Rules and Procedures

Purpose

The purpose of the San Diego City Academic League is to encourage, acknowledge, and reward academic excellence through fair competition. 

COVID Safety Procedures

All participants - players, coaches, moderators, and spectators are required to follow San Diego Unified School District policies regarding COVID safety.  Please refer to current requirements - https://www.sandiegounified.org/covid-19_status 

Structure

1. Two teams of no more than five students each compete by answering questions asked by a moderator. Middle school students, especially 8th graders, may not participate; a middle school league may be created soon.

2. All competitors must meet the eligibility rules of the C.I.F.

3. Teams will be formed as Novice, Junior Varsity, and Varsity. 

4. No senior may compete on the Junior Varsity team.

5. Only freshmen and sophomores may compete on a Novice team.

6. Two freshmen must be part of the Novice team at all times.

7. Freshmen, sophomores and juniors may compete on both Junior Varsity and Varsity teams.

8. Varsity competitions are to last 30 minutes.  

9. Junior Varsity competitions are to last 25 minutes. 

10. Novice competitions are to last 20 minutes.

11. Each team coach may request of the moderator two 2-minute time-outs during each match.  Substitutions will be allowed by both coaches during the time-out. No substitutions may be made during a moderator's time out.  

12. A five-minute break is scheduled between the Novice and Junior Varsity competitions. 

13. A ten-minute break is scheduled between the Junior Varsity and Varsity competitions.

14. One coach per match may speak to the moderator for the team about protests, appeals, and any other issues. Said coach is to identify him/herself to the moderator prior to the match.

15. If buzzers, a timer, and a scoreboard are not present, the home teams will be charged a forfeit.  

Team Standings 

1. The top two teams in each of the Northern division, Central division, and Southeastern division will automatically be entered in the playoff tournament. Each division will have a winner and a second-place finisher determined by record. Tie breakers will be determined by head-to-head record.

2. In addition, two Wildcard teams will be selected based on record, with tie breakers according to average match points.

3. Playoff seeding will be as follows: spots 1-3 will be the division winners ranked by record, spots 4-6 will be the second-place division finishers ranked by record, and spots 7-8 will be the wildcards ranked by record. All tie breakers will be settled by average match points.

4. The Metro championship tournament will be made up of two phases. The first is the quarterfinals, with the higher seeded team hosting the match. The second is the City Championship finals, where there will be one team designated in 1st place and one for 2nd place with two runners-up. The 1st place team will represent Metro in the County championships.

General Caveat

No recording of matches or of match questions is allowed by any means, including the copying of questions by hand, by audio/video taping, or by photography. Computational questions may be worked by coaches only and must be destroyed at the conclusion of the match.

Fees 

Admission Fee  - No admission fee shall be charged for any competition of the San Diego City Academic League.

Team Entry Fees  - $150.00 check made out to San Diego Unified School District to offset costs for awards, tournament NAQT questions, and moderator fees.  LINK TO INVOICE

Moderator Payments  - Moderators are paid via SDUSD payroll and payments vary based on the number of home matches hosted. 

Time and Date of Matches

For security reasons, it is expected that all matches will take place beginning at 7:00 p.m. on Thursdays as assigned by the league schedule. Times and dates of matches may not be changed. Ordinarily, should a team not abide by the league schedule; it will be counted as a forfeit.

However, those varsity matches chosen for videotaping by the San Diego County Office of Education may be scheduled for a different weekday, usually Tuesday, provided questions are not the same as those used for Thursday night matches.

Ordinarily, the first competition of each match will be the Novice followed by the Junior Varsity and completed by the Varsity competition. Upon the agreement of both coaches, and with the consent of the moderator, the order of matches may be changed to accommodate extraordinary circumstances.

Officials

1. Each competition requires all of the following:  moderator, buzzer judge, timing judge, scorekeeper.

2. Two student scorekeepers must be used at all times. Scorekeepers are to keep a running tab of scores for both teams. Coaches may not serve as official scorekeepers.  

3. The moderator will resolve all disputes concerning competition questions.

4. A league-provided moderator must officiate at each match for the match to be official in the standings.