University of Virginia student Andrew Yaphe thus organized the Academic Competition Federation to continue running the Regional and National tournaments along with John Sheahan and David Hamilton.
The 1999 Nationals saw the first presentation of the Dr. N. Gordon Carper Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes individuals "for meritorious services in sustaining and enriching collegiate academic competitions.
"[2] Following the rise to popularity of NAQT, the decline of College Bowl, and longstanding complaints about the difficulty of ACF, a decision was made in 2001 to focus on the accessibility of Academic Competition Federation tournaments.
This three-tournament lineup continued to 2009, then again from 2011 to 2019, with a fourth, intermediate difficulty, "ACF Winter" tournament held as part of the current circuit, as well as in 2009-10[3] An ACF game consists of twenty ten-point tossups with thirty-point bonuses, a format now widely used by various collegiate and high school quiz bowl tournaments.
[4] ACF tournaments follow the packet submission model, where editors organize the writing project and teams submit questions which will be used in competition.
With stricter eligibility requirements than ACF Fall, EACN was intended to be an introduction to collegiate quiz bowl for people who had not played previously.
[12][13] Dr. N. Gordon Carper Lifetime Achievement Award was established in 1999 to honor individuals for meritorious services in sustaining and enriching collegiate academic competitions.
The award is presented annually to a member of the quizbowl community who exhibits the kind of dedication to and long-term support of academic competitions as exemplified by career of Dr. Carper.