Mountain West Collegiate Quizbowl

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Mountain West Collegiate Quizbowl

Post by dreamchaser »

I'm from the University of New Mexico, and I've been considering starting a collegiate quizbowl team. However, it seems that's there's few other collegiate quizbowl teams in the Mountain West? From the Quizbowl directory of four-year colleges in North America and the ACF contact list of teams who attend their tournaments, it seems that Arizona State, Brigham Young, Colorado, Colorado State, New Mexico State, and University of Texas - El Paso are possibly active colleges, although I'm not sure whether they are currently active. Does anyone know the status of these teams?

I feel like in general, the sporadic activity of collegiate teams in the Mountain West could be solved if there could be a Mountain West collegiate ecosystem, which would help facilitate competitions. If most of the large state universities in the Mountain West (e.g. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Colorado State, UNLV, UT El Paso, Utah, Utah State, New Mexico, New Mexico State, plus nearby Texas Tech) were active, its more likely that we could hold tournaments more easily, even with long distances involved. Thoughts?
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Re: Mountain West Collegiate Quizbowl

Post by Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!! »

Hello! Great to hear that you're starting a team out there and welcome to the forums!

One of the few benefits of the last two years is that it's pretty standard for tournaments to have online sites via Zoom or Discord. I know a lot of teams benefitted from this because getting travel is a pretty big barrier to getting to tournaments - especially out west with big travel times.

We're starting to get into the end of the typical collegiate season with Nationals coming soon, and what online tournaments are left are a bit more difficult than what I'd recommend a new team to play. Starting in the Fall semester though, you'll have a lot of intro-difficulty level tournaments like ACF Fall to play.

I can't really speak for the status of the colleges you're looking for out there since I don't have many connections out there, but I do recognize Arizona State, Colorado, Colorado State, and Texas Tech from stats reports in the past couple years.

If you need help starting the club, figuring out finances, getting people to come to practice, signing up for tournaments, etc, be sure to check out the other threads on the forum. Also, feel free to DM me/ask here if you have more specific questions - I helped start my club when I was at college and so I'd be happy to provide what resources I can. Welcome to the community!!
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Re: Mountain West Collegiate Quizbowl

Post by dreamchaser »

Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!! wrote: Mon Mar 14, 2022 1:06 pm Hello! Great to hear that you're starting a team out there and welcome to the forums!

One of the few benefits of the last two years is that it's pretty standard for tournaments to have online sites via Zoom or Discord. I know a lot of teams benefitted from this because getting travel is a pretty big barrier to getting to tournaments - especially out west with big travel times.

We're starting to get into the end of the typical collegiate season with Nationals coming soon, and what online tournaments are left are a bit more difficult than what I'd recommend a new team to play. Starting in the Fall semester though, you'll have a lot of intro-difficulty level tournaments like ACF Fall to play.

I can't really speak for the status of the colleges you're looking for out there since I don't have many connections out there, but I do recognize Arizona State, Colorado, Colorado State, and Texas Tech from stats reports in the past couple years.

If you need help starting the club, figuring out finances, getting people to come to practice, signing up for tournaments, etc, be sure to check out the other threads on the forum. Also, feel free to DM me/ask here if you have more specific questions - I helped start my club when I was at college and so I'd be happy to provide what resources I can. Welcome to the community!!
Thanks for the welcome!

Having tournaments through Zoom or Discord would be more convenient, but I have to say that in-person tournaments are still an amazing experience, and I've been thinking of having them whenever possible (following public health mandates and encouraging social distancing and masks). However, I admit there are still issues with distances in the Mountain West.

I'm somewhat interested in having "pre-pre-season" competitions, perhaps setting up scrimmages or local collegiate competitions for the Mountain West, although I admit I lack experience in setting up tournaments. Do you have any thoughts on this?

I'll be reaching out to surrounding university quizbowl teams to see if they're active. If you happen to have better or more recent contacts than in the ACF contact list, let me know!

I'll be sure to check the other threads on the forum. Thanks for the info.
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Re: Mountain West Collegiate Quizbowl

Post by cchiego »

There appears to be an active team at the University of Utah. UTEP and New Mexico State would be a good base for a Rio Grande Valley Circuit if they still remain active.

The main challenge for New Mexico is that there seems to be basically no all-subject academic competitions outside of perhaps some "Knowledge Bowls" (not sure if these involve buzzers) on the reservations in the Northwest. Science Bowl seems to be more dominant. Thus, it could be hard to recruit a collegiate team at UNM, much less at other colleges. You might try contacting Jason Zuffranieri at Albuquerque Academy to see if you could put the word out through Science Bowl alumni/graduating seniors at local colleges.

