The State of Good Quiz Bowl, State-by-State, 2025 Edition
Posted: Wed May 14, 2025 10:13 pm
Chris Chiego’s 2015 and 2017 posts on this subject are some of my all-time favorite content on this website. They’re a fantastic introduction to where quiz bowl was at in the mid-2010s, and a great way to learn some of the quirks and differences between regional formats.
Since it’s now been a full decade since the first of those posts (and the state of quiz bowl has changed a good bit, especially due to COVID), I’ve (with Chris’ permission) put together an updated 2025 edition. If you haven’t read the old versions before, I encourage you to at least skim them, as they provide valuable background knowledge (and in some states where things have greatly changed, a peek back in time).
I’m going to use the same grading scale Chris did:
I’ve done my best to research each state’s quiz bowl scene, but I undoubtedly missed things. Please feel free to respond below if you have information that I don’t.
Alabama: A (up from A- in 2017)
There have been some cosmetic changes (new tournament hosts, new teams like Cyber Tech popping up, format tweaks at the state level), but Alabama’s quiz bowl scene is still humming along much as it did last decade. The ASCA continues to run a well-organized district-and-state-tournament series with exceptional rural outreach, and there are plenty of leagues, conferences, and Saturday tournaments throughout the state. The ACBL network of community colleges has proven especially valuable as hosts, and Robin Osborne deserves tremendous commendation for her work bringing in professional sponsorships and scholarship/prize money.
For Alabama to take the next step, I’d like to see increased participation in Saturday tournaments. Many of the rural schools only play 4-5 games at a single Friday night district tournament each year, and even the “plugged-in” teams often have to seek out online tournaments for sets (particularly mACF ones) not mirrored locally. I’d also like to see single-elim fully retired, as many tournaments (including the state championship) still use either straight single-elim or single-elim into a best-of-three final.
Alaska: D- (no change from 2017)
The advent of online tournaments post-COVID has made the prospect of Alaska teams a lot more feasible. Unfortunately, nothing seems to have come of it yet. I suspect this will continue until either someone from Alaska discovers quiz bowl on their own or (more likely) an active community member ends up there and makes an effort to start something.
Arizona: D (down from C in 2017)
I was incredibly saddened to discover that the Arizona high school circuit appears to have died, with zero tournaments taking place in the Grand Canyon State this year (not even the Sunnyslope Mindsoon, which appears to have been an oddly-formatted ROTC event but ran faithfully for many years and even drew double-digit fields at its peak).
At least two teams (Herberger and Brophy College Prep) are still playing online tournaments, but most of Herberger’s team is about to graduate and Brophy isn’t as active as they used to be. Does anyone know why Arizona’s strongest teams (Corona del Sol, Hamilton, BASIS Scottsdale) all collapsed out of the blue? The more I research this, the more I’m baffled-all three of those schools were regulars at xNCTs, making playoff runs and fielding very deep rosters circa 2019. Obviously COVID would have impacted them, but they each faithfully played Arizona State’s tournaments into 2022-23, then stopped attending.
It appears that fields were steadily decreasing (ASU’s last tournament, in February 2023, drew only four teams), which seems surprising considering this timeline coincides with the revival of the ASU team on the collegiate circuit. Either way, it would appear that Arizona should be a priority outreach target, given its strong history and the experienced hosts at ASU.
Arkansas: D+ (up from F in 2017)
The state once dubbed “Quiz Bowl Iran” has experienced something of a minor renaissance recently. What began with a few teams exploring online tournaments over COVID has expanded into a pair of NAQT tournaments and appearances by Arkansans at IPNCT, SSNCT, and HSNCT. As regular users of this forum likely know, many of the state’s current top players are aware of pyramidal and have begun advocating for long-needed improvements in question quality, which have been somewhat answered by the LIQBA’s entry into the question-provisioning market.
It’s going to be a long road. Reading through the Arkansas thread, it appears that standard practice for invitationals there is for hosts to write their own questions (!) and playoffs to be single-elim (!!) seeded by as few as three randomly assigned prelim games (!!!). Given the size and history of the Arkansas QB circuit, there’s going to be some serious inertia that’ll need to be broken through for a full-fledged pyramidal circuit to develop, to say nothing of the silly rules about lugging around reference books and whatever else.
For the first time in a long while, though, there is hope for Arkansas.
California: C (down from B in 2017)
There are strong circuits in San Diego and the Bay Area (the latter being buoyed by its robust middle school scene), but California overall is a disappointment considering its size and population. In particular, the lack of anything in the entire Los Angeles metro area outside of Santa Monica and Arcadia making trips to San Diego is unacceptable. The UCLA, USC, and Claremont teams have all either been reactivated or grown in size since 2017. It seems like there might be an opportunity for one of them to run a novice tournament targeting Academic Decathlon teams or whatever else the current activity of choice is in LA.
Both SoCal and NorCal could probably do with some more institutional backing, as SoCal especially seems very student-led and both regions feature teams frequently popping in and out of existence as players graduate. San Diego and the Bay Area would each receive an A if they were graded independently, so the state’s overall poor grade isn’t on the fantastic people doing good work in those places, but I can’t justify anything better than a C given all the wasted potential elsewhere in the Golden State.
Colorado: C (up from C- in 2017)
Knowledge Bowl continues to dominate the Centennial State, but the rays of good quiz bowl are beginning to shine over the Rocky Mountains as much as they ever have. We’re now up to three annual pyramidal tournaments (plus a TV show that introduced some of them to NAQT questions, though it now seems to have changed providers to an unknown source) and a small handful of consistent nationals attendees. I hope to see those numbers continue to tick upward!
Connecticut: C+ (no change from 2017)
The short-lived Connecticut Quiz Bowl Alliance had some success with a Connecticut-specific tournament, but now that it’s no longer around Connecticut has largely been reduced to feeding the New York and New England circuits. Fortunately, the Nutmeg State is pretty good at that, given its proximity to both New York and Boston. While researching, I was reminded of the joint IAC-LIQBA Tri-State Quiz Bowl Alliance, which launched a fantastically professional website… that has already gone out of date within a year.
It’s great that Connecticut teams can attend other Northeast tournaments, but the lack of any centralized body or annual competition means that (non-Darien) teams tend to pop in and out of existence as players come and go.
Delaware: D+ (no change from 2017)
Wilmington Charter and Tower Hill both played full schedules in Maryland and Pennsylvania, but therein lies the extent of quiz bowl in Delaware right now. There obviously isn’t much to work with, and perhaps a D+ is overly harsh given Wilmington is basically just a suburb of Philadelphia, but I’d like to see some sort of championship or at least a tournament hosted within the state borders.
Florida: C (down from C+ in 2017)
Florida’s quiz bowl scene is fractured due to the state’s size, but UF has done a solid job of putting together a state championship that draws teams from every region. Central Florida appears to have backslid and there was only one South Florida tournament this year, but the new tournaments in Gainesville fit in nicely with the existing activity in Jacksonville and the panhandle. Unfortunately, the dominant academic competition in Florida continues to be the bizarre Commissioner’s Academic Challenge, which seems to be some form of quiz bowl without buzzers played by teams representing counties (or something).
The uptick in teams attending pyramidal tournaments and nationals is encouraging, but Florida (especially Central and South Florida) remains badly in need of more activity. It’d be really cool if the FCSAA community colleges (which form the best-organized and most active community college circuit in the country) were able to host tournaments in the underserved areas.
[b]Georgia:[/b] B+ (up from B in 2017)
Georgia continues to boast a state organization that offers three regular season tournaments and a state championship, each with large fields and significant participation from all areas of the state. There are also plenty of independent invitationals, a number of local leagues, and a separate state championship for small, private religious schools. A lot of the smaller, rural schools do tend to stick to their local competitions, but the presence of HSNCT in Atlanta has drawn a few of them.
My biggest frustration with Georgia right now is that the GATA tournaments use single-elim (even at the state championships where it’s completely unnecessary and actively screws teams out of titles) and don’t keep individual stats. Flagship tournaments in a state with as large a quiz bowl presence as Georgia should be doing better than that.
Hawaii: D- (down from D in 2017)
As far as I can tell, there hasn’t been any quiz bowl activity in Hawaii since Iolani played a single online tournament over COVID. Fred Morlan attempted to run a Hawaii outreach tournament last year, but had to cancel due to a lack of interest. Again, given the uptick in online tournaments post-COVID, there’s new potential for Hawaiian teams should any be interested.
