The "Alternate Universe" Part I: The West

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cchiego
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The "Alternate Universe" Part I: The West

Post by cchiego »

[This is Part I of a series of posts about the non-pyramidal "Alternate Universe" of quizbowl; please see this post for an introduction and links to other parts, which will posted in the weeks to come. I welcome any additions, corrections, or discussion regarding the information on this post.]

PART I: THE WEST

Washington
Nonpyramidal: 220
Pyramidal: 11
Total: 635 public + ~236 private = 871; total of 231/871 for a 26.5% overall participation estimate

The Washington State Knowledge Bowl tournament has 81 teams and I found that regional tournaments seemed to have 20-30 teams. Assuming 25 schools in each of the 9 ESD regions, that's 225 schools, of which only a handful play on the pyramidal events in the Seattle or Portland areas. There's also a few schools that play "Hi-Q" in the northern suburbs of Seattle. So let's say at least 220 non-pyramidal teams, perhaps more.

Oregon
Nonpyramidal: 50
Pyramidal: 8
Total: 275 public + ~153 private = 428; total of 58/428 for a 13.5% overall participation estimate

Some small Knowledge Bowl leagues of 5 or so schools each exist, especially along the border with Washington. There's also a Southern Oregon "Brain Bowl" TV show that has ~8 schools or so participating. And there's a "Brain Bowl" in Lane County, which seems to get a lot of participation, with apparently 25-35 middle schools participating. I'll say 50 here overall because there may be additional leagues out there that I couldn't find.

California
Nonpyramidal: 75 (275-325 if counting AcaDec)
Pyramidal: 128
Total (not including AcadDec): 2489 public + ~1269 private = 3758; total of 203/3758 for a 5.4% overall participation estimate

Do we want to count Academic Decathlon since it's an academic competition that often takes up a school's "all-subject academic team" slot? If so, that's where most of California's schools still spend their time and attention, especially in the Central Valley where practically every school has a team run through the county boards of education (some of which fund it to the tune of $107k+ a year). I'd estimate there's 200-250 active Academic Decathlon schools in California, though it's different enough from quizbowl (like Texas' UIL) that it's possible to have two separate teams for it and quizbowl. Yet it is a direct competitor in many ways; it's also well-entrenched with a compensated bureaucracy and direct funding from many county offices of education and it does appear to be expanding in various places where quizbowl fears to tread (notably, the county I now live in). The onerous eligibility restrictions and expensive necessary practice material that AcaDec requires of schools might be having an impact though in terms of limiting its popularity in some areas. For now I'll *not* include Decathlon in the main calculation for any states, but it's a big potential competitor to quizbowl in some states like California.

Outside of Decathlon, there's Ventura County Knowledge Bowl (10-15 schools), Glendale Academic Bowl (~5 schools), and the non-pyramidal Academic Leagues (~15 from East County, ~25 from North County, which is disappointing since they used NAQT last year) in San Diego. There's also some kind of middle school thing in Bakersfield that seems to get 15-20 schools. So overall I'd estimate 75 non-pyramidal schools or so. That said, there are many, many schools in California and it's somewhat incredible how few of them have all-subject academic teams of any kind.

Arizona
Nonpyramidal: 25
Pyramidal: 27
Total: 767 public + ~127 private = 894; total of 52/894 for a 5.8% overall participation estimate

Also a bit of a bastion of Decathlon, though not nearly as popular as in California from what I can tell online with about 50 schools participating statewide. There is a "Knowledge Bowl" league in the Southeastern mountains and a Knowledge Bowl Quiz competition on the Navajo Reservation that get about a dozen teams each. Not much in the way of direct barriers to getting more pyramidal quizbowl, but the loss of Arizona Quiz Bowl as an organization (along with a TV show that used NAQT questions) is definitely still felt. Many of the pyramidal schools, incidentally, are via JROTC competitions rather than general quizbowl teams too.

Nevada
Nonpyramidal: 55
Pyramidal: 26
Total: 132 public + ~52 private = 184; total of 81/184 for a 44% overall participation estimate

Varsity Quiz remains the most popular option in Las Vegas, with about 35 schools participating in it each year. This is an entrenched competition that's run for decades (and legendarily used to compete with the Kiwanis Bowl of Orange County, CA each year). Washoe County has "Academic Olympics," which appeared to use NAQT questions for at least part of their competition up through 2019 (but not in recent competitions, apparently), and seems to get around 20 schools participating each year. There's an NAQT speedcheck league throughout northern Nevada in the Ruby Mountain competition, but I can't quite tell if that uses other questions or just relies on NAQT. That said, there just aren't that many high schools in Nevada, so the number of schools competing in these competitions makes for an impressively high rate of participation in some kind of quizbowl competition.

Idaho
Nonpyramidal: 20
Pyramidal: 7
Total: 193 public + ~106 private = 299; total of 27/299 for a 9% overall participation estimate

Idaho used to have a much more active "Scholastic Bowl" circuit in both North and East Idaho. The only mentions that I can find of events that are not-single-subject (Science Bowl and History Bowl appear to have some active takers) date back to 2017-2018, but there are some schools that still mention having a Scholastic Bowl team on their websites. There's also a small circuit that overlaps with far SE Washington (Pullman, etc.) around Moscow and plays quizbowl and Knowledge Bowl; that would be an excellent place for a potential pyramidal circuit to emerge besides the current Boise-area events. Hard to figure out exact numbers here, but I'll guess 20-25 non-pyramidal teams.