The Texas Panhandle (and thus Texas Tech/West Texas A&M) has a similar challenge: Lubbock is a powerhouse in Academic Decathlon and UIL/AcaDec seem to dominate that area. At least the El Paso area has a local quizbowl TV show and circuit that keeps that area vibrant. Outside of that, it's a long way to anything else except maybe some Knowledge Bowl circuits in the ancient AUK homeland of Durango.
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Re: Mountain West Collegiate Quizbowl

Post by dreamchaser »

cchiego wrote: Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:08 pm There appears to be an active team at the University of Utah. UTEP and New Mexico State would be a good base for a Rio Grande Valley Circuit if they still remain active.

The main challenge for New Mexico is that there seems to be basically no all-subject academic competitions outside of perhaps some "Knowledge Bowls" (not sure if these involve buzzers) on the reservations in the Northwest. Science Bowl seems to be more dominant. Thus, it could be hard to recruit a collegiate team at UNM, much less at other colleges. You might try contacting Jason Zuffranieri at Albuquerque Academy to see if you could put the word out through Science Bowl alumni/graduating seniors at local colleges.

The Texas Panhandle (and thus Texas Tech/West Texas A&M) has a similar challenge: Lubbock is a powerhouse in Academic Decathlon and UIL/AcaDec seem to dominate that area. At least the El Paso area has a local quizbowl TV show and circuit that keeps that area vibrant. Outside of that, it's a long way to anything else except maybe some Knowledge Bowl circuits in the ancient AUK homeland of Durango.
To clarify, when you're talking about Knowledge Bowls, Science Bowl, and Academic Decathlon, are they all high school programs? It seems that there's no collegiate equivalent, so maybe you could have alumni from these subject academic competitions to "see" collegiate ACF/NAQT as a natural continuation? Admittedly, there may be gaps in humanities, social science, and geography, but I think its plausible to create a Science Bowl to collegiate ACF/NAQT pipeline or UIL/Acadec to collegiate ACF/NAQT pipeline, and maybe even introduce high school level NAQT locally.

A Rio Grande circuit consisting of New Mexico, New Mexico State, and UTEP would be ideal, although I'm also looking into the possibility of New Mexico Tech and Texas Tech joining in to make a New Mexico - West Texas circuit. Participating in competitions held by Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, or even Colorado State might be possible, although the greater distances may be an issue.
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Re: Mountain West Collegiate Quizbowl

Post by cchiego »

To clarify, when you're talking about Knowledge Bowls, Science Bowl, and Academic Decathlon, are they all high school programs? It seems that there's no collegiate equivalent, so maybe you could have alumni from these subject academic competitions to "see" collegiate ACF/NAQT as a natural continuation? Admittedly, there may be gaps in humanities, social science, and geography, but I think its plausible to create a Science Bowl to collegiate ACF/NAQT pipeline or UIL/Acadec to collegiate ACF/NAQT pipeline, and maybe even introduce high school level NAQT locally.
Yeah those are basically HS-only. The issue with UIL/Acadec is that those competitions are based on very specific/narrow curricula, so while there might be some overlap in terms of "people interested in studying for academic competitions" there's a big difference between taking tests on a very specific subject and doing quizbowl on that subject. You can certainly mention those in advertising on-campus though.

Honestly, at most schools, the challenge is simply drumming up enough interest to actually form a team and then running a logistically competent club that can survive beyond one year. Getting a balanced team and focusing on effectively studying is another step up the hierarchy of quizbowl team needs. Recruitment is always tough, especially for a newly established team, so be prepared for a lot of attrition between the first informational meeting and the end of your first semester (and always keep advertising the club in as many venues/listservs as possible).
A Rio Grande circuit consisting of New Mexico, New Mexico State, and UTEP would be ideal, although I'm also looking into the possibility of New Mexico Tech and Texas Tech joining in to make a New Mexico - West Texas circuit. Participating in competitions held by Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, or even Colorado State might be possible, although the greater distances may be an issue.
Setting up a local circuit that includes a variety of schools from a flagship state school to local regional Us and even community colleges could be great, but it's also tricky to balance the degree of difficulty of the questions and competitions then. You may be interested in looking at something like the Kentucky Collegiate Quick Recall League setup given the likely mixing of a variety of schools at multiple levels. The directional (Eastern, Western, Northern, etc.) state schools in NM could be good to look at as well to expand the geographic options, though it looks like UNM and NMSU have the vast majority of students in the state and so establishing strong teams at both of those schools seems like a top priority. Definitely makes sense to reach out to every school (the student activities offices might be one starting point, but also look at honors programs as well) multiple times and see what response you can get.
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Re: Mountain West Collegiate Quizbowl

Post by Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!! »

dreamchaser wrote: Mon Mar 14, 2022 4:17 pm Thanks for the welcome!