Idaho: B- (up from C in 2017)
Like the rest of the Mountain West, Idaho remains hampered by the long distances between population centers. 2024-25 was the Gem State’s best season in at least a few years, with four tournaments drawing a total of eight schools from both the Boise area and Northern Idaho. Additionally, Boise is slated to be the first Idaho team at HSNCT in (I believe) a full decade. I’m grading on a curve here, but I think Idaho’s doing pretty darn well with what they’ve got (and their grade will go up further if and when teams stop attending the NAC).
Illinois: A+ (up from A in 2017)
There are certainly improvements that could be made to Illinois quiz bowl; there are plenty of leagues and tournaments that don’t keep full stats or use suboptimal formats, but there’s just so much good quiz bowl in the Land of Lincoln that I think Illinois deserves an A+. Scholastic Bowl, as they call it, is treated as a sport by the high school athletic association, several hundred schools (a sizable plurality, if not a majority, of high schools in Illinois) have teams, and most play in conferences that offer 10, 20, or even 30 matches a season. Additionally, Saturday tournaments are plentiful at all difficulties in all regions. My understanding is that the “official” (non-NAQT) state championship has some quirks, but they are more than made up for by the logistical benefits the IHSSBCA brings to the table.
It’d be cool to see more teams within Chicago itself, as well as more consistent statkeeping and (as always) more teams playing Saturday tournaments and not just their conference matches. There are always ways to improve, but Illinois can be held up as an example of what every other state should be working toward.
Indiana: B- (up from C- in 2017)
I am so, so incredibly proud of how far Indiana has come in just the last few years. What was once a “quiz bowl wasteland” and Chipbowl stronghold has been transformed into, in my admittedly biased opinion, one of the better-organized pyramidal circuits in the Midwest. All of the traditionally-nonpyramidal leagues save one (the notorious WRAL) have been flipped to NAQT, and we’ve been peeling 1-2 teams off of WRAL each year since I’ve been at Purdue. Interest in Saturday tournaments has skyrocketed so much that Purdue has gone from hosting one 10-18 team tournament to three 24+ team tournaments each year, to say nothing of the fantastic work Carmel and Herron have done in hosting events in the Indianapolis area.
The real game changer was bringing the Indiana Association of School Principals (IASP) on board in 2019 to sponsor regional tournaments and the state championship. IASP’s commitment to outreach in new areas and pivoting online over COVID (during which time the Chipbowl tournaments largely went inactive) have been invaluable in growing Indiana quiz bowl. There’s plenty more work to be done (one side effect of the sudden explosion of teams has been a severe shortage of experienced tournament hosts and staffers outside of Purdue), but Indiana has taken the first steps on a roadmap it did not even possess back in 2017.
Iowa: B- (up from C+ in 2017)
Iowa continues to grow, slowly but surely. The IQBL is one of the better state organizations out there, with an up-to-date website and a nice slate of pyramidal offerings throughout the year. Their large Fall and Winter tournaments each have three regional sites that draw in teams from all over the state, although the smattering of local conferences appears to have died down a bit if the NAQT results page is to be believed.
Unfortunately, there is apparently still Chipbowl afoot in the Hawkeye State, as a whopping six teams attended last year’s NAC. I’m also disappointed to see that IQBL tournaments (even the state championship) only seem to offer teams six games, even though the field sizes are small and could easily accommodate 8-10 game formats.
Kansas: F (no change from 2017)
In contrast to Arkansas’ White Revolution, the “North Korea of quiz bowl” remains firmly steeped in Juche. Occasionally a Kansas team will pop up at a Missouri or Oklahoma tournament, or a tournament will use NAQT speedchecks, but aside from a middle school league that managed to use all four NAQT MS sets in such a way that no team played more than 12 games, there doesn’t seem to have been any pyramidal activity out of the Sunflower State this year.
Kentucky: C+ (no change from 2017)
The QB-adjacent Governor’s Cup reigns supreme in the Bluegrass State, but actual quiz bowl is still running solidly as well. Kentucky has long been a hot spot for small school activity and it has a nice schedule of tournaments, though a frustrating majority of teams still treat it as a side show to KAAC Quick Recall. One interesting thing I’ve noticed about Kentucky is that there seems to be a higher rate of strong female players than in other states, which may be a product of KAAC’s subject-specific competitions.
Louisiana: B (no change from 2017)
When we left Louisiana in 2017, they were suffering through a confusing disagreement among various factions as to the best way to move forward. I’m not entirely sure how that ended, but Louisiana does sport a sizable pyramidal circuit today, which is great to see. Unfortunately, the Pelican State appears to still be harboring Chipbowl as well, with a whopping ten Louisiana teams attending the most recent NAC. A number of Louisiana tournaments also appear to use odd formats that can result in multiple teams finishing undefeated, especially at the middle school level (are the playoffs just not being reported for some reason?).
Maine: B- (up from D- in 2017)
Nic Pruitt’s arrival in 2021 finally got Maine off the shnide, and its fledgling circuit is beginning to sprout wings, with 2024-25 marking its fourth year. There were only three in-state tournaments, but a number of teams made treks down into Massachusetts to fill their ledgers. No Chipbowl to speak of either, which is obviously a plus but also makes the number of brand-new teams all the more impressive. I’m grading on a curve again, but considering the lack of history and resources in the Pine Tree State they have earned the most improved ranking since 2017.
Maryland: C+ (down from B- in 2017)
Maryland has to be considered in the context of the overall DMV circuit, which is of course quite strong. Given the number of top teams, though, I’m honestly pretty disappointed there aren’t more tournaments. Johns Hopkins is doing great work hosting three invitationals, and Centennial and Georgetown each chipped in one, but that appears to be it for Maryland quiz bowl this year. Considering that each of those five events drew sizable fields (including a disproportionate number of nationally relevant teams), there certainly seems to be enough interest to warrant more tournaments.
Are there barriers to hosting in the DMV region that I’m not aware of? Regardless, the lack of actual quiz bowl (there doesn’t seem to be any sort of state organization or even an NAQT State Championship) combined with the stubborn presence of It’s Academic means Maryland’s grade is dropping. DMV teams should not be having to seek out online mirrors of highly-played sets just to fill their calendars.
Massachusetts: B (up from C+ in 2017)
Many of the premier Massachusetts tournaments from the last edition of this post (eg, HFT) are no longer around, but their void has been admirably filled by the most prolific tournament host this side of Greg Bossick. I am, of course, talking about Andrew Gao, who I personally think should win this year’s Ben Cooper Young Ambassador Award. Andrew has run a whopping four in person tournaments (over half of this year’s Massachusetts schedule) as a sophomore in high school, to say nothing of his online tournaments (three so far this year) and other contributions (at least two good regs sets, a snazzy tournament hub spreadsheet, etc.).
I’d love to see some more hosts step in (and some, such as Lexington and Harvard, have), but Massachusetts quiz bowl is in a solid spot. I see new team names seemingly every time I look at the results of a Boston-area tournament, and the LIQBA’s Mayflower Cup provides a state championship series.
Michigan: A- (up from B+ in 2017)
Too many Michigan teams are still stuck in local leagues of questionable quality, but the overall circuit is healthy enough to warrant a bump. Most notably, the state championship (which was waffling toward nonpyramidal back in 2017) has been impressively reformed through great cooperation between Michigan and Michigan State, with Michigan taking the large schools and MSU the smaller ones. Tournaments are plentiful throughout the state (there could always be more in the remote areas, but when will that ever not be the case), and plenty of Michigan teams patronize good national tournaments with very few still attending NAC.
Minnesota: C+ (no change from 2017)
Minnesota continues to be an enigma, with a strong pyramidal circuit in the Twin Cities but a truly horrific amount of Knowledge Bowl around the rest of the state. Unfortunately, Knowledge Bowl is so disparate from good quiz bowl (most notably, the buzzers are entirely incompatible) that reform will be difficult. In the short term, I think the best way to make progress is to work within the system and try to get on a pyramidal or at least semi-pyramidal question provider while trying to get teams to see the benefits of QB with outreach tournaments. If I end up moving back to Minnesota after graduating college, I may take on MN Knowledge Bowl as my next outreach project, but I think my home state will prove a much tougher nut to crack than Indiana did.
As far as the actual quiz bowl circuit goes, Erik Nelson and Play Quiz Bowl have replaced R. and MQBA but otherwise things are much as they were in 2017: plenty of teams, plenty of tournaments, rather a bit too much single-elim, but overall a strong community given the geographic isolation from the rest of the quiz bowl world.
Mississippi: C (no change from 2017)
Things were interrupted by COVID, but Mississippi has recovered back to pretty much where they were in 2017. Considering that the Magnolia State usually appears near the bottom when ranking states by their schools, it’s really nice to see a bit of quiz bowl activity there. Props to Itawamba for consistently hosting quality tournaments (including the state championship), and to Lafayette for starting multiple tournaments in only their second year on good questions.
