Metro Conference Academic League
Metro Conference Academic League is a format of high school quizbowl played in the South Bay area of San Diego County, California and run by the Sweetwater Union High School District. The season runs from January to March. Each team in the league plays each other over a series of 11 round robin matches. Various matches are televised on San Diego County Office of Education Instructional Television (ITV Channel 16). The winner of the Academic League was sent to the NAC at some point, but that tradition has not continued recently.
Format
The top six seeds after the round robin advance to the playoffs. The top 2 seeded teams have a bye, while seeds 3-6 have 2 play-in matches. The 2 winners of those matches face the 2 bye teams in semi-final matches. All semi-finalist teams qualify for the High School National Championship Tournament. The winners of the semi-final matches play a one-game final match. The winner of that match then will go on to represent the league at the county championships.
Metro League matches are played in a straight tossup-bonus format format and are timed (time varies depending on whether it is a Junior Varsity, or Varsity match). Tossups are worth ten points, and each of three bonus parts are worth ten points as well. There are no powers, but a neg rule is in play; teams are deducted five points for an incorrect answer at any point during or after the tossup, but not if the opponent has already been penalized for an incorrect answer. The team with more points when time expires wins. If time expires in the middle of a tossup, the tossup will be completed and counted.
Questions
As of 2016, the league uses NAQT-provided questions. Varsity games use three Introductory Invitational Series ("A sets"). JV games use two NAQT Middle School Series sets. Teams that are a part of the League should take care to not play tournaments using sets they will play during academic league matches.
| Level of Play | School |
|---|---|
| Varsity and JV | |
| Bonita Vista | |
| Castle Park | |
| Eastlake | |
| Hilltop | |
| Mar Vista | |
| Montgomery | |
| Olympian | |
| Otay Ranch | |
| Southwest | |
| Sweetwater | |
| Varsity-only | |
| Chula Vista | |
| Mater Dei |
History
The Metro Conference Academic League was the first of the county Academic League's to switch to using pyramidal questions provided by National Academic Quiz Tournaments. Most students would see this as a very positive thing. Not much is known about exactly how old the League is, but it is believed to be, like the other Academic Leagues, very old, possible extending beyond the 1980s.