1. Undergraduates must be at least half-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. Only students enrolled at American schools are eligible to participate.
7. Teams are limited to two Non-American citizens, and they are not allowed to skip
8. 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, teams will reserve, sign for and pay their own hotel bill.
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, the Illinois State Curling Foundation, and the Chicago Community Trust.
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. Teams will play at their own level of 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 gold medal and bronze medal games.
If there is a tie in the round robin 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.