The Commissioner's Academic Challenge (CAC) is Florida's statewide high school quiz bowl-like academic tournament. The tournament is held at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort in Orlando, Florida, during March or April. It was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19.
The tournament is run by the Florida Department of Education Polk County Public Schools. Each county school board in Florida is asked to send a team composed of six high school students. Participating counties are separated into three divisions based on their full-time enrollment numbers for grades 9-12.
Tournament Format
Only four players may compete during a given round, but coaches are allowed to make substitutions between rounds. Most matches feature somewhere between four and six teams competing at the same time. A panel of judges is present in each competition room to deliberate if a challenge is declared by a team.
Teams compete in up to four untimed matches, around 2 hours each, with matches consisting of 3 rounds, each with 5, 10, and 15 point "button" question rounds of 20, 20, and 25 questions respectively. Additionally, each round has a 10, 20, and 30 team question respectively. Button questions are quick-response toss-ups, answered by only one team, with correct answers earning points and incorrect answers losing points. The Team Questions are written worksheets, completed by each team, and earn points for each correct answer, but do not lose points for incorrect answers.
The questions asked become progressively harder in each round and cover a variety of fields including English, math, science, social studies, art, music, foreign language (French and Spanish), technology, and multi-subject. The questions take a variety of forms, such as matching, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and free response. Some questions, such as foreign language, music, art and physics are written and are distributed on handouts, simultaneously, to all participants. Others, such as music, are played as audio tracks, and some, such as foreign language are displayed as video tracks. CAC differs from most tournaments in that once a team has buzzed in, that question ends whether the team gave a right or wrong response.
Awards and Prizes
At the conclusion of the tournament, the top three teams in each division receive rings from Herff Jones, while the championship and second place teams also receive trophies and medallions from the Florida High School Athletic Association.
In addition, one winning player from each of the three championship counties, and three other players selected "at large," are chosen to serve on Team Florida, which competes at the National Tournament of Academic Excellence in June.
History of CAC
The tournament began in 1986 and changed names several times before settling on its present title in 1997. The following is a list of winning counties:
Year Division I Division II Division IIIYearDivision IDivision IIDivision III 1986 Seminole Suwannee (No Division III)2007PolkLeonHardee 1987 Orange Highlands2008PinellasMartinHardee 1988 Duval Clay Suwannee2009BrevardIndian RiverJackson 1989 Polk Bay Suwannee2010EscambiaSanta RosaFranklin 1990 Pinellas Highlands Suwannee2011*EscambiaLeonSuwannee 1991 Dade Indian River Suwannee2012OrangeLeonMonroe 1992 Pinellas Collier Suwannee2013PinellasMartinSuwannee 1993 Duval St. Lucie DeSoto2014SeminoleOkaloosaSuwannee 1994 Pinellas Bay Suwannee2015*OrangeOkaloosaSuwannee 1995 Broward Clay Suwannee2016*ManateeClayColumbia 1996 Leon Osceola Suwannee2017*PinellasMartinWalton 1997 Duval Indian River DeSoto2018OrangeEscambiaHendry 1998 Seminole Hernando Suwannee2019*OrangeLeonFAU 1999 Brevard Indian River DeSoto2020*Was not held 2000 Escambia Leon Taylor2021* 2001 Palm Beach Indian River Suwannee2022BrevardOkaloosaWalton 2002 Escambia Leon Suwannee2023PolkLeonColumbia 2003 Escambia Leon Suwannee2024PolkOkaloosaColumbia 2004 Brevard St. Lucie Hardee2025PinellasSt. LucieColumbia 2005 Manatee Okaloosa Gadsden2026PinellasOkaloosaPutnam 2006 Escambia Santa Rosa Hardee2027TBDTBDTBD
Teams by wins +Teams by number of winsTeamWinsTeamWinsSuwannee17Bay2Leon9Manatee2Pinellas8Santa Rosa2Escambia7Walton2Okaloosa6Miami-Dade1Orange5Broward1Indian River5Collier1Polk4Hernando1Brevard4Taylor1Hardee4Palm Beach1Columbia4Osceola1Seminole3Franklin1Duval3Monroe1Clay3Hendry1St. Lucie3Gadsden1Martin3FAU1DeSoto3Putnam1Highlands2
References
External links Official CAC website