Considering that the two Ole Miss tournaments consistently draw the largest fields (including a number of out of state teams), it’d be really cool if they started using standard rebracketed formats instead of single/double-elim (in which some teams drive in from hours away only to go home after just two games)! It appears that these tournaments are run by something called the Office of Pre-College Programs and possibly not by the actual Ole Miss quiz bowl team?
Missouri: A (up from B+ in 2017)
My understanding is that there’s still pockets of bad quiz bowl, MSHSAA is still annoying (with arbitrary restrictions on how many competitions teams can play and when), and the state championship uses round robin into single-elim (sigh). All of that is why Missouri gets an A instead of an A+. All of this is why Missouri gets an A. There’s just so much quiz bowl all over the state, at a level not seen anywhere other than Illinois. Practically every set gets multiple Missouri mirrors every year, and the Show-Me state punches far above its weight at nationals (particularly SSNCT). Massive kudos to the folks at MOQBA for making it all happen.
Montana: D+ (up from D in 2017)
Sentinel’s appearance at HSNCT last year gets Big Sky a bump. If nothing else, it’s great to see that Frenchtown is still committed to hosting even as no one else seems interested. The Montana format seems quirky, with frequent byes, but at least sort of seems to resemble rebracketing and isn’t just straight single-elim.
Nebraska: C (up from D in 2017)
Yet another state that’s seen significant progress due to a new pyramidal host; in this case, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I’m not sure if the Elkhorn schools were nonpyramidal powerhouses or are entirely new to quiz bowl, but either way they’ve been quick learners. UNL only hosted one tournament this year, but the Elkhorn teams replaced that hole in their schedule by crashing an Iowa event. The Nebraska circuit is still small, fragile, and in need of more hosts (especially if UNL continues to decrease in activity), but overall in a much better place than in 2017.
Nevada: B (up from C+ in 2017)
Nevada continues to sport a small but highly organized circuit, complete with a fantastic (and up-to-date) website. LVQBA is an excellent model for building a pyramidal circuit from scratch. The Reno-area leagues are still going as well, but don’t seem interested in integrating with the rest of the quiz bowl world (presumably due to geography and driving distance).
New Hampshire: D (no change from 2017)
Not much going on in the Granite State outside of Plymouth hosting tournaments that draw teams from every nearby state but not New Hampshire itself. There is apparently a New Hampshire Quiz Bowl League, but its format appears to be speedchecks at best and features classic nonpyramidal rules like “players must be recognized before answering” and “the quiz master is the final judge on whether an answer is correct.” If I’m reading the rules correctly, it also seems that teams are allowed to confer on a tossup that’s been negged (but not if they’re the first to buzz).
I’m not sure why the nonpyramidal teams aren’t interested in Plymouth’s tournaments, but either way it seems only Plymouth and Hanover (which straddles the border with Vermont) attend good tournaments.
New Jersey: B (no change from 2017)
New Jersey has plenty of tournaments and plenty of teams, especially with the growth of the LIQBA schedule. However, we know there are lots more out there trapped in nonpyramidal formats, and it seems there was some backsliding this year where tournaments were smaller and mostly attended by the usual teams. Anecdotally, it looks like there are many teams that attended one or two tournaments, got obliterated, and never came back to pyramidal. This is a common problem in strong circuits (like California) where it’s hard for new teams to get established because they play a lot of experienced teams in noncompetitive games. The Jersey Shore Introductory Tournament drew large fields of new teams, but it didn’t run this year. For New Jersey to reach its full potential, there’s a clear need for more novice-friendly tournaments.
New Mexico: C- (up from D in 2017)
New Mexico looked like a success story, with NMSU conjuring a fledgling circuit seemingly out of thin air back in 2022 and a couple brand-new teams making treks to SSNCT and even HSNCT. It’s not quite time to sound the alarm just yet, but NMSU only sponsored one tournament in 2024-25 and it was at a high school. Is anyone from New Mexico on these forums and able to confirm whether NMSU is still planning to host more tournaments? The loss of the state’s only host would be a severe setback, though hopefully not fatal as the El Paso circuit is right nearby and New Mexico teams occasionally pop over there already.
New York: B- (no change from 2017)
NYC has a somewhat decent circuit that merges nicely with the rest of the Northeast, but is something of a disappointment considering the population density and number of schools in the area. With so many schools under one district and so close to one another, I feel like it would be relatively easy to set up some sort of league in the city. Improvements have been made in the Hudson River Valley and Long Island, with the LIQBA seeing success at introducing pyramidal to its home region. Greater NYC does remain
’s greatest redoubt, though, with a whopping 26 teams attending NAC last year. Hopefully Hastings’ runs at good national championships can inspire other Chip powerhouses to give them a try.
Outstate New York remains much as it was in 2017, with MasterMinds dominating around a few pyramidal outposts like Ithaca and Bishop Ludden. It’s great to see Syracuse hosting tournaments, and I encourage the other recently-active upstate NY teams like Binghamton and RIT to consider doing so as well!
North Carolina: B+ (up from B in 2017)
It’s been a banner year for North Carolina quiz bowl, between Smith’s MSNCT run, their alumni’s success at the Chapel Hill schools, and ECG’s rise to prominence. Excitingly, the NCASA State Championship finally recorded full statistics this year, hopefully a sign of changing times in a state whose quiz bowl scene used to be a tad sleepy. There still aren’t a ton of tournaments, which is probably why the rise in NC teams playing online tournaments this year was noticeable. If this new generation of North Carolina quiz bowlers is able to create more tournaments and pull in more teams from all corners of the state, the Tar Heel State could be on its way to an A.
North Dakota: D (up from D- in 2017)
Similar to Montana: consistent tournaments at one host on a quirky format in a sparsely populated state that had one team trek down to nationals recently (in this case, Grafton at the 2023 SSNCT). There might be potential in Fargo if any experienced coach or TD ends up there, but otherwise this is what we’ve got.
Ohio: B+ (up from B in 2017)
The Buckeye State is a little restricted by geography, with the major population centers being too far away from each other for teams to overlap more than a few times a year. Considering this and the fact that most teams default to the semipyramidal OAC, I think Ohio’s doing pretty darn well. Much of the credit for this belongs to Greg Bossick, who in my opinion is long overdue for a Cooper Award. He ran 19 events in 2024-25 alone, and his career total is surely in the hundreds. Greg’s commitment to driving all over Ohio and working with hosts to run tournaments in whatever format is best for a particular region (be it after school league, mini-tournament, full Saturday event, or anything in between) is incredible.
The biggest concern I have with Ohio is the relative lack of propagation quiz bowl has made into the big cities. There are also a few holdouts, especially at the middle school level, and I can’t justify giving an A to a state with a dominant questionable format, but Ohio is in a good spot.
Oklahoma: B- (up from C in 2017)
The Sooner State is my favorite quiz bowl state right now aside from Indiana, because there are so many parallels between the two. Traditional nonpyramidal stronghold? Check. Recent pyramidal renaissance powered by a new college team/teams hosting tournaments? Check. Brand-new or previously inactive teams rapidly making runs to prominence on their own initiative? Check. Wholesome and positive culture with rival players becoming good friends? Check (as far as I know; I’ve only ever heard good things about OKQB). Prodigy middle schooler making national noise? Check. First generation of pyramidal players graduating and powering the same school(s) that started it all? Check, check, check, check, check.
2024 Cooper Award winner Tracey Hickman has built a pyramidal circuit on top of the OSSAA, and teams like Yukon, Classen, and Morris have blasted through the door he opened. There’s still too much nonpyramidal and too many Oklahoma teams playing NAC, but this is the best Oklahoma has ever been and it all looks very sustainable. Tracey’s Murray State team, which to my knowledge is sponsored by the college as any other sport, is also a huge accomplishment for quiz bowl.
Oregon: D (no change from 2017)
Westview attended HSNCT last year, but the whole team was seniors and they haven’t played any tournaments since. Two Oregon teams played online Washington tournaments this year, but other than that there was zero quiz bowl activity in the Beaver State.
Pennsylvania: B (down from B+ in 2017)
Pennsylvania’s overall scene is pretty strong, with high levels of involvement around the state, even in the sparsely-populated central and northern regions. The Pittsburgh area is a little isolated, but consistent hosting from UPitt and Carnegie Mellon have kept it afloat. The biggest issue is that many of the leagues (and the state championship they feed into, which is held in the state capitol building) use an awkward three-team setup that doesn’t really lend itself to good rebracketing formats and reminds me of Knowledge Bowl. Unfortunately, it seems like an entrenched institution resistant to change. I also noticed that the Philadelphia city championship stopped running after 2022, taking away a number of inner-city teams’ only competition. If anyone in the Philly area is able to put something like that back together, it seems like a worthy cause.
