Attention, all brainiacs and teachers of brainiacs: Time is short for those who intend to compete in the Ole Miss Brain Brawl on November 11, 2023.
Teams must be registered by October 20, in order to participate in this prestigious quiz bowl event. Also, registration is limited to the first 36 teams who sign up and pay the $75 entry fee for their 4-person team. The remaining team slots are filling up quickly.
The Ole Miss Brain Bowl began as a training ground for secondary students (usually grades 7-12) to get hands-on experience competing in academic quiz bowl competitions. Consequently, the Ole Miss Brain Brawl does follow the official rules and guidelines of National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT) as specified online at naqt.com.
Sponsored by the University of Mississippi’s Office of Pre-College Programs in conjunction with the Ole Miss Division of Outreach and Continuing Education, this year’s Brain Bowl will take place live, in person, on the Oxford Campus. Registered teams must check in between 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. on the day of competition, and the quiz bowl will begin promptly at 9:00 a.m.
Tournament play will consist of two rounds. The first six rounds of the Ole Miss Brain Bowl will proceed with six randomly-seeded brackets of six teams competing in round-robin style. Each of the 36 teams will play five rounds against the five other opponents in their specified brackets.
The six teams (one from each bracket) with the most wins will advance to the single-elimination championship rounds, along with two wildcard teams earning the highest points per round. After this championship round and a consolation round, an awards ceremony will follow.
The 2022 Ole Miss Brain Brawl included academic teams from all sizes of public and private schools in Mississippi and surrounding states. Alabama Cyber Tech (Huntsville, AL) earned first place in last year’s competition, White Station High School, Team B (Memphis, TN) took second place, and Madison Central High School (Madison, MS) garnered third place.
A schedule for this year’s Ole Miss Brain Brawl has been posted but is subject to change until the day of the tournament:
Round-robin Rounds (36 Teams, Divided into 6 brackets, 5 rounds for each team):
- 9:00 – 9:30 a.m.
- 9:35 – 10:05 a.m.
- 10:10 – 10:40 a.m.
- 10:45 – 11:15 a.m.
- 11:20 – 11:50 a.m.
Single-elimination Championship Rounds:
- 1:30 – 2:00 p.m. (8 teams – 1 winner per bracket and 2 wildcard highest-scoring teams)
- 2:05 – 2:35 p.m. (4 winning teams from Round 6)
- 2:40 – 3:10 p.m. (2 winning teams from Round 7 compete for 1st and 2nd place, and 2 losing teams from Round 7 compete for 3rd place.)
The Awards Ceremony will follow immediately after Round 8.
For more information on the Ole Miss Brain Bowl, go to:
https://www.outreach.olemiss.edu/academic_competitions/brain_brawl.html.
*Photos are courtesy of Outreach Ole Miss
