1. The Moderator will oversee a coin toss to select the presenting team (hereinafter Team 1), and then read Team 1’s question about the case.  (The Moderator will not read aloud the entire case).

2. Team 1 will have one minute to confer.  Team 1 can then use up to ten minutes to respond to the Moderator’s question.  All members of Team 1 are permitted to contribute to the initial response, but only one member may speak at a time.

3. The opposing team (hereinafter Team 2) receives one minute to confer.  Team 2 can then use up to five minutes to comment about Team 1’s response to the Moderator’s question.  All members of Team 2 may contribute to the commentary, but only one member may speak at a time.

4. Team 1 receives one minute to confer and then may use up to five minutes to respond to Team 2’s commentary.  All members of Team 1 may respond to the commentary, but only one team member may speak at a time.

5. The judges then have 10 minutes to ask Team 1 questions regarding their response.  EACH JUDGE MAY ASK NO MORE THAN ONE QUESTION WITH A BRIEF FOLLOW-UP QUESTION.  Before asking questions the judges may confer with one another to discuss briefly areas that they want to cover during the question period.  Different team members may respond to the questions of the judges, but only one team member may speak at a time.  Teams may huddle briefly to discuss their answers to the judges’ questions.

6. The judges will evaluate Team 1 and Team 2 on score sheets provided to them (see scoring rules below).  AT THIS POINT, HOWEVER, THE JUDGES WILL NOT ANNOUNCE TO THE TEAMS THE SCORES THEY HAVE GIVEN THEM.

7. Team 1 and Team 2 will reverse roles for a second round using a new case.

8. At the close of the second round the Moderator will ask the judges to announce the   teams’ scores for the match.

1. Teams will be paired randomly into the preliminary matches.  Priority shall be given to ensuring that teams meet a diversity of competition in the preliminary matches.

2. The seeding and match-ups for the Final match will be determined in the following way: teams will be ranked based on a) the number of wins, followed by b) the number of ties, followed by c) the total points awarded by judges.  Thus, all teams with n+1 wins will rank ahead of all teams with n wins.  Within rankings, a team with more ties ranks above a team with fewer ties.  Finally, for teams with the same number of wins and ties, a team with more points would rank above a team with fewer points. The top two teams will advance to the final round.

3. Point differentials:  Point differentials are the margin of victory or loss.  A point differential for each match is determined by taking the team’s total points and subtracting the other team’s total.  Note that point differentials will be negative in the case of a loss.  At the end of the morning competition the point differential for a team is simply the sum of the point differentials for that team in each of its three morning matches.

4. The winner of the University of Alaska Ethics Bowl will be determined as follows:

   The Final match is scored the same way as the preliminary matches.  In the event of a tie score, the following tie-breaking rules apply in this order:

1. the team receiving the majority of the judge’s votes takes the tie breaker,

2. the team with the most preliminary wins takes the tie-break,

3. or else, the team with the most ties in the preliminary round wins the tie-break,

4. or else, the team with the greatest point differential in the preliminary round wins the tie-break,

5. or else, if the two teams have faced each other in the morning matches, the winner of that match wins the tie-break.

6. In the rare event of a tie after the tie-breaking rules are applied in the final match, the two finalists are declared co-winners of the University of Alaska Ethics Bowl.