Rules and Procedures

Each team will participate in 4 matches, 2 in the morning and 2 after lunch, competing with a different team in each match. Finals will take place immediately after the 4th Round. There will be trophies for the Teams ranked #3 and #4 immediately before the announcement of the winners of the final round. The final competition will be video recorded. Participating teams will be provided a copy for future use. Only 12 cases will be used. A set of Cases we will use will be provided.

Rules for School Eligibility

A school may send more than two teams to a regional bowl only under the following conditions: 1) the regional competition organizers approve, and 2) schools with fewer teams are not denied participation.There is no longer a distinction between linked and unlinked teams. A school may earn at most one bid to nationals in a given year. Teams at nationals must be composed entirely of eligible students (see the Rules for Student Eligibility), but need not be composed of students who participated in the regional competition in which the bid was earned.

Rules for participating in multiple regional bowls

Teams may compete in more than one regional bowl, provided: a) this will not displace other teams who wish to compete and, b) they declare in advance which bowl they wish to use for the purposes of qualification for the national bowl (teams may only attempt to qualify at one regional). Therefore, every team must specify at the time of registration for each bowl whether they will be using this regional to qualify for the national bowl. If not, then they may be assigned a lower priority for acceptance to ensure the maximum numbers of teams who wish to advance have a chance to do so.

Schools that do not intend to use this Regional as a qualifying event for the Nationals must note this on the Registration Form. Such schools will be placed on the waiting list until the Registration Deadline, October 14th. If there are openings, then the non-qualifying Teams will be awarded slots based on the order of Registration. There can only be two teams from an accredited academic institution, a First Team, which is guaranteed a place, and a Flex Team, which may or may not compete. Members cannot switch between First and Second teams if BOTH teams are competing, but must remain with their selected Team for the entire Competition. If only the First Team is competing, then all members are eligible. Flex Teams will only be used if there is an uneven number of Teams in the competition. We will determine the need for Flex Teams after registration closes.

When registration closes on October 14th, we will know how many teams have registered. We have set our number of Teams at 20. We will only use one Flex Team. After long discussion and debate among organizers, coaches, and National Organization, we decided that Second Teams give schools a greater chance of moving on to the Nationals. Since we cannot accommodate all Second Teams, some schools get an advantage, even if it is only by random selection. Thus, we will only have one Flex Team. We will determine by random selection which team will be offered the Flex Team position among those schools who have requested a Second Team. Because the only Second Teams will be a Flex Team, there will be no charge for registering the Second Team. Flex Teams will understand the risk that they may not compete if the number of registered teams is an even number. If an odd number of teams register, then the Flex Team understands that they may not compete if someone drops out of the competition after Registration. If the first School offered a Flex Team decides not to accept, we will go down the random list until we find a school that agrees to have a Flex Team.

Rule Regarding Official College Representatives for Teams

The person listed as ‘sponsor’ on the registration for the APPE IEB® Championship is considered to be responsible for decisions relating to the team and is understood to represent the school in all matters related to the team. This person is responsible for ensuring all members of the team are eligible to compete and for accepting or rejecting the team’s invitation to the APPE IEB® Championship.

Rule Regarding Disqualified Teams

Teams facing a team that is disqualified from a match will be awarded a win in that match, with a judge majority of 2-1, and a point differential of 0.

Rule for Student Eligibility

Members of a school's team must have been undergraduates at the time of the regional competition in which the school qualified for the national competition. Where "undergraduate" is defined for the purposes of the Ethics Bowl as "someone who is enrolled at the time of the regional competition and has never been enrolled in a graduate program that is not a joint graduate/undergraduate program, such as a joint BA/MA program." Students who are not enrolled at the time of the national competition due to academic disciplinary reasons imposed by their school, such as suspension, expulsion, etc., are not eligible to compete at the national competition.

Students who have received a bachelor’s degree by the time of the regional ethics bowl competition are not eligible to participate in a regional ethics bowl with the following exception: students who received a bachelor’s degree within the past year and are currently enrolled in another bachelor’s program will be allowed to compete.

Rule on Required Regional Competition Information

At all regional competitions, the organizer(s) of the event must make explicit prior to the beginning of the competition all scoring rules, including, but not limited to: how the winners of matches are determined, and how teams are ranked for determining which teams earn bids to nationals. In the event that rankings are used to determine which teams advance beyond preliminary rounds, the method by which teams are ranked, must also be made explicit prior to the beginning of the competition.