Having tournaments through Zoom or Discord would be more convenient, but I have to say that in-person tournaments are still an amazing experience, and I've been thinking of having them whenever possible (following public health mandates and encouraging social distancing and masks). However, I admit there are still issues with distances in the Mountain West.

I'm somewhat interested in having "pre-pre-season" competitions, perhaps setting up scrimmages or local collegiate competitions for the Mountain West, although I admit I lack experience in setting up tournaments. Do you have any thoughts on this?
Chris has done a good job talking about local contacts, so I'd thought I'd provide a few thoughts on this!

I'm definitely in the same boat as you with in-person tournaments. At Iowa, we were at least 3 and a half hours away from places like St. Louis or Chicago where there were tournaments, and we'd get up early or stay the night before to make those events.

A big thing to look into before traveling or hosting is cost. Some schools help cover the cost of travel and registration to varying degrees. Without this, quiz bowl can get expensive especially if you're a starting club. At Iowa, we could get our registration paid for, but normally had to pay out of pocket for gas and hotels, which stunk. I'd recommend seeing what options your university offers for sponsored organizations to see how you can go about this.

As for scrimmages and later tournament hosting, I think this is a great idea! I know a couple of regions have Discord servers where they talk and hold shout-outs between teams. It may be tough to get people to travel for scrimmages, but when it comes to new tournaments next year, I don't think that should be an issue.

I'd recommend before worrying too much about outreach to nearby schools that you should grow out your club first by getting active people. There are some good threads on how to do this, but in general, I recommend cutting a balance between getting used to the somewhat hard and academic nature of quiz bowl and then having fun - either by changing up what questions you do, doing fun things together as a club, etc.

Once you have a solid base, I think it would be good to then use some time and energy to see what other schools are up to and organize competitions. Tournament directing has a thread or two of its own (or perhaps needs a new good thread with tips), but there's a lot of people who would be happy to help you set things up by the time those tournaments come around.
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Re: Mountain West Collegiate Quizbowl

Post by haakonChevalier »

As far as I know the only team that has existed at Colorado State consisted of me and a couple of my friends who were dual-enrolled there during high school. I would not expect there to be any type of club that hosts or attends tournaments there in the foreseeable future. Good luck though, the distances between schools in the mountain west make putting things together very difficult.
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Re: Mountain West Collegiate Quizbowl

Post by dreamchaser »

cchiego wrote: Tue Mar 15, 2022 1:37 amYeah those are basically HS-only. The issue with UIL/Acadec is that those competitions are based on very specific/narrow curricula, so while there might be some overlap in terms of "people interested in studying for academic competitions" there's a big difference between taking tests on a very specific subject and doing quizbowl on that subject. You can certainly mention those in advertising on-campus though.

Honestly, at most schools, the challenge is simply drumming up enough interest to actually form a team and then running a logistically competent club that can survive beyond one year. Getting a balanced team and focusing on effectively studying is another step up the hierarchy of quizbowl team needs. Recruitment is always tough, especially for a newly established team, so be prepared for a lot of attrition between the first informational meeting and the end of your first semester (and always keep advertising the club in as many venues/listservs as possible).
Thanks for the advice. I'll keep that in mind when starting the club.
cchiego wrote: Tue Mar 15, 2022 1:37 amSetting up a local circuit that includes a variety of schools from a flagship state school to local regional Us and even community colleges could be great, but it's also tricky to balance the degree of difficulty of the questions and competitions then. You may be interested in looking at something like the Kentucky Collegiate Quick Recall League setup given the likely mixing of a variety of schools at multiple levels. The directional (Eastern, Western, Northern, etc.) state schools in NM could be good to look at as well to expand the geographic options, though it looks like UNM and NMSU have the vast majority of students in the state and so establishing strong teams at both of those schools seems like a top priority. Definitely makes sense to reach out to every school (the student activities offices might be one starting point, but also look at honors programs as well) multiple times and see what response you can get.
I'll look into contacting directional state schools and possibly community colleges in NM as well.
Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!! wrote: Tue Mar 15, 2022 10:17 am A big thing to look into before traveling or hosting is cost. Some schools help cover the cost of travel and registration to varying degrees. Without this, quiz bowl can get expensive especially if you're a starting club. At Iowa, we could get our registration paid for, but normally had to pay out of pocket for gas and hotels, which stunk. I'd recommend seeing what options your university offers for sponsored organizations to see how you can go about this.
I'll look into this, thanks for the advice.
Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!! wrote: Tue Mar 15, 2022 10:17 amAs for scrimmages and later tournament hosting, I think this is a great idea! I know a couple of regions have Discord servers where they talk and hold shout-outs between teams. It may be tough to get people to travel for scrimmages, but when it comes to new tournaments next year, I don't think that should be an issue.
I'm somewhat interested in holding early regional novice tournaments, especially to help build up experience for new teams in the area, although this is dependent on if there are other teams in the area that come up and how early members are willing to have tournaments (this summer? or only the fall?)
Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!! wrote: Tue Mar 15, 2022 10:17 amI'd recommend before worrying too much about outreach to nearby schools that you should grow out your club first by getting active people. There are some good threads on how to do this, but in general, I recommend cutting a balance between getting used to the somewhat hard and academic nature of quiz bowl and then having fun - either by changing up what questions you do, doing fun things together as a club, etc.

