Eligibility Rules

1. Each competing team consists of at least four student members, and a coach. It is recommended that a team include one student alternate. A team of three is not eligible to compete. (see Coaching Policy section for more details)

2. To be eligible to compete, a student must be enrolled for the current school year in a public, private, or parochial high school in grades nine, ten, eleven, or twelve at the team’s school or sanctioned as a home-schooled student.

3. Participants must be less than 20 years of age or receive a special waiver from the Consortium for Ocean Leadership to compete.

4. Eligible student teams may be formed through a high school, student support organization, or a home school group. If a student participates through a student support organization, his/her school must NOT have their own team.

5. Schools considering establishing a NOSB team should select the regional bowl closest by driving distance to their home site. If the school location is equidistant between two regional bowl locations, the school may select the preferred bowl location or the bowl location that has availability for new teams. Once a team has participated in a regional bowl that bowl then becomes the team’s regional bowl for all future competitions.

Exceptions-

• If a team has been participating in a specific regional bowl prior to 2009, the team is permitted to stay with that bowl location even if another bowl is closer. However, if a team would prefer to switch to a bowl that is closer to their school location that currently exists or because a new regional bowl location is established, the team must contact their current Regional Bowl Coordinator to request a bowl move. The team’s current Regional Bowl Coordinator will contact the NOSB director at the National office with the request. The National office will schedule a meeting with both Regional Bowl Coordinators to review the proposal. The requesting team’s coach, the current Regional Bowl Coordinator and the potential new Regional Bowl Coordinator will receive a letter within three (3) weeks of the initial request that will state the final outcome.

• Schools within the state of Texas are another exception. Due to the size and shape of the state and the locations of the regional competitions, the Regional Bowl Coordinators delineated a diagonal line from just south of the city of Houston up to the lower western corner of the panhandle of Texas. Those schools located below the diagonal line attend the Loggerhead Challenge; those schools located above the diagonal line attend the Dolphin Challenge. Exceptions to this rule can be made at the discretion of the Regional Bowl Coordinators of this region.

6. Once the competition day has started the composition of the team must remain static. Alternate members cannot be “swapped” between “A” and “B” teams from the same school or different schools.

7. In the spirit of sportsmanship, the National office encourages all teams to remain at their regional competitions through the end of the awards ceremony. Regional Bowl Coordinators have the wherewithal to enforce this as a rule, and may disqualify a team from competing at the regional level.

8. No school may compete in more than one NOSB regional competition in a given calendar year.

9. The winning team from each regional competition is invited to participate at the Finals competition. For the team to eligible to participate in the Finals, the following rules apply:

• The students on the invited team must be the same team of students that won the Regional Ocean Sciences Bowl for that year. No student substitutions can be made.
• All forms in the Winners Packet must be completed and submitted on or before the designated dates after the regional competition.
• All teams must arrive and depart on the designated dates and be in attendance throughout the duration of the competition.
• If the entire winning regional team (all 4 team members) is unable to participate in all activities, the second place regional winning team will replace them.

*Any waiver to these rules must be approved by the NOSB National Office, and no waivers will be considered after April 1 of the current year.