Rhode Island: D- (down from D in 2017)
Aside from Massachusetts high school teams playing college tournaments at Brown, there doesn’t seem to have been any high school activity in the Ocean State since Barrington went inactive in 2020. Brown attempted to host a tournament this year (which would have been the first ever in Rhode Island), but had to cancel due to a lack of interest.
South Carolina: B (up from B- in 2018)
Things are much the same as they were in 2017: a strong circuit in the Greenville-Columbia-Augusta triangle and isolated leagues on the Atlantic Coast. Given that the drive inland isn’t super bad and coastal SC teams have developed a habit of playing NCTs out of nowhere, I’m inclined to suspect there’s some Chipbowl going on out there, too, especially at the middle school level. It’s encouraging to see those teams (eg, Wando, Academic Magnet) seeking out pyramidal, and they’ve done pretty well for themselves. The Palmetto State seems stable and a candidate for an increased grade as the circuit consolidates.
South Dakota: D- (down from C- in 2017)
The long-running Siouxper Bowl tournament unfortunately did not survive COVID, leaving South Dakota without any good quiz bowl presence. One Sioux Falls team attended NAC last year, so Chipbowl is apparently still around. South Dakota is a great candidate for outreach because of their history with pyramidal, so if anyone from Western Iowa reads this board, see if you can get the Sioux Falls teams to come down for a tournament! Geographically, that’s probably the only reasonable way to get cross-pollination with an existing circuit.
Tennessee: B+ (up from B- in 2017)
Here’s some more good news! Tennessee now has a shiny, properly-run, corporate-sponsored state championship, and the rest of its tournament slate has also received several fresh coats of paint since 2017. The reactivation of the Vandy and USN teams gave Nashville a nice jolt, and a number of other teams have followed suit, particularly those supported by the Volunteer State’s robust middle school circuit. Rural East Tennessee remains tough to reach, but the valiant efforts of Chuck Pearson and UTK are finally paying off, with Chattanooga Arts and Sciences taking two teams to HSNCT and other teams like L&N Stem looking hale and hearty again.
Western Tennessee is a little slower going, with the pickings being limited to White Station’s annual tournament and the previously-discussed ones at Ole Miss, but teams like Collierville have become more active, so hopefully some more hosts step up in the near future.
Texas: B+ (no change from 2017)
Let’s start with the good: a Texas-sized slate of tournaments and a Texas-sized slate of teams fielding Texas-sized rosters, especially around Houston. The bad news is that, just as in 2017, there isn’t a ton of penetration beyond Houston and DFW, especially in rural areas. The fracture between TQBA and TCQT has probably hampered things, although TCQT has seen some nice outreach success with new teams. Meanwhile, El Paso continues to hum along on the other side of the desert. I’m a huge fan of the consistent tournaments and teams going to HSNCT, but not so much the single-elim and lack of stats (though I’ve heard inklings that Coronado may have rediscovered the rest of the quiz bowl world).
Utah: D- (down from D in 2017)
Massive shoutout to Carbon High School, who’ve kept playing online tournaments despite being possibly the last team in Utah aware of pyramidal. They also seem to have won the only Utah competition I could find on the internet, which was partially online but otherwise resembled standard quiz bowl, depending on the question quality and source. Driving distance is probably a limiting factor and the BYU/U of U teams appear to have petered out, but there’s likely room for good tournaments here if anyone local is interested in running them.
Vermont: A- (no change from 2017)
The field sizes are down post-COVID, but Vermont-NEA Scholars’ Bowl is still chugging along, updated website and all. Chris’ points from the previous posts are still valid (namely, that there aren’t many full Saturday tournaments but also that the level of participation in a small, rural state is outstanding). Especially compared to neighboring New Hampshire, the Green Mountain State is doing a fantastic job.
Virginia: A- (no change from 2017)
The DC area suffers from the same issues as Maryland (too many TV show gimmicks, not enough Saturday hosts), but overall things are pretty good in Virginia. VHSL isn’t perfect, but it is effective and its penetration into those hard to reach rural areas is great. VCU is a great circuit anchor, SWATA continues to do their thing, and the previously-little-touched Virginia Beach area is even starting to come alive.
Washington: D+ (no change from 2017)
The third leg of the Knowledge Bowl triumvirate sadly remains sturdy, though UW is doing their best to eat away at it. Their tournaments do draw a number of teams, but don’t seem to reach beyond Seattle much (shoutout to Ridgefield, who discovered pyramidal in 2023 and have been regular HSNCT attendees since).
West Virginia: C (down from B in 2017)
The Mountain State used to have a number of pyramidal Saturday tournaments, but those have mostly gone the way of the dodo (COVID is possibly to blame there). Ironically, there are actually more teams playing NAQT now than there were pre-COVID due to the state championship moving over in 2022. The catch is that both regionals and state use speedchecks and are straight double-elim with no prelims, so the majority of teams play only a few games.
Morgantown continues to be a beacon of light, hosting a tournament this year and frequently attending Pittsburgh events and HSNCT. There are also a number of West Virginia teams that trek over to Kentucky every now and again. The ingredients for a more active circuit are there, but no one’s stepped in yet to make things happen.
Wisconsin: C- (down from C in 2017)
Wisconsin the “sleeping giant” has yet to be awoken from its slumber. There are a few annual tournaments, but they draw the same 10-12 Madison-area teams year after year. Occasionally someone will make a trip to Minnesota (or even HSNCT), but the circuit as a whole has been in a holding pattern for a decade-plus. There’s probably potential for expansion into the Milwaukee area, which has been oddly silent since Wisconsin Hills joined the online COVID-era middle school circuit.
Wyoming: F (no change from 2017)
Still entirely nonpyramidal, with (to my knowledge) no history of pyramidal activity. Perusing the website, I see what appears to be Knowledge Bowl buzzer strips (except they’re yellow instead of the Minnesota green), so reform will probably be an uphill battle.
Conclusion:
22 states’ grades rose, while 11 dropped and 17 stayed the same. Arkansas, Indiana, Maine, and Nebraska each saw their grade increase by a full letter or more, while Arizona, California, South Dakota, and West Virginia each dropped by at least a full letter. Overall GPA improved from 2.08 to 2.228, although that’s a little misleading because many of the Ds and Fs are in less-populated states, mostly out west.
The biggest lesson I’ve taken away from this exercise is how transformative even one host can be in an underserved region. All four of the most-improved states were kick-started by (relatively new) college teams hosting tournaments, as were other notables like Oklahoma and New Mexico. Meanwhile, many of the backsliding states (like Arizona and South Dakota) have lost opportunities due to universities no longer hosting.
It’s great when high school circuits are self-sufficient (and indeed, self-sufficiency is itself needed for a truly stable circuit), but college teams tend to be the best hosts in developing areas. In many cases, they are the only local organizations with enough size and institutional knowledge to maintain best practices and adequately staff a medium-size tournament. Hosting high school tournaments provides college teams many benefits, from a fundraising source to a steady stream of graduating seniors that are often down to play in college. I think this sort of symbiotic relationship is one of the best ways to unlock new areas for quiz bowl to spread.
Since it’s now been a full decade since the first of those posts (and the state of quiz bowl has changed a good bit, especially due to COVID), I’ve (with Chris’ permission) put together an updated 2025 edition. If you haven’t read the old versions before, I encourage you to at least skim them, as they provide valuable background knowledge (and in some states where things have greatly changed, a peek back in time).
I’m going to use the same grading scale Chris did:
I am grading on a curve, so states with larger, denser populations and higher-ranked schools will be held to a higher standard than states with largely rural populations. That said, it is still very possible for regions that aren’t traditional education powerhouses to outperform others that are straight-up, and there are examples of this below.Breadth of Good Quizbowl
How many places across the state are running good quizbowl tournaments and competitions? Are all the major metro areas included? Are there rural schools participating or just metro schools? Are only a few areas active or is pretty much the entire state active? Could a new team get to a good quizbowl tournament in only a few hours drive or would every trip be basically an overnight all-day drive? Are there many AUK and NAC or other bad quizbowl-only participants that crowd out good quizbowl teams and tournaments?
Depth of Good Quizbowl
In the areas with quizbowl, how many teams compete in it? Is it just a handful of teams out of many possible schools or do pretty much all the major schools in the area participate? Are tournaments large with many teams and good quizbowl scheduling practices or are they small and single-elimination (or entirely double-elimination?)? Do schools normally just play one or two tournaments or do they play multiple tournaments over the year along with nationals?
