The Quizbowl Resource Center

The following is a map of every team that played in a major tournament(Delta-Berks, Penn Bowl, SCTs and ACF Regionals), excluding Community Colleges.
1)Is there anyone I left out?
2) What other patters/tendencies do you see in this map?

https://wrr5069.cartodb.com/viz/d3fec28 ... /embed_map

Well, all the UK circuit (small as it is) for one!

There is essentially a black hole in quiz bowl coverage for the western states (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska). If you are including college clubs that have ever played in a sectional championship, you are missing Mississippi State and UT Chattanooga from the map. (although these clubs haven't been at an SCT since the late 2000s)

Missing schools active recently: Piedmont-Athens (GA); Jackson State (MS); Carleton University (ON). Otherwise the map seems to be mostly complete, at least for recent years.

You seem to have missed Carleton University (the one in Ottawa) and Queen's (they played at the Canadian site of ACF Regionals)

Quizbowl must realize its manifest destiny and tame the mountain west.

Including teams that played ACF Fall would bring in Wake Forest (NC), which has been semi-active the past two years. Davidson (NC) also occasionally shows up to things.

J. Young wrote: Missing schools active recently: Piedmont-Athens (GA); Jackson State (MS); Carleton University (ON). Otherwise the map seems to be mostly complete, at least for recent years.

Not true!

I don't know if this map is intended to be just for the listed tournaments in 2015-2016, but (as Paul hinted), this is missing MN teams like Carleton College, St. Olaf, and St. Thomas, as well as Augustana in South Dakota -- which, together with University of Sioux Falls, is starting to make inroads into the mountain west.

On the other hand, Paul, if you don't want Carleton to be excluded, maybe you should show up to more tournaments!

What I'm most interested in is why large school in dense areas (Purdue, St. Louis, Indiana and Furman to name a few) don't have teams, while small schools in those areas like Valpo do.

Brandeis, Northeastern, and Wellesley all have teams that show up to things around once a year.

wrepasky711 wrote:What I'm most interested in is why large school in dense areas (Purdue, St. Louis, Indiana and Furman to name a few) don't have teams, while small schools in those areas like Valpo do.

For Purdue, Indiana, and Furman, their states don't have strong high school circuits to feed them a steady supply of players. Part of the continued existence of UNC (and UVA, and Illinois) is a large high school circuit that constantly refreshes the flagship university with good high school players. We're beginning to see this as well with Texas.

wrepasky711 wrote:What I'm most interested in is why large school in dense areas (Purdue, St. Louis, Indiana and Furman to name a few) don't have teams, while small schools in those areas like Valpo do.

The one and only reason that any schools have teams is because someone made it happen. Someone made it happen at Valpo and no one made it happen at the other schools listed. Probably the biggest reason that there aren't more college teams is that it's not easy to take the plunge and decide to form a team, get university approval for stuff, search the message boards for tournaments, make travel arrangements, get in a car, and go to the tournaments. Just showing up is underrated.

It looks like University of Kentucky isn't listed on the map (which is a pretty cool map, btw. Thanks!).

If anyone's interested in maps of high school quiz bowl, I made some maps of PA, NJ, and DE a while back.

https://public.tableau.com/profile/andrew.nadig#!/

Granny Soberer wrote:

wrepasky711 wrote:What I'm most interested in is why large school in dense areas (Purdue, St. Louis, Indiana and Furman to name a few) don't have teams, while small schools in those areas like Valpo do.

For Purdue, Indiana, and Furman, their states don't have strong high school circuits to feed them a steady supply of players. Part of the continued existence of UNC (and UVA, and Illinois) is a large high school circuit that constantly refreshes the flagship university with good high school players. We're beginning to see this as well with Texas.

Re: Furman, I wouldn't say that South Carolina's high school circuit outside of Dorman is traditionally "strong," but there's a pretty active circuit of teams, especially in the Upstate around Greenville (where Furman is). There are probably enough quizbowlers going there to put together a competitive program but, like I noted in my other post, no one has yet decided to bite the bullet and start a team there. EDIT: Also, 70% of Furman's students are from outside of South Carolina, so the health of the in-state high school circuit wouldn't necessarily have a giant impact on them not having a team.

The University of Tulsa and the University of Texas at Dallas both attended Regionals this past year.

EDIT: Tulsa also plays in a few tournaments each year.

The larger question is how do we help smaller colleges like Furman who may have few, if any former high school players as recruits, maintain their teams. Philadelphia's a good example of this: there have been teams at Swarthmore, Haverford, Villanova, and Bryn Mawr at various points in the past decade, but right now only Villanova has a team (and it's pretty small).

The West is largely a product of the weak HS circuit in those areas, especially for pyramidal tournaments. The recent incursions into Colorado are very encouraging, but it would take changing the whole state before you'll start to see big results at the college level. What's somewhat more disappointing is the large state universities in fairly QB-rich states in the South that don't have active or very active teams (Auburn, Ole Miss, GA State, Florida State, Middle TN State, UT-Chattanooga (!)).

The big donut-hole around Arkansas (and to some extent Indiana) is an interesting testament to how even a super-active Chip circuit has little effect on collegiate participation.

cchiego wrote:The larger question is how do we help smaller colleges like Furman who may have few, if any former high school players as recruits, maintain their teams. Philadelphia's a good example of this: there have been teams at Swarthmore, Haverford, Villanova, and Bryn Mawr at various points in the past decade, but right now only Villanova has a team (and it's pretty small).