Rules on Conflicts of Interest

Whenever possible coaches should not serve as judges in competitions in which their institution is competing, but they cannot serve in a match in which their team is participating. It is unacceptable for individuals affiliated with an institution in competition to be judges.
It is unacceptable for current undergraduates to serve as judges at a competition in which their institution is competing.
Any person taking part in the creation of case questions for a particular regional competition, or in the pairing of cases for the rounds of that competition, or in the preparation of materials related to the questions or pairing of cases, cannot also be currently serving as an coach or sponsor of any team participating in that region's competition. (Coaches or sponsors may be part of these processes, but only if they first recuse themselves from all active engagement with the team with which they are associated. In such cases, this person must explicitly disclose to the chair of the Ethics Bowl committee that they are involved in the question writing or case pairing process, and indicate the date at which they will cease contact with their team. However, whenever possible, no coaches or sponsors of teams participating in the competition should play a role in question creation or case pairing for their region.)
If a round must be canceled, a makeup round for teams unable to compete due to lack of judges will be held in the break between afternoon and morning rounds.

Qualifying Rules for Teams to Advance from Regional Bowls to the National Bowl:

Thirty-six schools compete in the national bowl. Each regional bowl receives bids to the national bowl based on its proportion of the overall number of schools participating. Regional bowls must be held in time for teams to accept an invitation to the national bowl by December 15. Teams must confirm by this date or risk losing their space. For the mechanics of bid allocation, see the appendix.

Case Pairing:

Cases are not to be paired on the basis of topic, but may be paired at the discretion of the competition's organizers on the basis of other factors, such as complexity of cases, etc.

Case Writing:

In order for the National Case Writing Committee to have sufficient time to prepare cases for the national competition, the regional case writing committee should have a complete list of case topics ready no later than May 10th.

Rule on Appeals and Certification of Regional Bowl Results

If a coach of a team believes there to have been an error that resulted in a change in the standings that impacts advancing to a later round of a regional competition, the coach needs to bring that to the attention of the moderator or rules official for the regional immediately. Once the next round of competition begins, the results of the preceding round become official.
If, after the competition is over, a coach discovers an error that (a) directly impacts the teams qualifying for the APPE IEB®, and (b) can be corrected in an unambiguous fashion, then the coach may notify the rules official for the region within one week of the end of the competition.
If, during that same time period, the organizers of a regional realize a mistake was made impacting the teams that would qualify to the APPE IEB®, they will notify the region of the change of qualifying teams.
The announcement of the teams that will qualify from a region to the APPE IEB® are unofficial for the week following the competition and become official after that week, unless there is a change based on the above.

Rule on the Timing of Rules Changes

Changes to the regional rules for a given year are binding on the regions, if put in place prior to July 15 of that year. Changes implemented after July 15 in a given year will be binding on the regions for the following year. Regional Organizers have the option of adopting rules put in place after July 15 for a given year.

Rule Regarding Organizational Responsibility for Regional Bowls

So as to be eligible to be a feeder competition to the APPE IEB®, Regional Competitions must conform to the rules of the APPE IEB®, but otherwise regions are solely responsible for the organizing and conducting their bowls.

Rule Regarding Regional Cap Size

Regions should decide on the cap number for their region and clearly state it in their regional rules, as well as communicating it to the Ethics Bowl chair. If there are more interested schools than can be accommodated by a given region, regions are encouraged to consider rules regarding the number of teams per school and to communicate the possible need for a new region to the Ethics Bowl chair.

The Match

The Moderator is in charge of the room and has the authority to interpret and enforce the rules. All participants should keep in mind that the Ethics Bowl is about ethics, and that there is the expectation of civility and respect. If any team or team member violates this expectation, the judges should deduct points, and the behaviors should be reported to the officials. Refer to the Judge Guidelines concerning such behavior. When the teams are introduced, the coach must identify themselves and raise their hands. They must then sit away from their team. Coaches are not permitted to signal their team in any possible manner – whispering, using sign language, or any other means of communication during the Round. A Team may have any number of members but only a minimum of 3 – and a maximum of 5 members may compete at a time.

There are no limits to the resources that may be used in researching the questions prior to the competition. Students are encouraged to consult all resources, including professors to understand the full breadth of the cases, determine their positions, and make the strongest possible presentation. During competition books and notes will not be allowed. Paper will be provided in the room. The teams will be given a copy of the case and the question to which they must respond. Teams should wait to use the scratch paper until the case has been announced. Students are permitted to pass notes to one another at any point. At the halfway point in a match teams will be instructed by the moderator to clear notes taken during the first half of the match from the table, and placed out of sight of all participants.