Institutional Support or Opposition (including state championships)
Is there an official state organization that coordinates quizbowl and does that state organization support good quizbowl? Are there resources available for new teams to help build themselves and assistance for coaches (like a coach's association)? Does the state championship (and any local/regional championships) use good quizbowl questions and practices or bad? Is there a lot of AUK or NAC participation or leagues that use bad quizbowl questions and practices? Even if only good quizbowl is present in a state, a lack of institutional strength can be a negative.
The grades are NOT based on how highly-ranked the teams from a given state are in terms of quizbowl playing prowess; there are other rankings for ranking teams based on quizbowl skill and results. Instead, this post is designed to reward and recognize states that adopt good quizbowl practices and get more teams involved in playing quizbowl. There are 36,000+ secondary schools in the United States and only a small fraction of those have quizbowl teams. We need to be pushing for a world where quizbowl is as common an activity as debate, science fair, or football.
Rough Grading Rubric
A: Almost entirely good quizbowl tournaments; many teams from multiple areas around a state participate in those tournaments; a solid state organization (or confederation of local organizations) that supports good quizbowl and ensures a good state championship tournament
B: Mostly good quizbowl tournaments; some areas of bad quizbowl or a major lack of quizbowl; state organization is usually good, but may have some issues or the good quizbowl state championship may not attract that many teams
C: Some areas of good quizbowl, but often competes against bad quizbowl leagues or organizations; state organization is lacking in organization or indifferent to good quizbowl; may lack teams and competitions in many areas around the states.
D: Mostly bad-quizbowl tournaments and organizations, though perhaps without actively restricting participation good quizbowl tournaments. Also a lack of or near-complete lack of tournaments whether good or bad quizbowl
F: Active bad-quizbowl organizations that severely restrict and/or oppose good quizbowl participation to the point where there are no good quizbowl tournaments even offered. There may be one or two teams who want to play pyramidal in these states, but they are drowned out by the rest of the state and may face extremely long distances if they wanted to attend pyramidal tournaments.
Note that History Bowl and other single-subject tournaments are disregarded here--this is a ranking for all-subject quizbowl. This is also for high school quizbowl, not middle school or college, though the presence of college hosts for high school tournaments in an area is often a major part of the quizbowl circuit in an area.
I’ve done my best to research each state’s quiz bowl scene, but I undoubtedly missed things. Please feel free to respond below if you have information that I don’t.
Alabama: A (up from A- in 2017)
There have been some cosmetic changes (new tournament hosts, new teams like Cyber Tech popping up, format tweaks at the state level), but Alabama’s quiz bowl scene is still humming along much as it did last decade. The ASCA continues to run a well-organized district-and-state-tournament series with exceptional rural outreach, and there are plenty of leagues, conferences, and Saturday tournaments throughout the state. The ACBL network of community colleges has proven especially valuable as hosts, and Robin Osborne deserves tremendous commendation for her work bringing in professional sponsorships and scholarship/prize money.
For Alabama to take the next step, I’d like to see increased participation in Saturday tournaments. Many of the rural schools only play 4-5 games at a single Friday night district tournament each year, and even the “plugged-in” teams often have to seek out online tournaments for sets (particularly mACF ones) not mirrored locally. I’d also like to see single-elim fully retired, as many tournaments (including the state championship) still use either straight single-elim or single-elim into a best-of-three final.
Alaska: D- (no change from 2017)
The advent of online tournaments post-COVID has made the prospect of Alaska teams a lot more feasible. Unfortunately, nothing seems to have come of it yet. I suspect this will continue until either someone from Alaska discovers quiz bowl on their own or (more likely) an active community member ends up there and makes an effort to start something.
Arizona: D (down from C in 2017)
I was incredibly saddened to discover that the Arizona high school circuit appears to have died, with zero tournaments taking place in the Grand Canyon State this year (not even the Sunnyslope Mindsoon, which appears to have been an oddly-formatted ROTC event but ran faithfully for many years and even drew double-digit fields at its peak).
At least two teams (Herberger and Brophy College Prep) are still playing online tournaments, but most of Herberger’s team is about to graduate and Brophy isn’t as active as they used to be. Does anyone know why Arizona’s strongest teams (Corona del Sol, Hamilton, BASIS Scottsdale) all collapsed out of the blue? The more I research this, the more I’m baffled-all three of those schools were regulars at xNCTs, making playoff runs and fielding very deep rosters circa 2019. Obviously COVID would have impacted them, but they each faithfully played Arizona State’s tournaments into 2022-23, then stopped attending.
It appears that fields were steadily decreasing (ASU’s last tournament, in February 2023, drew only four teams), which seems surprising considering this timeline coincides with the revival of the ASU team on the collegiate circuit. Either way, it would appear that Arizona should be a priority outreach target, given its strong history and the experienced hosts at ASU.
Arkansas: D+ (up from F in 2017)
The state once dubbed “Quiz Bowl Iran” has experienced something of a minor renaissance recently. What began with a few teams exploring online tournaments over COVID has expanded into a pair of NAQT tournaments and appearances by Arkansans at IPNCT, SSNCT, and HSNCT. As regular users of this forum likely know, many of the state’s current top players are aware of pyramidal and have begun advocating for long-needed improvements in question quality, which have been somewhat answered by the LIQBA’s entry into the question-provisioning market.
It’s going to be a long road. Reading through the Arkansas thread, it appears that standard practice for invitationals there is for hosts to write their own questions (!) and playoffs to be single-elim (!!) seeded by as few as three randomly assigned prelim games (!!!). Given the size and history of the Arkansas QB circuit, there’s going to be some serious inertia that’ll need to be broken through for a full-fledged pyramidal circuit to develop, to say nothing of the silly rules about lugging around reference books and whatever else.
For the first time in a long while, though, there is hope for Arkansas.
California: C (down from B in 2017)
There are strong circuits in San Diego and the Bay Area (the latter being buoyed by its robust middle school scene), but California overall is a disappointment considering its size and population. In particular, the lack of anything in the entire Los Angeles metro area outside of Santa Monica and Arcadia making trips to San Diego is unacceptable. The UCLA, USC, and Claremont teams have all either been reactivated or grown in size since 2017. It seems like there might be an opportunity for one of them to run a novice tournament targeting Academic Decathlon teams or whatever else the current activity of choice is in LA.
Both SoCal and NorCal could probably do with some more institutional backing, as SoCal especially seems very student-led and both regions feature teams frequently popping in and out of existence as players graduate. San Diego and the Bay Area would each receive an A if they were graded independently, so the state’s overall poor grade isn’t on the fantastic people doing good work in those places, but I can’t justify anything better than a C given all the wasted potential elsewhere in the Golden State.
Colorado: C (up from C- in 2017)
Knowledge Bowl continues to dominate the Centennial State, but the rays of good quiz bowl are beginning to shine over the Rocky Mountains as much as they ever have. We’re now up to three annual pyramidal tournaments (plus a TV show that introduced some of them to NAQT questions, though it now seems to have changed providers to an unknown source) and a small handful of consistent nationals attendees. I hope to see those numbers continue to tick upward!
Connecticut: C+ (no change from 2017)
The short-lived Connecticut Quiz Bowl Alliance had some success with a Connecticut-specific tournament, but now that it’s no longer around Connecticut has largely been reduced to feeding the New York and New England circuits. Fortunately, the Nutmeg State is pretty good at that, given its proximity to both New York and Boston. While researching, I was reminded of the joint IAC-LIQBA Tri-State Quiz Bowl Alliance, which launched a fantastically professional website… that has already gone out of date within a year.
It’s great that Connecticut teams can attend other Northeast tournaments, but the lack of any centralized body or annual competition means that (non-Darien) teams tend to pop in and out of existence as players come and go.
Delaware: D+ (no change from 2017)
Wilmington Charter and Tower Hill both played full schedules in Maryland and Pennsylvania, but therein lies the extent of quiz bowl in Delaware right now. There obviously isn’t much to work with, and perhaps a D+ is overly harsh given Wilmington is basically just a suburb of Philadelphia, but I’d like to see some sort of championship or at least a tournament hosted within the state borders.
Florida: C (down from C+ in 2017)
Florida’s quiz bowl scene is fractured due to the state’s size, but UF has done a solid job of putting together a state championship that draws teams from every region. Central Florida appears to have backslid and there was only one South Florida tournament this year, but the new tournaments in Gainesville fit in nicely with the existing activity in Jacksonville and the panhandle. Unfortunately, the dominant academic competition in Florida continues to be the bizarre Commissioner’s Academic Challenge, which seems to be some form of quiz bowl without buzzers played by teams representing counties (or something).
