Academic Bowl champs to compete at regional tourney

The ASU Academic Bowl championship team from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is heading to the University of California, Los Angeles, for a regional tournament.

The team will compete Feb. 7 in a regional matchup organized by the National Academic Quiz Tournaments. Representing ASU’s championship team are Kenneth Lan, a sophomore majoring in biological sciences; Erin Hutchinson, a senior majoring in global studies; Mary Beth Hutchinson, a sophomore majoring in religious studies and history; and Carolyn Moss, a junior majoring in history.

Emily Walter, an ASU academic success specialist in pre-health advising, is the team’s moderator.

ASU’s championship team will compete against teams from the California Institute of Technology; California State University, Fresno; Stanford University; the Claremont Colleges; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Irvine; and University of California, Berkeley. The winning team is qualified to go to the Intercollegiate Championship Tournament held April 3-4 at the Dallas-Forth Worth Airport.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences team dominated play in the final rounds of the ASU competition Oct. 30, beating teams from Herberger College of the Arts and Mary Lou Fulton College of Education.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences team also won last year’s ASU Academic Bowl and went on to compete in the College Bowl Regional Championship Tournament. However, after 31 years, the College Bowl Company suspended the College Bowl campus program.

The ASU Academic Bowl now uses questions prepared by National Academic Quiz Tournaments, which cover a wide range of subjects, including psychology, geography, astronomy, mathematics, world history, religion, literature – with a number on Shakespeare's plays – opera, sports, film and theater.

Open to all post-secondary educational institutions, the national tournament will be played with a double round-robin format, then seed into a bracketed round-robin to determine the champion, with a final round as necessary.

More information about ASU Academic Bowl at asu.edu/academicbowl.