Rule on Time Expiring During a Parts of a Match

The end of time will be a “hard stop,” with moderator’s simply saying “that’s time” at the end of the time for a particular portion of a match. Teams will not be allowed to complete their sentence.

Each round will begin with a coin toss. The team that wins the coin toss may elect to present first (to be the team designated as Team One) or to have the other team present first (and thus to be the team designated as Team Two). The Team will be given 2 verbal time notifications, at 3 minutes and 1 minute from the Moderator.
Copies of the first case and question will be distributed to the competitors and to the judges. Neither the judges nor the team members will have advance knowledge of which case will be presented or which question will be asked. The Case and Question will be placed FACE DOWN on the table of each Team, along with 5 sheets of blank paper, to be used as scratch paper.
The moderators will then read the question. Competitors can make notes during the round, but outside notes are prohibited. Teams may use a timer for the team, but it must be a stand alone timer (no cell phones), not make noise, and can only be used to time themselves, NOT the other team. The only Official Timer is the one used by the Moderator.
Team One will then have up to two minutes to confer, after which Team One may speak for up to 10 minutes in response to the moderator’s question, based on the team’s research and critical analysis. This is known as the presentation period. More than one team member may present, but only one team member may speak at a time. During each team’s conferral period, the other team may also confer, but should be conscious of not being a distraction; the moderator will enforce this at their discretion. The Moderator will give a verbal warning at 3 minutes and 1 minute.
Judges will then score Team One on a scale of 1 to 30 using the criteria on the Judge Scoring Guidelines.
Next Team Two will have up to one minute to confer, after which Team Two may speak for up to 5 minutes in response to Team One’s presentation and to the moderator’s question. This is known as the commentary period. More than one team member may respond to the commentary, but only one team member may speak at a time. The Team will be given verbal time notifications at 3 minutes and 1 minute from the Moderator.
Judges will then score Team Two on a scale of 1 to 10 using the criteria on the Judge Scoring Guidelines.
Team One will then have up to one minute to confer, followed by 5 minutes to respond to Team Two’s challenge. This is known as the response period. Any number of team members may contribute to the response. Judges will then score Team One's response on a scale of 1-10 using the criteria. The Moderator will give a verbal warning at 3 minutes and 1 minute.
The Judges will then begin their 10 minute question and answer session with Team One. The Moderator will give the Judges one minute to confer. After one minute, the 10 minute question period begins. Each judge should have time for one question and one follow-up. Judges may ask more questions if time permits. The Moderator will give a verbal warning at 3 minutes and 1 minute. A Guide to Asking Judges Questions was Created and Approved. This will be made available to judges as part of their training.
At this time, more than one team member may respond to a given judge’s question. Team members are not expected to confer for longer than 20 to 30 seconds after a question has been asked.
Each Judge will then give Team One a score on a scale of 1 to 10 based on the criteria on the Judge Scoring Guidelines. The judges are not permitted to discuss their scoring decisions with each other; each judge is to rely on his or her own private judgment.
After the judges have made their scoring decisions, the moderator will proceed to the second case and question to the same two teams. The Judges will NOT report their scores to the Teams at this point. The Moderator will ask for the Scores at the END of the Round when both Teams have presented.
The competition will proceed as above, with Team Two presenting in the second half, Team One offering commentary, Team Two responding, and then Team Two participating in the judge’s question and answer session.
At the end of the round, the judges will announce the scores for both the Team One and for Team Two at the direction of the Moderator, by writing the score on the note card provided. Thus, in each round, each team will have the opportunity to present one case and to respond to the other team’s presentation of another case, for a total of 60 points possible.
At the end of the entire Round the Moderator will ask Coaches of the two teams if they concur with the scores. If the coaches raise no issues, the Moderator will forward the Moderator Score Sheet to the scoring room.

The team with the greatest number of judges declaring them winner is the winner of the match. Any team that wins on two judges’ score sheets wins the match. If a team wins on one judge’s score sheet and ties on the other two they win the match. If neither team wins on more of the score sheets, then the match is deemed a tie (even if one team scores a greater number of total points). Moderators will validate scores with the teams and judges, verify the official Moderator's Score Sheet, and then submit it to the official score room.

If at any time during the Round a Coach determines that a problem that can affect the outcome has arisen, the Coach can ask the Moderator for an Official determination. At that time the Moderator will stop the competition and the Timer and send a Room Monitor to the Official's Room to get an Official. The Official will come to the room and rule on the problem. The Official's ruling is final.