The uptick in teams attending pyramidal tournaments and nationals is encouraging, but Florida (especially Central and South Florida) remains badly in need of more activity. It’d be really cool if the FCSAA community colleges (which form the best-organized and most active community college circuit in the country) were able to host tournaments in the underserved areas.
[b]Georgia:[/b] B+ (up from B in 2017)
Georgia continues to boast a state organization that offers three regular season tournaments and a state championship, each with large fields and significant participation from all areas of the state. There are also plenty of independent invitationals, a number of local leagues, and a separate state championship for small, private religious schools. A lot of the smaller, rural schools do tend to stick to their local competitions, but the presence of HSNCT in Atlanta has drawn a few of them.
My biggest frustration with Georgia right now is that the GATA tournaments use single-elim (even at the state championships where it’s completely unnecessary and actively screws teams out of titles) and don’t keep individual stats. Flagship tournaments in a state with as large a quiz bowl presence as Georgia should be doing better than that.
Hawaii: D- (down from D in 2017)
As far as I can tell, there hasn’t been any quiz bowl activity in Hawaii since Iolani played a single online tournament over COVID. Fred Morlan attempted to run a Hawaii outreach tournament last year, but had to cancel due to a lack of interest. Again, given the uptick in online tournaments post-COVID, there’s new potential for Hawaiian teams should any be interested.
Idaho: B- (up from C in 2017)
Like the rest of the Mountain West, Idaho remains hampered by the long distances between population centers. 2024-25 was the Gem State’s best season in at least a few years, with four tournaments drawing a total of eight schools from both the Boise area and Northern Idaho. Additionally, Boise is slated to be the first Idaho team at HSNCT in (I believe) a full decade. I’m grading on a curve here, but I think Idaho’s doing pretty darn well with what they’ve got (and their grade will go up further if and when teams stop attending the NAC).
Illinois: A+ (up from A in 2017)
There are certainly improvements that could be made to Illinois quiz bowl; there are plenty of leagues and tournaments that don’t keep full stats or use suboptimal formats, but there’s just so much good quiz bowl in the Land of Lincoln that I think Illinois deserves an A+. Scholastic Bowl, as they call it, is treated as a sport by the high school athletic association, several hundred schools (a sizable plurality, if not a majority, of high schools in Illinois) have teams, and most play in conferences that offer 10, 20, or even 30 matches a season. Additionally, Saturday tournaments are plentiful at all difficulties in all regions. My understanding is that the “official” (non-NAQT) state championship has some quirks, but they are more than made up for by the logistical benefits the IHSSBCA brings to the table.
It’d be cool to see more teams within Chicago itself, as well as more consistent statkeeping and (as always) more teams playing Saturday tournaments and not just their conference matches. There are always ways to improve, but Illinois can be held up as an example of what every other state should be working toward.
Indiana: B- (up from C- in 2017)
I am so, so incredibly proud of how far Indiana has come in just the last few years. What was once a “quiz bowl wasteland” and Chipbowl stronghold has been transformed into, in my admittedly biased opinion, one of the better-organized pyramidal circuits in the Midwest. All of the traditionally-nonpyramidal leagues save one (the notorious WRAL) have been flipped to NAQT, and we’ve been peeling 1-2 teams off of WRAL each year since I’ve been at Purdue. Interest in Saturday tournaments has skyrocketed so much that Purdue has gone from hosting one 10-18 team tournament to three 24+ team tournaments each year, to say nothing of the fantastic work Carmel and Herron have done in hosting events in the Indianapolis area.
The real game changer was bringing the Indiana Association of School Principals (IASP) on board in 2019 to sponsor regional tournaments and the state championship. IASP’s commitment to outreach in new areas and pivoting online over COVID (during which time the Chipbowl tournaments largely went inactive) have been invaluable in growing Indiana quiz bowl. There’s plenty more work to be done (one side effect of the sudden explosion of teams has been a severe shortage of experienced tournament hosts and staffers outside of Purdue), but Indiana has taken the first steps on a roadmap it did not even possess back in 2017.
Iowa: B- (up from C+ in 2017)
Iowa continues to grow, slowly but surely. The IQBL is one of the better state organizations out there, with an up-to-date website and a nice slate of pyramidal offerings throughout the year. Their large Fall and Winter tournaments each have three regional sites that draw in teams from all over the state, although the smattering of local conferences appears to have died down a bit if the NAQT results page is to be believed.
Unfortunately, there is apparently still Chipbowl afoot in the Hawkeye State, as a whopping six teams attended last year’s NAC. I’m also disappointed to see that IQBL tournaments (even the state championship) only seem to offer teams six games, even though the field sizes are small and could easily accommodate 8-10 game formats.
Kansas: F (no change from 2017)
In contrast to Arkansas’ White Revolution, the “North Korea of quiz bowl” remains firmly steeped in Juche. Occasionally a Kansas team will pop up at a Missouri or Oklahoma tournament, or a tournament will use NAQT speedchecks, but aside from a middle school league that managed to use all four NAQT MS sets in such a way that no team played more than 12 games, there doesn’t seem to have been any pyramidal activity out of the Sunflower State this year.
Kentucky: C+ (no change from 2017)
The QB-adjacent Governor’s Cup reigns supreme in the Bluegrass State, but actual quiz bowl is still running solidly as well. Kentucky has long been a hot spot for small school activity and it has a nice schedule of tournaments, though a frustrating majority of teams still treat it as a side show to KAAC Quick Recall. One interesting thing I’ve noticed about Kentucky is that there seems to be a higher rate of strong female players than in other states, which may be a product of KAAC’s subject-specific competitions.
Louisiana: B (no change from 2017)
When we left Louisiana in 2017, they were suffering through a confusing disagreement among various factions as to the best way to move forward. I’m not entirely sure how that ended, but Louisiana does sport a sizable pyramidal circuit today, which is great to see. Unfortunately, the Pelican State appears to still be harboring Chipbowl as well, with a whopping ten Louisiana teams attending the most recent NAC. A number of Louisiana tournaments also appear to use odd formats that can result in multiple teams finishing undefeated, especially at the middle school level (are the playoffs just not being reported for some reason?).
Maine: B- (up from D- in 2017)
Nic Pruitt’s arrival in 2021 finally got Maine off the shnide, and its fledgling circuit is beginning to sprout wings, with 2024-25 marking its fourth year. There were only three in-state tournaments, but a number of teams made treks down into Massachusetts to fill their ledgers. No Chipbowl to speak of either, which is obviously a plus but also makes the number of brand-new teams all the more impressive. I’m grading on a curve again, but considering the lack of history and resources in the Pine Tree State they have earned the most improved ranking since 2017.
Maryland: C+ (down from B- in 2017)
Maryland has to be considered in the context of the overall DMV circuit, which is of course quite strong. Given the number of top teams, though, I’m honestly pretty disappointed there aren’t more tournaments. Johns Hopkins is doing great work hosting three invitationals, and Centennial and Georgetown each chipped in one, but that appears to be it for Maryland quiz bowl this year. Considering that each of those five events drew sizable fields (including a disproportionate number of nationally relevant teams), there certainly seems to be enough interest to warrant more tournaments.
Are there barriers to hosting in the DMV region that I’m not aware of? Regardless, the lack of actual quiz bowl (there doesn’t seem to be any sort of state organization or even an NAQT State Championship) combined with the stubborn presence of It’s Academic means Maryland’s grade is dropping. DMV teams should not be having to seek out online mirrors of highly-played sets just to fill their calendars.
Massachusetts: B (up from C+ in 2017)
Many of the premier Massachusetts tournaments from the last edition of this post (eg, HFT) are no longer around, but their void has been admirably filled by the most prolific tournament host this side of Greg Bossick. I am, of course, talking about Andrew Gao, who I personally think should win this year’s Ben Cooper Young Ambassador Award. Andrew has run a whopping four in person tournaments (over half of this year’s Massachusetts schedule) as a sophomore in high school, to say nothing of his online tournaments (three so far this year) and other contributions (at least two good regs sets, a snazzy tournament hub spreadsheet, etc.).
I’d love to see some more hosts step in (and some, such as Lexington and Harvard, have), but Massachusetts quiz bowl is in a solid spot. I see new team names seemingly every time I look at the results of a Boston-area tournament, and the LIQBA’s Mayflower Cup provides a state championship series.
Michigan: A- (up from B+ in 2017)
Too many Michigan teams are still stuck in local leagues of questionable quality, but the overall circuit is healthy enough to warrant a bump. Most notably, the state championship (which was waffling toward nonpyramidal back in 2017) has been impressively reformed through great cooperation between Michigan and Michigan State, with Michigan taking the large schools and MSU the smaller ones. Tournaments are plentiful throughout the state (there could always be more in the remote areas, but when will that ever not be the case), and plenty of Michigan teams patronize good national tournaments with very few still attending NAC.
