Since NAQT is now running a national tournament for high schoolers on the Division II ICT set, it will obviously be difficult for future hosts to run their own tournaments using that set. With that in mind, is it possible that the SCT set ceases to share questions with the state championship IS set in the future? If the current situation is the norm going forward, then high school tournaments held on college NAQT questions will not be viable.
Many of the best players cannot play IPNCT this year because they have already committed to playing the set with a college team that weekend, are at high school tournaments that were scheduled
before IPNCT (the Texas Invitational), because their team
may play it at the state level, or because the IPNCT was belatedly dropped into an already crowded part of the QB and school calendar. Also, the Div II ICT set serves as the pre-nationals tune-up at several sites (like East Brunswick, Guilford, Northmont) around the country... so some other outstanding players will have to choose between playing the set solo or playing with their teams. If they choose the solo route, they will screw their teams. From the IPNCT field list, it appears that many of the best players are choosing their team over IPNCT.
There are also crossover issues with other sets used in state competitions. Pennsylvania is using IS-174 this year, which is a real shame because our state runs a format in which teams can play, at most (if they're in the championship) five rounds. Nor do the teams get to keep the packets at the end of the tournament, so the 174 set is largely wasted. That set, while not as hard as an ICT set, could also serve as an pre-nats warm up... but it will be out of bounds for any team that plays even a round of it at states.
Pennsylvania's format problem is not NAQT's fault or responsibility, but in future, unless our state decides to move to a format that really utilizes
most of an IS set--and they get better at running tournaments, in general--why not sell them a TV set instead? The TV format fits with PA's lightning rounds, anyway. The PSACA (Pennsylvania State Academic Coaches Association) met last night... and we feel that everyone--NAQT, the states, the schools, the coaches, the kids--would benefit from more synchronization of our schedules before they are announced in the summer/early-fall.
The growth of QB is a good thing, but we're all going to have make some accommodations if we want that growth to be healthy.