Wyoming
Nonpyramidal: 15
Pyramidal: 0
Total: 98 public + ~13 private = 111; total of 15/111 for a 13.5% overall participation estimate

There's a very active, albeit a bit less so after COVID, Academic Challenge circuit throughout Wyoming with hosts at most of the Community Colleges in the state. Very well-organized, albeit mostly isolated from other circuits.

Montana
Nonpyramidal: 25
Pyramidal: 10
Total: 317 public + 44 private = 361; total of 35/361 for a 9.7% overall participation estimate

There seem to be a variety of competitions in Montana, from "Academic Competition" to "Academic Olympics" hosted at various university branches along with a state championship (the winner of which gets to play the Wyoming champion). Some of these local competitions seem to have been running for at least 20-30 years, with Skyview's getting 30+ schools from MT and WY.

Colorado
Nonpyramidal: 125 (pre-Covid)
Pyramidal: 16
Total: 382 public + 154 private = 436; total of 141/436 for a 32.3% overall participation estimate

COVID seems to have definitely cut down participation in Colorado Knowledge Bowl, but before they were riding high at 120+ schools. Knowledge Bowl is well-organized and has its own local question-writers now to replace the sold-off AUK. They still, however, enjoy non-pyramidal questions and there's little sign of any competitors, especially with the decline of the CU Boulder club's hosting.

Utah
Nonpyramidal: 50?
Pyramidal: 2
Total: 282 public + ~58 private = 340; total of 52/340 for a 15.2% overall participation estimate

The heartland of the bizarre basketball-themed, Reagan-era-Education Secretary-endorsed National Academic League, Utah would have a lot of potential if its schools stopped paying the hefty bill to participate (~$500 per school it seems, from records I could find) in NAL and instead played quizbowl. There's also a league around Moab in the Southeast and a few other local competitions, but a lot of extra space. A tiny pyramidal tournament may have been a one-off event.

New Mexico
Nonpyramidal: 10?
Pyramidal: 1
Total: 236 public + ~65 private (estimate from 2013 data) = 301; total of 11/301 for a 3.6% overall participation estimate

Attempts to start a pyramidal circuit in New Mexico never really took over despite much fanfare at the time a decade ago. A few schools like Albuquerque Academy have hosted pyramidal events on occasion and a couple of schools have crossed into El Paso for events, but otherwise there isn't much to write about here for all-subject quizbowl of any kind. There is a small Navajo "Knowledge Bowl" competition near Shiprock, but it's hard to tell what the questions look like for that and seems to include; other kinds of non-quizbowl competitions.

[As best I could tell, there are no all-subject academic quizbowl competitions of any kind in Hawai'i or Alaska, though Alaska does have a tiny handful of AcaDec teams.]
Chris C.
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nicole.
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Re: The "Alternate Universe" Part I: The West

Post by nicole. »

Washoe County Academic Olympics stopped running after 2019 due to budget cuts. The few teams out there that didn’t immediately disband due to this are mainly around for science bowl. We got Reno last year to AQBL and there’s interest for in person competitions up there if somebody could find a host (davidson academy in sparks is also starting a program up there i think). Weld Central is also looking into hosting more naqt stuff in colorado so that’s promising.
Nic Pruitt (they/them)

Founder of the Maine Quiz Bowl Alliance (MEQBA)
Bates College '25
Kings College London, Winter '24 Semester
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cchiego
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Re: The "Alternate Universe" Part I: The West

Post by cchiego »

nicole. wrote: Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:51 pm Washoe County Academic Olympics stopped running after 2019 due to budget cuts. The few teams out there that didn’t immediately disband due to this are mainly around for science bowl. We got Reno last year to AQBL and there’s interest for in person competitions up there if somebody could find a host (davidson academy in sparks is also starting a program up there i think). Weld Central is also looking into hosting more naqt stuff in colorado so that’s promising.
It seems to be active this year (and using NAQT questions for at least part of their questions). From NAQT's website for question sets being used:
February 8 – March 29, 2022 Washoe County Academic Olympics Washoe County Schools (NV)
This article also makes it seem like Academic Olympics continued through 2020 and 2021. It seems to have been temporarily suspended due to budget cutbacks, but eventually "thanks to dedicated volunteers, staff members, and student competitors, the program is up and running this year."
Chris C.
Past: UGA/UCSD/Penn
Present: Solano County, CA
nicole.
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Re: The "Alternate Universe" Part I: The West

Post by nicole. »

cchiego wrote: Tue Mar 08, 2022 1:12 pm
nicole. wrote: Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:51 pm Washoe County Academic Olympics stopped running after 2019 due to budget cuts. The few teams out there that didn’t immediately disband due to this are mainly around for science bowl. We got Reno last year to AQBL and there’s interest for in person competitions up there if somebody could find a host (davidson academy in sparks is also starting a program up there i think). Weld Central is also looking into hosting more naqt stuff in colorado so that’s promising.
It seems to be active this year (and using NAQT questions for at least part of their questions). From NAQT's website for question sets being used:
February 8 – March 29, 2022 Washoe County Academic Olympics Washoe County Schools (NV)
This article also makes it seem like Academic Olympics continued through 2020 and 2021. It seems to have been temporarily suspended due to budget cutbacks, but eventually "thanks to dedicated volunteers, staff members, and student competitors, the program is up and running this year."
ok then, i guess some schools just stopped funding it and their coaches just generalized. don’t trust everything you hear in an email
Nic Pruitt (they/them)

Founder of the Maine Quiz Bowl Alliance (MEQBA)
Bates College '25
Kings College London, Winter '24 Semester
Ridgewood '21
Director of Outreach, American Quizbowl League, Prometheus Science Bowl, and Long Island Quiz Bowl Alliance
Outreach and Technology, Florida Quiz Bowl Association
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