Minnesota: C+ (no change from 2017)
Minnesota continues to be an enigma, with a strong pyramidal circuit in the Twin Cities but a truly horrific amount of Knowledge Bowl around the rest of the state. Unfortunately, Knowledge Bowl is so disparate from good quiz bowl (most notably, the buzzers are entirely incompatible) that reform will be difficult. In the short term, I think the best way to make progress is to work within the system and try to get on a pyramidal or at least semi-pyramidal question provider while trying to get teams to see the benefits of QB with outreach tournaments. If I end up moving back to Minnesota after graduating college, I may take on MN Knowledge Bowl as my next outreach project, but I think my home state will prove a much tougher nut to crack than Indiana did.
As far as the actual quiz bowl circuit goes, Erik Nelson and Play Quiz Bowl have replaced R. and MQBA but otherwise things are much as they were in 2017: plenty of teams, plenty of tournaments, rather a bit too much single-elim, but overall a strong community given the geographic isolation from the rest of the quiz bowl world.
Mississippi: C (no change from 2017)
Things were interrupted by COVID, but Mississippi has recovered back to pretty much where they were in 2017. Considering that the Magnolia State usually appears near the bottom when ranking states by their schools, it’s really nice to see a bit of quiz bowl activity there. Props to Itawamba for consistently hosting quality tournaments (including the state championship), and to Lafayette for starting multiple tournaments in only their second year on good questions.
Considering that the two Ole Miss tournaments consistently draw the largest fields (including a number of out of state teams), it’d be really cool if they started using standard rebracketed formats instead of single/double-elim (in which some teams drive in from hours away only to go home after just two games)! It appears that these tournaments are run by something called the Office of Pre-College Programs and possibly not by the actual Ole Miss quiz bowl team?
Missouri: A (up from B+ in 2017)
My understanding is that there’s still pockets of bad quiz bowl, MSHSAA is still annoying (with arbitrary restrictions on how many competitions teams can play and when), and the state championship uses round robin into single-elim (sigh). All of that is why Missouri gets an A instead of an A+. All of this is why Missouri gets an A. There’s just so much quiz bowl all over the state, at a level not seen anywhere other than Illinois. Practically every set gets multiple Missouri mirrors every year, and the Show-Me state punches far above its weight at nationals (particularly SSNCT). Massive kudos to the folks at MOQBA for making it all happen.
Montana: D+ (up from D in 2017)
Sentinel’s appearance at HSNCT last year gets Big Sky a bump. If nothing else, it’s great to see that Frenchtown is still committed to hosting even as no one else seems interested. The Montana format seems quirky, with frequent byes, but at least sort of seems to resemble rebracketing and isn’t just straight single-elim.
Nebraska: C (up from D in 2017)
Yet another state that’s seen significant progress due to a new pyramidal host; in this case, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I’m not sure if the Elkhorn schools were nonpyramidal powerhouses or are entirely new to quiz bowl, but either way they’ve been quick learners. UNL only hosted one tournament this year, but the Elkhorn teams replaced that hole in their schedule by crashing an Iowa event. The Nebraska circuit is still small, fragile, and in need of more hosts (especially if UNL continues to decrease in activity), but overall in a much better place than in 2017.
Nevada: B (up from C+ in 2017)
Nevada continues to sport a small but highly organized circuit, complete with a fantastic (and up-to-date) website. LVQBA is an excellent model for building a pyramidal circuit from scratch. The Reno-area leagues are still going as well, but don’t seem interested in integrating with the rest of the quiz bowl world (presumably due to geography and driving distance).
New Hampshire: D (no change from 2017)
Not much going on in the Granite State outside of Plymouth hosting tournaments that draw teams from every nearby state but not New Hampshire itself. There is apparently a New Hampshire Quiz Bowl League, but its format appears to be speedchecks at best and features classic nonpyramidal rules like “players must be recognized before answering” and “the quiz master is the final judge on whether an answer is correct.” If I’m reading the rules correctly, it also seems that teams are allowed to confer on a tossup that’s been negged (but not if they’re the first to buzz).
I’m not sure why the nonpyramidal teams aren’t interested in Plymouth’s tournaments, but either way it seems only Plymouth and Hanover (which straddles the border with Vermont) attend good tournaments.
New Jersey: B (no change from 2017)
New Jersey has plenty of tournaments and plenty of teams, especially with the growth of the LIQBA schedule. However, we know there are lots more out there trapped in nonpyramidal formats, and it seems there was some backsliding this year where tournaments were smaller and mostly attended by the usual teams. Anecdotally, it looks like there are many teams that attended one or two tournaments, got obliterated, and never came back to pyramidal. This is a common problem in strong circuits (like California) where it’s hard for new teams to get established because they play a lot of experienced teams in noncompetitive games. The Jersey Shore Introductory Tournament drew large fields of new teams, but it didn’t run this year. For New Jersey to reach its full potential, there’s a clear need for more novice-friendly tournaments.
New Mexico: C- (up from D in 2017)
New Mexico looked like a success story, with NMSU conjuring a fledgling circuit seemingly out of thin air back in 2022 and a couple brand-new teams making treks to SSNCT and even HSNCT. It’s not quite time to sound the alarm just yet, but NMSU only sponsored one tournament in 2024-25 and it was at a high school. Is anyone from New Mexico on these forums and able to confirm whether NMSU is still planning to host more tournaments? The loss of the state’s only host would be a severe setback, though hopefully not fatal as the El Paso circuit is right nearby and New Mexico teams occasionally pop over there already.
New York: B- (no change from 2017)
NYC has a somewhat decent circuit that merges nicely with the rest of the Northeast, but is something of a disappointment considering the population density and number of schools in the area. With so many schools under one district and so close to one another, I feel like it would be relatively easy to set up some sort of league in the city. Improvements have been made in the Hudson River Valley and Long Island, with the LIQBA seeing success at introducing pyramidal to its home region. Greater NYC does remain
’s greatest redoubt, though, with a whopping 26 teams attending NAC last year. Hopefully Hastings’ runs at good national championships can inspire other Chip powerhouses to give them a try.Outstate New York remains much as it was in 2017, with MasterMinds dominating around a few pyramidal outposts like Ithaca and Bishop Ludden. It’s great to see Syracuse hosting tournaments, and I encourage the other recently-active upstate NY teams like Binghamton and RIT to consider doing so as well!
North Carolina: B+ (up from B in 2017)
It’s been a banner year for North Carolina quiz bowl, between Smith’s MSNCT run, their alumni’s success at the Chapel Hill schools, and ECG’s rise to prominence. Excitingly, the NCASA State Championship finally recorded full statistics this year, hopefully a sign of changing times in a state whose quiz bowl scene used to be a tad sleepy. There still aren’t a ton of tournaments, which is probably why the rise in NC teams playing online tournaments this year was noticeable. If this new generation of North Carolina quiz bowlers is able to create more tournaments and pull in more teams from all corners of the state, the Tar Heel State could be on its way to an A.
North Dakota: D (up from D- in 2017)
Similar to Montana: consistent tournaments at one host on a quirky format in a sparsely populated state that had one team trek down to nationals recently (in this case, Grafton at the 2023 SSNCT). There might be potential in Fargo if any experienced coach or TD ends up there, but otherwise this is what we’ve got.
Ohio: B+ (up from B in 2017)
The Buckeye State is a little restricted by geography, with the major population centers being too far away from each other for teams to overlap more than a few times a year. Considering this and the fact that most teams default to the semipyramidal OAC, I think Ohio’s doing pretty darn well. Much of the credit for this belongs to Greg Bossick, who in my opinion is long overdue for a Cooper Award. He ran 19 events in 2024-25 alone, and his career total is surely in the hundreds. Greg’s commitment to driving all over Ohio and working with hosts to run tournaments in whatever format is best for a particular region (be it after school league, mini-tournament, full Saturday event, or anything in between) is incredible.
The biggest concern I have with Ohio is the relative lack of propagation quiz bowl has made into the big cities. There are also a few
holdouts, especially at the middle school level, and I can’t justify giving an A to a state with a dominant questionable format, but Ohio is in a good spot.Oklahoma: B- (up from C in 2017)
The Sooner State is my favorite quiz bowl state right now aside from Indiana, because there are so many parallels between the two. Traditional nonpyramidal stronghold? Check. Recent pyramidal renaissance powered by a new college team/teams hosting tournaments? Check. Brand-new or previously inactive teams rapidly making runs to prominence on their own initiative? Check. Wholesome and positive culture with rival players becoming good friends? Check (as far as I know; I’ve only ever heard good things about OKQB). Prodigy middle schooler making national noise? Check. First generation of pyramidal players graduating and powering the same school(s) that started it all? Check, check, check, check, check.
