A short introduction to Latin League

If you're in a hurry:

  • Latin League is a year-long competition between school-based teams that tests student’s knowledge of the many facets of the ancient Mediterranean world.
  • There are four divisions:
    • High School - Varsity (students in grades 9-12)
    • High School - JV (students in grades 10 or below)
    • Middle School - Varsity (students in grades 6-8)
    • Middle School - JV (students in grades 7 or below)
  • A team consists of a maximum of seven players; up to five players from the team can compete in each round.
  • Entry cost is $5.00 per team. Entry is free for Title I schools.
  • There are five rounds of competition against schools in each region. Each round consists of 100 multiple choice questions.
    • 50 questions involve Latin language skills (reading comprehension, vocabulary, Latin derivatives, and mottoes, phrases, abbreviations, and Latin quotations in modern use).
    • 50 questions involve ancient cultures. Forty of these are drawn from the normal JCL topics (mythology, history, daily life, etc.). Ten questions will be on a monthly special topic specified by the topics list.
  • Schoools have an 8-day window each month to take the test for that round. They do not have to compete at the same time as their opponents.
  • All participants must be members in good standing of NJCL.

Latin League is a year-long competition between school-based teams that tests student’s knowledge of the many facets of the ancient Mediterranean world. The key features are:

  • Latin League is flexible. Each round of the competition will be open for a week, allowing schools to find a time for their teams to compete.
  • Latin League is asynchronous and does not require any travel.
  • Latin League’s structure is intended to mirror the way athletics are run in schools, making it feel familiar and easy for everyone to understand.

Structure

Latin League has two levels, middle school (grades 6-8) and high school (grades 9-12). In each division, there are Varsity and JV divisions. Any student can play at the Varsity level. JV players must be freshmen (grade 9) or sophomores (grade 10) for high school. Middle school JV players must be in 7th grade or below. JV teams would not advance to the playoff rounds.

Teams

Teams consist of a maximum of up to seven players, with five competing at any one time. Once a team roster has been submitted, no changes are allowed during the year unless approved by the Latin League committee. For each round, the coach will indicate which five players will compete, and no substitutions will be allowed mid-round. A school may enter up to two in any division. However, if multiple teams are entered in the same division, only the highest-scoring team will advance to the playoffs. There will be a $5.00 entry fee per team. This fee will be waived for Title I schools.

Regular Season (October-February)

Once teams have signed up for the year, they will be divided into groups. Each group will have roughly the same number of teams and will be divided based on geographical region as nearly as possible.

Teams will play head to head each month. The team that gets the most questions correct will win the match. Ties are also possible. If two teams finish tied in the standings, the winner of the head-to-head matchup will be ranked higher. If the two teams tied when they played, they will share the ranking; and if those teams are the highest ranked, they are declared co-champions of the region.

There will be 5 rounds of regular season play, and the winners from each region are named regional champions.

Playoffs (March and April)

After the regular season, each region-winning team will advance to the playoffs. Only Varsity teams have playoffs. If a school has multiple Varsity teams, only the highest-ranked team advances to the playoffs.

The first round will be the super-regionals, which will divide all of the regions into two groups (roughly) geographically. The results of the round will be ranked against all other teams, with the winner being declared the super-regional champion, and the top 4 teams advance to the national championship round.

The national championship round will consist of eight teams. Scores will be ranked with the highest scoring team becoming the national champions.

More information

We got some rules here.

Click here for the 2024-2025 rules.