Rule Regarding Disqualified Teams

If a team is found to have violated a rule that the competition organizer finds to merit disqualification from a match, even if that finding comes after the match is over, the team will be disqualified from the round. Teams facing a team that is disqualified from a match will be awarded a win in that match, with a judge majority of 2-1, and a point differential of 0.Teams facing a team that is disqualified from a match will be awarded a win in that match, with a judge majority of 2-1, and a zero point differential.

After the 4 Competition Rounds, Teams will be ranked based on a) the number of wins, followed by b) the number of ties, followed by c) the Total Differential Points, finally d) total points. Thus, all teams with four wins will rank ahead of all teams with three wins. All teams with three wins will rank ahead of all teams with two wins. Within rankings, a team with more ties ranks above a team with fewer ties. Finally, for teams with the same number of wins and ties, the Team with a higher point differential would rank above a team with a lower point differential.

Point differentials: Point differentials are the margin of victory or loss. A point differential for each match is determined by taking the team’s total points and subtracting the other team’s total. Note that point differentials will be negative in the case of a loss. At the end of the 4 competition Rounds the point differential for a team is simply the sum of the point differentials for that team in each of its 4 matches.

If a tie still remains, then the teams will advance based on point totals for all four rounds. In the event that even further delineation is necessary, the team whose lowest total score for any of the four rounds is higher than the other team’s lowest total score for any of the four rounds will advance. If the teams are still tied, the team with the higher scores based solely on its own presentations (not commentary to the other team) will advance.

Also, please note that in the unlikely event that a team is unable to attend the competition, certain alternative procedures may be adopted to allow everyone to participate. This may mean dropping or adding a Flex Team to reach an even number. If that is not possible, then we may resort to including the adoption of a “placebo team,” usually consisting of students or recent graduates with some prior knowledge of the cases. In such a case, teams pitted against the placebo team may be scored but will not receive a win or loss, and for the purposes of advancement to the finals will be assessed assuming neither a win nor loss (thus, similar to a tie), but special weight added to their performance against actual teams. If you have any questions concerning this process, please inquire.

Final rounds will be scored the same way as the 4 Competition Rounds. If a School has two Teams, members may not switch teams in order to participate in the Finals. This will be a single elimination competition in which the team with the majority of Judges scoring them higher will be declared the winner. If there is a tie in the finals then both teams will be declared co-winners.

Please note that we need to adhere strictly to the schedule to accomplish the day’s agenda in a timely fashion. Eric Smaw is Head Official and will be the final arbiter of any disputes.

And remember that the competition is all about having fun and exchanging ideas.

Appendix: Mechanics for bid allocation:

The IEB Chair will award 35 bids to nationals, holding one in reserve for issues that arise because a team should have received a bid through their regional qualifier but due to an error was denied one, or where there are other extenuating circumstances that the chair, in consultation with the members of the Chair’s Advisory Committee and the Chair of the Rules Committee, finds compelling enough to award a bid. In the event that there are no issues sufficiently compelling to warrant the wild card bid be used, then the 36th bid will go to the team that would have received it using the current method. The Chair will make the allocation of the bid and the reasons for it transparent to the rules committee.

Bids to nationals are calculated as follows. First, we calculate the total number of schools participating, divide that number by the number of available bids to nationals (initially 35), to glean the number of schools per bid. The number of schools attempting to qualify for nationals at each region would be divided by this number (the number of schools per bid) and rounded to the nearest integer. This produces the number of bids each region would get, with the caveat that each region is guaranteed at least one bid. If, due to rounding, there are bids left over, then they go to the region or regions that will best preserve the lowest range between greatest and lowest chances of earning a bid. In the event that more than one region that fits this description, then the one with the lowest chance of advancing gets the bid. If, due to rounding, there is a shortage of bids (i.e., the procedure awards a total in excess of the number of available bids), then they are taken from the regions that will best preserve the lowest range between greatest and lowest chances of earning a bid. In the event that more than one region fits this description, then the one with the highest chance of advancing loses the bid. Ties will be broken by counting the number of schools involved (the higher the better), then total number of teams (the higher the better), then by coin toss. One week prior to the first regional competition each region would report to the APPE IEB® Executive Chair the number of schools and number of teams attempting to qualify for nationals at their competition. In the event that a region does not report the number of schools and teams participating by this date, they would be awarded bids based on the best conservative estimate of the APPE IEB® Executive Chair. Should a team be unable to attend nationals, its space will go to the next highest ranked team from that bowl. Each regional bowl will use scoring rules that make it possible to rank teams from top to bottom.