Ohio Academic Competition
The Ohio Academic Competition (OAC) is the format that is used in most Ohio High School quizbowl tournaments. It is the most common format in the state, second to NAQT and television-show formats. Every year, the OAC Committee hosts two tournaments at the end of the season, the Regional Tournaments that are hosted at 6 sites across the state and the State Championship Tournament. The winner of the State Championship Tournament was Ohio's representative to the PAC.
Format
Like most formats, two teams compete in a match. The rules state that the sides are chosen by a coin flip, although more recently moderators simply used the side the team picks to be "Team A" and "Team B". Therefore, the team that sits to the moderator's left will generally be "Team A" and the team on the moderator's right will be "Team B".
While some tournaments may slightly deviate from the official rules, there are generally three parts to an OAC match. They are the category round, the alphabet round, and the lightning round. Teams are permitted to substitute between rounds.
Category Round
In this round, teams are asked questions in ten categories. They are (in order) American Literature, Mathematics, World History, Fine Arts, Life Science, English/World Literature, U.S. Government, Physical Science, World Geography, and U.S. History. This is also the only time that the coach may call a one-minute timeout, and no substitutions are permitted during timeouts.
In each category, the two teams will each receive their own team question. In American Literature, Team A is the first team to receive their question. They will have two opportunities to answer their question within ten seconds. Teams do not need to buzz for this part. If their first response is correct, the team will earn two (2) points. If their second response is correct, they will earn one (1) points If, however, neither of their responses is correct or their ten seconds run out, the opposing team will get an opportunity to "steal" the question for one (1) point. The same process is then reversed, with Team B receiving the first two opportunities to answer the question. After both sides are complete, a toss-up question is read to both teams, and teams only get one opportunity each to answer. A correct answer is worth two (2) points.
In the next category (Mathematics), the order the teams hear the questions are reversed. Team B will get the first math question, and then Team A will get the second question. The third is still a tossup for both teams. This process is repeated throughout all ten categories.
Alphabet Round
After the category round is complete, teams (after substitution) will receive two sheets of questions, and one "official" answer sheet (aka a blank sheet of paper) to write down their answers to the questions. Both teams receive the exact same set of questions, and all of the answers will begin with the same letter. Usually the letter will either be announced or printed at the top of the question sheet. Teams will have four minutes to answer all questions, with each answer being worth one (1) point.
If a team correctly answers all twenty questions in the Alphabet Round, they will receive a five (5) point bonus added to their score.
Lightning Round
The third and final part of the match is called the Lightning Round. In the lightning round, twenty questions are read to both teams and each correct answer is worth one point each. Generally, these are simple, one or two-line questions that go by quickly, therefore the "lightning". The questions come from the categories listed above, as well as Mythology, Spelling, Pop Culture, World Religion, World Literature, Philosophy, Earth and Space Science, Quotations, and Theater.
OAC Committee
Currently, the OAC Committee has ten members, with representation from each region of the state. The Committee has the power to change any of the rules to the OAC format and also approves and places each school into sites for the Regional Tournaments. The members are (in no particular order):
| Member Name | Affiliation | Region | |||
| Joe Bellas | Tippecanoe High School | West Central | |||
| David Jones | Northmont High School | West Central | |||
| Joe Czupryn | None | West Central | |||
| Brian Meeron | Lakota West High School | Southwest | |||
| Ed Sunderhaus | Cincinnati State | Southwest | |||
| Lynn Stevenson | Fisher Catholic High School | Southeast | |||
| Alex Connor | St. Charles Preparatory School | Southeast | Mike Sedlack | At-Large Delegate | Southeast |
| Greg Bossick | Independent | Executive Director | |||
| Cameron Flint | Cloverleaf High School | Northeast | |||
| Sue Korosa | Copley High School | Northeast | |||
| Bob Weiser | Formerly of Solon High School | North Central | |||
| Michael Czupryn | At-Large Delegate | Northwest | |||
| Alex Melton | Benjamin Logan High School | Northwest | |||
| Anita Zuber | Van Wert High School | Northwest | Emily Bingham | Wright State University | College Representative |
Regional Tournaments
Currently, tournaments are held at six different regions throughout the state. This was an expansion from the early 2000s when there were only four regions. There has been dialogue, arising as recently as May 2015, that the regional tournament could see another expansion to the size of eight regional tournaments, however this will likely not come to fruition until there is a guarantee it can be feasibly done and ran effectively.
Each regional tournament holds a maximum of 16 teams. These teams will all face-off in a double-elimination tournament, where the first and second place teams will be sent to the State Tournament in Columbus. To qualify for a regional tournament, a team must win a tournament (or a division of one) with at minimum six schools competing. The winner must be specifically identified. If there is a tie for first, somehow only one winner must be determined. Note that Ohio teams that win tournaments in other states can now automatically qualify for the OAC Regional tournament given that they meet the qualification requirements, such as winning a bracket comprising of six different schools.
For the 2014-2015 season, the Regional Tournaments were held at the following sites:
| Region | Site | Presumed TD |
| Northwest | University of Findlay - Findlay, OH | Greg Bossick |
| Northeast | Cloverleaf High School - Lodi, OH | Cameron Flint |
| North Coast | Solon Middle School - Solon, OH | Bob Weiser |
| Southeast | Ohio University-Lancaster Campus - Lancaster, OH | Mike Sedlack |
| Southwest | Lakota West Freshman School - West Chester Township, OH | Brian Meeron |
| West Central | Tippecanoe High School - Tippecanoe, OH | Joe Bellas |
State Tournament
The State Championship Tournament is held on the campus of St. Charles Preparatory School in Columbus. It formerly was held a few blocks over at Columbus State Community College. A team is eligible for the State Tournament if the finish in the first or second place at their respective regional site. Teams are drawn into two pools at the site, either a red bracket or a blue bracket. The team that finishes first at a regional draws a card to determine which bracket they are in, and then the second place team of that respective region will go into the opposite bracket.
A six-team round robin then takes place, with the top two teams from each region going into a page playoff. The champion of the red bracket will face the champion of the blue bracket, while the runner-up of the blue bracket will face the runner-up of the red bracket. The loser of the matchup featuring the two-runnerups will be the fourth place finisher. The winner of the game featuring the two bracket champions will have an automatic spot in the state title game(s). The loser of the game featuring the two bracket champions plays the winner of the game featuring the two bracket runner-ups. The loser of that game will finish as third in the state, and the winner of that game will finish at worst in second place, as they will play the team that has the automatic bid in the state title game.
Past Champions
Criticisms
Many could be listed here. Anybody who edits the qbwiki can add their own.
- In the 2008 Regional Tournaments, many sites had different drawings of what the Double-Elimination brackets could look like, causing some teams to play different schedules than if they had been assigned to another region. One region in particular (EC) had confusing brackets that some teams had troubles understanding.
- The random-draw method used to assign teams at the regional level is considered controversial, as is the random-draw used at states. At states, the six regional champions draw red 1,2 or 3 or blue 1,2 or 3. The regional runners-up from the same region are then place in the opposite brackets. While this may seem fair, the fact that OAC format does not usually single out the best teams causes a draw as in 2007, where Fisher Catholic (NAQT-2nd), Tippecanoe (NAQT-1st), Copley (NAQT-3rd) and North Canton Hoover were all placed in the same half of the bracket, while Walnut Hills (generally considered the strongest NAQT team in Ohio) and Garfield Heights were in the other bracket.