Honda Campus All-Stars

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Eligibility

The Honda Campus All-Star Challenge is open to any full-time undergraduate student! In order to be a participant, you must participate in the campus tournament.

Benefits of the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge

Participation is a unique, positive experience
Students learn the value of teamwork and sportsmanship
Opportunity to network with students at fellow HBCUs
Campus support of student's academic achievements
Positive national attention for all HBCUs

Questions

There is no specific list of questions or designation of categories for the questions asked. In short, there is no way to study for specific questions, but there are some general categories that will ALWAYS be found in HCASC question packs.

United States History (Including African-American History)
Literature (Including African-American Literature)
Science and Technology
World History and Geography
Religion and Mythology
Music, Theatre and Fine Arts
Current Events

Gameplay

Gameplay takes place during two eight minute halves. Questions are split into toss-ups and bonus questions. The toss-up questions are always ten points in value, while bonuses have varying point values, no more than thirty possible points. The toss-up questions do not permit conferring with other team members, with buzzers (using a lockout system) being used to designate who rings in to answer a question. The signaling player must be designated by the announcer, or the question is thrown out. The players may interrupt the moderator, but if an incorrect answer is given, the team is given a five point deduction, and the question is completed for the other team (who may chose to interrupt it without a penalty). If the moderator has finished the question and a team member incorrectly answers it, the team is not given a penalty. If the player is correct, then the team has an opportunity for a bonus question, on which players a team may confer. If team members have conflicting answers, then the captain will speak on behalf of the team.

Personnel

A moderator, who reads questions
An announcer, who designates players and resets the buzzers
A scorekeeper
A timekeeper
A judge, who determines if given answers are correct, enforces procedural rules, and is in charge of the match
Two teams, each of up to four players and an alternate, and each team having one player designated captain
Coaching staff for each team
A team liaison, who handles logistical issues between the teams and tournament headquarters

Making it to the National Championship Tournament (NCT)

As part of a qualification process, each college/university must host a campus tournament to determine which players will represent the school's team. Afterwards, another set of documentation is processed by the school's team and coaching staff. If the school wishes to, it may attend or host a Pre-NCT tournament. These tournaments do not affect how the schools will qualify for the NCT, they only serve as a gauge to see how well a school's team is performing and to prepare for the NCT. Sixty-four schools attend the NCT, and they are randomly placed into eight divisions named after famous African-Americans. Two days of the NCT consist of divisional play. The two teams from each division with the best win/loss record move onto the second round, which takes place on the same day that division play ends. From there, eight schools will advance to quarterfinals and then four schools will advance to the semifinals. The third day of play resumes with the semifinal games and the final game. 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 on Sunday. Clint Holmes moderates the semifinal and final matches on Sunday.

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