What is the Hardest State to Compete in?

[starpug]

the hardest state is by far california... how do u beat the team that won nationals the last three years and our state more than the last team 10 times.... UGH!!

Can you people please differentiate between SoCal and NorCal, cause NorCal while the results are quite spread out with no team getting firsts all the time there is still an obvious winner. I can't speak for SoCal

[tigerman0828]

i heard that california has the hardest

[kenjarius]

i heard that california has the hardest

Well if you're a division C team in Socal then good luck to you

[f-equals-ma]

dude... socal is the hardest state hands down.

2009 difference between 1st and 2nd was more than the total score of the first.

1st beat 2nd by 106 points; 70-176

[Phenylethylamine]

In NY C Division, the difference between the 1st and 2nd place teams was 158 points. Both of those teams go to Nationals, though. The 3rd place team was 19 points behind the 2nd place team.
However, I think having a whole lot of roughly equal teams actually means more competition than if you have one that's dominant and others that are just sort of spaced out behind them (in this case, you can pretty much ignore F-M, because it's essentially as if 2nd place was 1st and NY only sent one team... just with F-M going as default). The competition in NY is pretty clearly for 2nd place, and seeing how close the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th place teams are, that looks like pretty difficult competition.

NY B Division is tough, but definitely not the toughest by any means.

[EastStroudsburg13]

dude... socal is the hardest state hands down.

2009 difference between 1st and 2nd was more than the total score of the first.

1st beat 2nd by 106 points; 70-176

How does that signify "hardest"? If there's only one good team that doesn't mean anything. A state's strength comes from how many good teams.

[fmtiger124]

dude... socal is the hardest state hands down.

2009 difference between 1st and 2nd was more than the total score of the first.

1st beat 2nd by 106 points; 70-176

How does that signify "hardest"? If there's only one good team that doesn't mean anything. A state's strength comes from how many good teams.

yea if that was the case ny could be the hardest by a ton the state competition is basically for second because f-m wins like every year and by a lot
a case can be made for NY anyway because of shear number of teams and good teams

[sciencegeek100]

my head coach say the top 6 teams could place in the top ten at nationals...

[sciencegeek100]

dude... socal is the hardest state hands down.

2009 difference between 1st and 2nd was more than the total score of the first.

1st beat 2nd by 106 points; 70-176

How does that signify "hardest"? If there's only one good team that doesn't mean anything. A state's strength comes from how many good teams.

yea if that was the case ny could be the hardest by a ton the state competition is basically for second because f-m wins like every year and by a lot
a case can be made for NY anyway because of shear number of teams and good teams

my head coach say the top 6 teams could place in the top ten at nationals... from california south.... and we won by 106...

[sciencegeek100]

I would say it is obviously between NY, OH, and PA. As Phenylethylamine said, I think NY is the hardest to compete in just because of the shear number of teams, but in terms of quality (defined as number of teams that would place well at nationals, number of top 10 teams in the nation, etc), I would say OH (note this is specifically for Div C, but I think most of it applies to Div B as well).

-For all of the nats results I looked at, both OH teams have been in the top 10.
-In 2007, Solon didn't even make nats, but for all results prior to 2007, and for 2008, they were in the top 10 at nats
-Mentor didn't make nats in 2008 after being 5th in the nation the prior year
-2nd and 3rd best teams in the nation came from OH in 2008
-2nd and 5th best teams in the nation came from OH in 2007

The NY teams that go place like 3-7 and like 11-15 (usually), thus it seems like while NY has at least 1 hammer, they don't have as many awesome teams as a place like OH or PA which always place 2 teams in the top 10. The fact that Solon didn't make it one year and that Mentor, coming off of their top 5 finish, didn't make it the next year just shows how difficult it is to make nats in OH. Even in a state like NY it seems like the 3rd or 4th best team in OH would be at least the second best.

Thus, again I state my conclusion:
if the 3rd and 4th team is 2nd what happen to the 1st and 2nd teams????

and the other states teams????
Hardest State to Compete in for the average team: NY
BEST overall State/Hardest State to make Nats in: OH