1. Undergraduates must be full-time students of school they attend, as defined by that school.
2. Graduate students must be at least half-time students.
3. Each team must have two members from the same school in order to represent that school. Other members may be from on or more additional schools.
4. Consolidated teams from four schools are eligible. Such teams will compete as at-large teams.
5. All events are open, i.e., any combination of men and women.
6. Non-American citizens attending American schools are eligible to participate as teams or parts of teams, assuming they meet other requirements listed here.
7. All participants must sign standard USCA player/coach agreement before they begin to play.
Note: When out-of-town teams at National or Regional tournaments stay in a nearby hotel, they are provided an allowance to generally cover the cost of one room for one night at a headquarters hotel designated by the event chairperson. Teams will reserve, sign for and pay their own hotel bill. Out-of-town teams are defined as teams traveling at least thirty miles from home campus. Borderline distances to be negotiated with person in charge of entries. We ask that teams do not attempt to take advantage of this situation - we, too, have budget limitations. Local teams sleep at home.
All games at College Curling USA events will be played by USCA and local curling club rules.
Events will be run by a local chairperson who will make any necessary on-the-spot decisions relative to the event and his or her decisions will be final.
College curling events are jointly sponsored by the United States Curling Association and the Illinois State Curling Foundation.
Our events are designed to fit time limits, number of teams signed up, and to try to level the playing field for all competitors.
When possible we place teams into divisions based on the years of experience of each team member, cumulative for each team. For the National Tournament we further attempt to differentiate teams with limited curling experience (one or fewer years of playing time) based on how many times the individuals have been on the ice, how many full games have been played, and any other tournament experience.
Once division are determined we normally use a round robin format. In other words, a four team division will play each of the other teams in its division in order to establish qualification for the semi-finals.
If there is a tie in the standings the winning team in their head-to-head game prevails. In the event of a three way tie, scoreboard points accumulated in the three games played will prevail. If there is still a tie the skips of the tied teams will each throw two swept draw shots with the least combined distance from the center being the winner.
In the event of tie games the winning team will be determined in a manner decided by the chairperson and announced before competition begins (extra end, one draw shot, etc.).
In an attempt to allow playoff teams time to return home on the last day of the National event we usully will not have semi-finals . . . rather we will go from the qualifying round robin directly to finals, with the first place teams in subdivision playing for gold and silver, and second place teams playing for bronze.
Specific event formats will be determined prior to each event.