2024 Cooper Award winner Tracey Hickman has built a pyramidal circuit on top of the OSSAA, and teams like Yukon, Classen, and Morris have blasted through the door he opened. There’s still too much nonpyramidal and too many Oklahoma teams playing NAC, but this is the best Oklahoma has ever been and it all looks very sustainable. Tracey’s Murray State team, which to my knowledge is sponsored by the college as any other sport, is also a huge accomplishment for quiz bowl.
Oregon: D (no change from 2017)
Westview attended HSNCT last year, but the whole team was seniors and they haven’t played any tournaments since. Two Oregon teams played online Washington tournaments this year, but other than that there was zero quiz bowl activity in the Beaver State.
Pennsylvania: B (down from B+ in 2017)
Pennsylvania’s overall scene is pretty strong, with high levels of involvement around the state, even in the sparsely-populated central and northern regions. The Pittsburgh area is a little isolated, but consistent hosting from UPitt and Carnegie Mellon have kept it afloat. The biggest issue is that many of the leagues (and the state championship they feed into, which is held in the state capitol building) use an awkward three-team setup that doesn’t really lend itself to good rebracketing formats and reminds me of Knowledge Bowl. Unfortunately, it seems like an entrenched institution resistant to change. I also noticed that the Philadelphia city championship stopped running after 2022, taking away a number of inner-city teams’ only competition. If anyone in the Philly area is able to put something like that back together, it seems like a worthy cause.
Rhode Island: D- (down from D in 2017)
Aside from Massachusetts high school teams playing college tournaments at Brown, there doesn’t seem to have been any high school activity in the Ocean State since Barrington went inactive in 2020. Brown attempted to host a tournament this year (which would have been the first ever in Rhode Island), but had to cancel due to a lack of interest.
South Carolina: B (up from B- in 2018)
Things are much the same as they were in 2017: a strong circuit in the Greenville-Columbia-Augusta triangle and isolated leagues on the Atlantic Coast. Given that the drive inland isn’t super bad and coastal SC teams have developed a habit of playing NCTs out of nowhere, I’m inclined to suspect there’s some Chipbowl going on out there, too, especially at the middle school level. It’s encouraging to see those teams (eg, Wando, Academic Magnet) seeking out pyramidal, and they’ve done pretty well for themselves. The Palmetto State seems stable and a candidate for an increased grade as the circuit consolidates.
South Dakota: D- (down from C- in 2017)
The long-running Siouxper Bowl tournament unfortunately did not survive COVID, leaving South Dakota without any good quiz bowl presence. One Sioux Falls team attended NAC last year, so Chipbowl is apparently still around. South Dakota is a great candidate for outreach because of their history with pyramidal, so if anyone from Western Iowa reads this board, see if you can get the Sioux Falls teams to come down for a tournament! Geographically, that’s probably the only reasonable way to get cross-pollination with an existing circuit.
Tennessee: B+ (up from B- in 2017)
Here’s some more good news! Tennessee now has a shiny, properly-run, corporate-sponsored state championship, and the rest of its tournament slate has also received several fresh coats of paint since 2017. The reactivation of the Vandy and USN teams gave Nashville a nice jolt, and a number of other teams have followed suit, particularly those supported by the Volunteer State’s robust middle school circuit. Rural East Tennessee remains tough to reach, but the valiant efforts of Chuck Pearson and UTK are finally paying off, with Chattanooga Arts and Sciences taking two teams to HSNCT and other teams like L&N Stem looking hale and hearty again.
Western Tennessee is a little slower going, with the pickings being limited to White Station’s annual tournament and the previously-discussed ones at Ole Miss, but teams like Collierville have become more active, so hopefully some more hosts step up in the near future.
Texas: B+ (no change from 2017)
Let’s start with the good: a Texas-sized slate of tournaments and a Texas-sized slate of teams fielding Texas-sized rosters, especially around Houston. The bad news is that, just as in 2017, there isn’t a ton of penetration beyond Houston and DFW, especially in rural areas. The fracture between TQBA and TCQT has probably hampered things, although TCQT has seen some nice outreach success with new teams. Meanwhile, El Paso continues to hum along on the other side of the desert. I’m a huge fan of the consistent tournaments and teams going to HSNCT, but not so much the single-elim and lack of stats (though I’ve heard inklings that Coronado may have rediscovered the rest of the quiz bowl world).
Utah: D- (down from D in 2017)
Massive shoutout to Carbon High School, who’ve kept playing online tournaments despite being possibly the last team in Utah aware of pyramidal. They also seem to have won the only Utah competition I could find on the internet, which was partially online but otherwise resembled standard quiz bowl, depending on the question quality and source. Driving distance is probably a limiting factor and the BYU/U of U teams appear to have petered out, but there’s likely room for good tournaments here if anyone local is interested in running them.
Vermont: A- (no change from 2017)
The field sizes are down post-COVID, but Vermont-NEA Scholars’ Bowl is still chugging along, updated website and all. Chris’ points from the previous posts are still valid (namely, that there aren’t many full Saturday tournaments but also that the level of participation in a small, rural state is outstanding). Especially compared to neighboring New Hampshire, the Green Mountain State is doing a fantastic job.
Virginia: A- (no change from 2017)
The DC area suffers from the same issues as Maryland (too many TV show gimmicks, not enough Saturday hosts), but overall things are pretty good in Virginia. VHSL isn’t perfect, but it is effective and its penetration into those hard to reach rural areas is great. VCU is a great circuit anchor, SWATA continues to do their thing, and the previously-little-touched Virginia Beach area is even starting to come alive.
Washington: D+ (no change from 2017)
The third leg of the Knowledge Bowl triumvirate sadly remains sturdy, though UW is doing their best to eat away at it. Their tournaments do draw a number of teams, but don’t seem to reach beyond Seattle much (shoutout to Ridgefield, who discovered pyramidal in 2023 and have been regular HSNCT attendees since).
West Virginia: C (down from B in 2017)
The Mountain State used to have a number of pyramidal Saturday tournaments, but those have mostly gone the way of the dodo (COVID is possibly to blame there). Ironically, there are actually more teams playing NAQT now than there were pre-COVID due to the state championship moving over in 2022. The catch is that both regionals and state use speedchecks and are straight double-elim with no prelims, so the majority of teams play only a few games.
Morgantown continues to be a beacon of light, hosting a tournament this year and frequently attending Pittsburgh events and HSNCT. There are also a number of West Virginia teams that trek over to Kentucky every now and again. The ingredients for a more active circuit are there, but no one’s stepped in yet to make things happen.
Wisconsin: C- (down from C in 2017)
Wisconsin the “sleeping giant” has yet to be awoken from its slumber. There are a few annual tournaments, but they draw the same 10-12 Madison-area teams year after year. Occasionally someone will make a trip to Minnesota (or even HSNCT), but the circuit as a whole has been in a holding pattern for a decade-plus. There’s probably potential for expansion into the Milwaukee area, which has been oddly silent since Wisconsin Hills joined the online COVID-era middle school circuit.
Wyoming: F (no change from 2017)
Still entirely nonpyramidal, with (to my knowledge) no history of pyramidal activity. Perusing the website, I see what appears to be Knowledge Bowl buzzer strips (except they’re yellow instead of the Minnesota green), so reform will probably be an uphill battle.
Conclusion:
22 states’ grades rose, while 11 dropped and 17 stayed the same. Arkansas, Indiana, Maine, and Nebraska each saw their grade increase by a full letter or more, while Arizona, California, South Dakota, and West Virginia each dropped by at least a full letter. Overall GPA improved from 2.08 to 2.228, although that’s a little misleading because many of the Ds and Fs are in less-populated states, mostly out west.
The biggest lesson I’ve taken away from this exercise is how transformative even one host can be in an underserved region. All four of the most-improved states were kick-started by (relatively new) college teams hosting tournaments, as were other notables like Oklahoma and New Mexico. Meanwhile, many of the backsliding states (like Arizona and South Dakota) have lost opportunities due to universities no longer hosting.
It’s great when high school circuits are self-sufficient (and indeed, self-sufficiency is itself needed for a truly stable circuit), but college teams tend to be the best hosts in developing areas. In many cases, they are the only local organizations with enough size and institutional knowledge to maintain best practices and adequately staff a medium-size tournament. Hosting high school tournaments provides college teams many benefits, from a fundraising source to a steady stream of graduating seniors that are often down to play in college. I think this sort of symbiotic relationship is one of the best ways to unlock new areas for quiz bowl to spread.