Andy: << "It's like Academic Decathlon: California and Texas win those competitions at Nationals, but rarely do those same teams appear on the quiz bowl national scene." I beg to differ, especially in the case of California. CA high school teams show up all the time at the local college tournaments. Plus, in the '90s, Torrey Pines and Edison of California have been national programs. One year, IIRC, the Blackshirts at Torrey took home the high school national titles at Panasonic, Beall, and Lake Forest. Also, I think Edison had a pretty good player in the mid-90s whose name escapes me (was it Farris?) and who did some major damage. >> It was Dave Farris, but that's not the right point. Neither Edison nor Torrey Pines have won the California or US National Academic Decathlon championship in the same year. I don't even recall if Farris even made it to USAD Nationals. I doubt it. Sure, conversely, we'd suck at USAD because of format differences. Regardless though, qb as a circuit is not as strong in California as Decathlon is (because the state department of education funds Decathlon programs very well and quiz bowl programs... zilch). Houston Memorial is also a good qb team, and they do Decathlon, but they haven't won the Texas Decathlon championship for all I know. That title goes right now to James E. Taylor out of Irving (not the same person as James Taylor from North Carolina... the RRHoF inductee class of 2000). However, the qb scene is much less on "life support" there than say California. However, there aren't as many tournaments in Texas as they'd like (according to my sources). As for deciding which state's the best: << * All-star game -- 'nuff said. >> That's Panasonic for many states and cases. << * Top team showdown -- though this might favor Pennsylvania a little much... >> A certain team in PA you mean. :) << * Top 3, or 5, or 7, etc., series -- I'd prefer seven, for a best-of-seven series, but whatever. * Top N crossover round -- every one of the top N plays every one of the other state's top N. Eh, why not? We got all day. >> The problem is getting the teams to do it. Illinois Math Science Academy doesn't play at Chip's or Lake Forest or any other national that I'm aware of. They've been top 25-top 10 contenders at Knowledge Master, and they did well at Fall 1999 QuizNet (Beall). But they don't prove themselves outside the state of Illinois. Who knows: they probably are the best math/science qb team in the land now [intentional jab at Andy :) ].
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