The West is largely a product of the weak HS circuit in those areas, especially for pyramidal tournaments. The recent incursions into Colorado are very encouraging, but it would take changing the whole state before you'll start to see big results at the college level. What's somewhat more disappointing is the large state universities in fairly QB-rich states in the South that don't have active or very active teams (Auburn, Ole Miss, GA State, Florida State, Middle TN State, UT-Chattanooga (!)).

The big donut-hole around Arkansas (and to some extent Indiana) is an interesting testament to how even a super-active Chip circuit has little effect on collegiate participation.

FWIW, I'll be attending Auburn in the fall and trying to revive the quizbowl program. As of now, the only other person I know there with an interest in playing is Mark Morris, but I'm planning on definitely playing ACF Fall, SCT, and maybe some various other things hosted in the South.

cwest123 wrote: FWIW, I'll be attending Auburn in the fall and trying to revive the quizbowl program. As of now, the only other person I know there with an interest in playing is Mark Morris, but I'm planning on definitely playing ACF Fall, SCT, and maybe some various other things hosted in the South.

Chandler, that would be awesome. Auburn had a pretty active program a few years back and is well situated to have a good team. We'll be hosting tournaments at South Carolina next year and Columbia is, by southeastern quizbowl standards, pretty close to AU. Also, if you get things going and decide to host something, I'd be happy to help. My wife Bryn and I moderate at events throughout the southeast and would greatly enjoy a trip to the plains.

Ethnic history of the Vilnius region wrote:

cwest123 wrote: FWIW, I'll be attending Auburn in the fall and trying to revive the quizbowl program. As of now, the only other person I know there with an interest in playing is Mark Morris, but I'm planning on definitely playing ACF Fall, SCT, and maybe some various other things hosted in the South.

Chandler, that would be awesome. Auburn had a pretty active program a few years back and is well situated to have a good team. We'll be hosting tournaments at South Carolina next year and Columbia is, by southeastern quizbowl standards, pretty close to AU. Also, if you get things going and decide to host something, I'd be happy to help. My wife Bryn and I moderate at events throughout the southeast and would greatly enjoy a trip to the plains.

They currently have a "club," but they aren't active. The amount of things Auburn is able to attend will most likely depend on their funding/monetary standing, so we'll see! I'll be sure to contact you if we do end up hosting something.

cwest123 wrote:

Ethnic history of the Vilnius region wrote:

cwest123 wrote: FWIW, I'll be attending Auburn in the fall and trying to revive the quizbowl program. As of now, the only other person I know there with an interest in playing is Mark Morris, but I'm planning on definitely playing ACF Fall, SCT, and maybe some various other things hosted in the South.

Chandler, that would be awesome. Auburn had a pretty active program a few years back and is well situated to have a good team. We'll be hosting tournaments at South Carolina next year and Columbia is, by southeastern quizbowl standards, pretty close to AU. Also, if you get things going and decide to host something, I'd be happy to help. My wife Bryn and I moderate at events throughout the southeast and would greatly enjoy a trip to the plains.

They currently have a "club," but they aren't active. The amount of things Auburn is able to attend will most likely depend on their funding/monetary standing, so we'll see! I'll be sure to contact you if we do end up hosting something.

Please revive this club, keep it going, and HOST THINGS when you get a chance. The south needs more hosts of events. If you don't have enough money to go places, host things. It works.

The Ununtiable Twine wrote:

cwest123 wrote:

Ethnic history of the Vilnius region wrote:

cwest123 wrote: FWIW, I'll be attending Auburn in the fall and trying to revive the quizbowl program. As of now, the only other person I know there with an interest in playing is Mark Morris, but I'm planning on definitely playing ACF Fall, SCT, and maybe some various other things hosted in the South.

Chandler, that would be awesome. Auburn had a pretty active program a few years back and is well situated to have a good team. We'll be hosting tournaments at South Carolina next year and Columbia is, by southeastern quizbowl standards, pretty close to AU. Also, if you get things going and decide to host something, I'd be happy to help. My wife Bryn and I moderate at events throughout the southeast and would greatly enjoy a trip to the plains.

They currently have a "club," but they aren't active. The amount of things Auburn is able to attend will most likely depend on their funding/monetary standing, so we'll see! I'll be sure to contact you if we do end up hosting something.

Please revive this club, keep it going, and HOST THINGS when you get a chance. The south needs more hosts of events. If you don't have enough money to go places, host things. It works.

I could never have imagined how enthusiastic people are about the possibility of quizbowl at Auburn. I spoke with someone from UF this past weekend at SSNCT (I can't recall his name, but some of you in the college circuit may know him), and he raved about how badly quizbowl needed to be revived at Auburn, and said that it was a very central location to host things in the South. This year as a senior, we hosted for the first time ever at Good Hope, and I coordinated both tournaments and directed the first one, all with a first-year head coach with no prior quizbowl experience, although he was very enthusiastic and helpful. So, I at least have some experience hosting and I would like to host some higher level things such as Penn Bowl, which I don't think I'll be good enough to play in as a Freshman anyways. I would prefer to play in the more introductory/novice level tournaments. I would also like to help improve the high school scene in South Alabama, which is close to nonexistant outside of one regular difficulty tournament per year (hosted at LAMP) south of Birmingham. There are several A-set tournaments every year in the Southern half of the state, but it was possible for Good Hope to play every single set NAQT produced this year without ever driving South of Tuscaloosa or North of Huntsville.

Incidentally, you can add Purdue to the map, please. The team exists and is growing.