1992 Norfolk State University Langston University
1993 Tuskegee University Morehouse College
1994 Tuskegee University (2) Morehouse College
1995 Jackson State University Howard University
1996 Florida A&M University (2) South Carolina State University
1997 Alabama State University Elizabeth City State University
1998 Florida A&M University (3) Tuskegee University
1999 Florida A&M University (4) Clark Atlanta University
2000 Clark Atlanta University Southern University - Baton Rouge
2001 Morehouse College Howard University
2002 Morehouse College (2) Howard University
2003 Florida A&M University (5) South Carolina State University
2004 Morehouse College (3) University of Maryland Eastern Shore
2005 Florida A&M University (6) Morehouse College
2006 Morehouse College (4) North Carolina Central University
2007 Tennessee State University Florida A&M University
2008 Oakwood University Alcorn State University
2009 Oakwood University (2) North Carolina Central University
2010 Prairie View A&M University Mississippi Valley State University
2011 Florida A&M University (7) Oakwood University
2012 Morgan State University Oakwood University
2013 Morgan State University (2) Florida A&M University
2014 Fisk University Oakwood University
2015 Prairie View A&M University (2) Cheyney University of Pennsylvania
2016 Florida A&M University (8) Chicago State University
2017 Oakwood University (3) Bowie State University
2018 Jackson State University (2) Spelman College
2019 Spelman College Florida A&M University

References

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