Once you have a solid base, I think it would be good to then use some time and energy to see what other schools are up to and organize competitions. Tournament directing has a thread or two of its own (or perhaps needs a new good thread with tips), but there's a lot of people who would be happy to help you set things up by the time those tournaments come around.
I feel that the viability of quizbowl at UNM, or really most universities in the Mountain West, is dependent on other teams springing up in nearby schools at the same time. Essentially, I think that a New Mexico and West Texas regional quizbowl organization needs to form where scrimmages and tournaments can be coordinated, or else efforts at any one school in the area would peter out. I don't think it's possible to have a solid base without established, scheduled regional competition, and thus I don't think intramural competition is especially helpful in establishing a club.
haakonChevalier wrote: Tue Mar 15, 2022 6:31 pm As far as I know the only team that has existed at Colorado State consisted of me and a couple of my friends who were dual-enrolled there during high school. I would not expect there to be any type of club that hosts or attends tournaments there in the foreseeable future. Good luck though, the distances between schools in the mountain west make putting things together very difficult.
Thanks. In light of long distances in the Mountain West, I'll probably be focusing on novice regional tournaments between large state universities in New Mexico and West Texas, and go from there. If there's the opportunity to compete against teams farther away (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, or Colorado State), I'd definitely be for it, but I admit long travel times (even to compete with NMSU or UTEP) may be unattractive to potential newcomers.
Last edited by dreamchaser on Wed Mar 16, 2022 7:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mountain West Collegiate Quizbowl

Post by castrioti »

My heart always leaps up when I see evidence of Quiz Bowl activity in the Intermountain Region, but it always seems to be a false start. BYU was active before I started playing a long time ago at Occidental (1998), and then got a big boost from Ryan Cooper from James Island only to be defunded the next year because, evidently, people on the team were bringing their families along to the tournaments and blowing their budget sky-high (others may elaborate or have more specific knowledge). The one appearance from Colorado that I know of was a much earlier transplant from back east who still wanted to play (only one year on a one-man team). ASU was a regular at Southern California tournaments (and still is, on-again, off-again).

When the Pacific Northwest had a decent circuit in the late 1990s, I remember a few appearances for a few years from the University of Montana, which stopped showing up when their driver lost his vehicle. I played on a hybrid team at that time from someone from Las Vegas at Scripps who claimed there was Quiz Bowl in high school there, and two from Idaho at UCSB who claimed to play in high school. I kept a list of active high schools at the time that I could find, man there sure weren't many. Others have discussed what the false-hope generating packets I've seen in recent years from places like Colorado State really were.

NAQT has made inroads at the high school level, so things should improve, but now that I've lived in this region for a while, I know it will always have the following drawbacks at the college level:

1: Population and college density per square mile is low.
2: Teams, indeed players who know about them, are few and far between.
3: Distances are prohibitive. Say BYU re-spawned and hosted a tournament--the nearest schools that could attend are 500 miles away minimum.
4: The Rockies have always been a CBI stronghold, and in more than one instance student unions that I am aware of suppressed academic teams ("team" might mean a single person that just wanted to play under the school name in this instance) that tried to compete in other formats. Why more haven't taken up with NAQT after the demise of CBI? I blame the immense distances--your choices are Iowa or California if you are in school in Colorado. Six on one, half dozen the other. They're getting a late start, if at all.

I sincerely wish you well. Don't lose the will to play, even if you travel alone to Texas or California. It will be hard at first, but the experience will turn you into a great player if you keep up at it. I was accepted into the University of Arizona for a Ph.D. research program, but haven't been able to figure out tuition funding, and can't defer another semester--I'd play again if I could figure it out, I even have my own buzzer system, but it's getting more and more bleak.

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Re: Mountain West Collegiate Quizbowl

Post by ezubaric »

The one appearance from Colorado that I know of was a much earlier transplant from back east who still wanted to play (only one year on a one-man team).
Not true! Here's the NAQT stat page:
https://www.naqt.com/stats/school/resul ... g_id=65254
They also went to several non-NAQT events.

I worked hard to build a high school and college circuit while I was faculty at Colorado. However, after I returned to UMD, things kinda petered out. But there's a buzzer system and an account, which is better than many other places.
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Re: Mountain West Collegiate Quizbowl

Post by TheEconomizer »

Are you still interested? I live next to UNM and maybe I can help.
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