OSSAA State Championship

The OSSAA Academic Bowl State Championship is a quizbowl state championship organized by the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association. The tournament is held annually at Redlands Community College in El Reno on the first Saturday in February. Teams qualify for the event by competing in District and Area competitions earlier in the season. Like all other OSSAA events, teams competing in Academic Bowl are placed into divisions according to OSSAA's school size classification system; each division runs independently, and a separate championship title is awarded for each. In 2009, the classifications were shifted, with Class B being dropped in favor of a new 6A class.

Rules and Format

OSSAA is viewed by many teams in Oklahoma as an example of bad quizbowl. OSSAA uses a four-quarter format, with the first and third quarters being composed of twenty short tossups (often only one or two clues), and the second and fourth quarters consisting of 60-second lightning rounds. Tournaments beyond the district level use a double-elimination bracket format, and the winner of any given OSSAA event will likely have played no more than three or four games.

OSSAA's official rules have also been subject to concern: in addition to bizarre rules such as one explicitly banning "Boom boxes...or noisemakers of any kind, including airhorns [and] cowbells", there are other concerning issues, such as a rule preventing students or coaches from presenting reference materials or information available online during a protest.

Concerns Over Question Quality

OSSAA questions are non-pyramidal, and have historically been plagued by inconsistent, weak, and at times factually incorrect writing. OSSAA packets have no standard category distribution (resulting in some 40-question rounds only featuring one Fine Arts question), and the categorization of some questions are often misleading or outright incorrect, such as a question on the autobiography of Tim Tebow being categorized as "Literature".

Moreover, concerns have been raised over the method OSSAA uses to select question providers. While no official information is publicly available, those who have dealt with OSSAA's bidding process have claimed that the only factors which appear to have been considered by the organization were price and location; no mention was made of product quality or the reputation of the provider in any decisions.

As a result of question quality concerns, many top teams in Oklahoma do not view OSSAA as a legitimate state championship, and choose not to compete in the organization's competitions, or do so with incomplete or shorthanded rosters (many of these teams instead compete in the NAQT Oklahoma State Championship). However, OSSAA competitions are often seen as more "prestigious" or "legitimate" by school administrations due to their being run by the same organization which oversees all other extracurricular competitions in Oklahoma. As a result, they are sometimes the only events for which schools will officially provide funding.

State Championship Results

Six championship titles are awarded each year; as of 2022, 73 schools have each won at least one championship. Booker T. Washington holds the record for most championships, with twenty titles (each in the two largest divisions), while Drummond has won nineteen (each in the two smallest).

Year	Class B	Class A	Class 2A	Class 3A	Class 4A	Class 5A	Class 6A
1990	N/A	N/A	N/A	Central-Sallisaw	Guymon	Booker T. Washington	N/A
1991	Sharon-Mutual	Caney Valley	Cache	Chandler	Poteau	Broken Arrow	N/A
1992	Davenport	Washington	Westville	Claremore Sequoyah	Poteau	Booker T. Washington	N/A
1993	Oklahoma Bible Academy	Cordell	Meeker	Antlers	Bishop Kelley	Edmond Memorial	N/A
1994	Washita Heights	Hinton	Caney Valley	Byng	Duncan	Booker T. Washington	N/A
1995	Drummond	Calera	Chouteau	Hilldale	Bishop Kelley	Edmond Memorial	N/A
1996	Hammon	Classen SAS	Watonga	Harrah	Booker T. Washington	Edmond Memorial	N/A
1997	Kremlin-Hillsdale	Fletcher	Chouteau	Tecumseh	Booker T. Washington	Edmond Santa Fe	N/A
1998	Drummond	Union City	Indianola	Tecumseh	Bishop Kelley	Edmond Santa Fe	N/A
1999	Drummond	Union City	Caney Valley	Bishop McGuinness	Booker T. Washington	Edmond Santa Fe	N/A
2000	Drummond	Oklahoma Bible Academy	Rush Springs	Bishop McGuinness	Booker T. Washington	Edmond North	N/A
2001	Drummond	Oklahoma Bible Academy	Woodland	Edmond Deer Creek	Claremore	Lawton Eisenhower	N/A
2002	Kremlin-Hillsdale	Drummond	Adair	Holland Hall	Booker T. Washington	Edmond Memorial	N/A
2003	Drummond	Rock Creek	Caney Valley	Holland Hall	Claremore	Booker T. Washington	N/A
2004	Drummond	Rock Creek	Rush Springs	Holland Hall	Booker T. Washington	Edmond North	N/A
2005	Drummond	Waurika	Caney Valley	Holland Hall	Bishop Kelley	Broken Arrow	N/A
2006	Drummond	Rock Creek	Okemah	Holland Hall	Claremore	Booker T. Washington	N/A
2007	Drummond	Pioneer-Pleasant Vale	Warner	Holland Hall	Claremore	Booker T. Washington	N/A
2008	Drummond	Porter Consolidated	Minco	Holland Hall	Booker T. Washington	Jenks	N/A
2009	N/A	Drummond	Haileyville	Oklahoma Bible Academy	Bristow	Thomas Edison	Jenks
2010	N/A	Drummond	Rock Creek	Oklahoma Bible Academy	Plainview	Claremore	Jenks
2011	N/A	Drummond	Rock Creek	Oklahoma Bible Academy	Cascia Hall	Booker T. Washington	Claremore
2012	N/A	Drummond	Rock Creek	Warner	Blanchard	Bishop Kelley	Booker T. Washington
2013	N/A	Crossings Christian	Drummond	Chelsea	Cascia Hall	Claremore	Booker T. Washington
2014	N/A	Oklahoma Christian Academy	Rock Creek	Chelsea	Cascia Hall	Bishop Kelley	Edmond Santa Fe
2015	N/A	Regent Prep	Drummond	Oktaha	Cascia Hall	Bishop Kelley	Claremore
2016	N/A	Regent Prep	Rock Creek	Crossings Christian	Wagoner	Bishop Kelley	Booker T. Washington
2017	N/A	Regent Prep	Rock Creek	Wilburton	Cascia Hall	Bishop Kelley	Choctaw
2018	N/A	Corn Bible Academy	Regent Prep	Crossings Christian	Heritage Hall	Bishop Kelley	Choctaw
2019	N/A	Drummond	Riverfield	Crossings Christian	Bridge Creek	Bishop Kelley	Booker T. Washington
2020	N/A	Corn Bible Academy	Riverfield	Wilburton	Cascia Hall	Carl Albert	Booker T. Washington
2021	N/A	Corn Bible Academy	Riverfield	Crossings Christian	Tuttle	Bishop Kelley	Booker T. Washington
2022	N/A	Corn Bible Academy	Oklahoma Christian Academy	Preston	Wagoner	Bishop McGuinness	Jenks

Results are sourced from the "History of State Champions" section of the 2021-2022 OSSAA Academic Bowl Manual

External links

• Academic Bowl on OSSAA website