Falling State Registration Levels

[Mr.Epithelium]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to know what everyone is thinking about falling state registration levels this year.

It's definitely likely that some states might be affected more than others, and some barely at all. But I know Kentucky had a massive drop in registration, falling from 84 in 2020 to 26 this year, with only 5 schools in division B. In fact, our largest state competitor in the past decade did not register. I wouldn't be surprised if regionals were canceled, as the total number of teams in each division falls short of the usual number that qualify for state- I've been hearing that this is the same for other states as well.

[Mr.Epithelium]

There's been a decent hit to New Mexico too (albeit probably a bit softer than to other states). I don't have the final numbers (for this year or past years), but there has been quite a bit of other hints going on. The National qualifying team choosing not to compete this year was... surprising, for sure. In addition, another NM Div B top school chose not to have a team (making, just from what I've heard, 2 Div B and 1 Div C out of the usual top 5 at state, and the top team for both). I might try extrapolating those numbers to predict the dropout, but I really don't even have enough top 5 data to be sure.

NMMI choosing not to host the Southeastern regional this year was also a bit of a surprise, I wouldn't be surprised of that was a bit of a result of the current pandemic situation (Disclaimer: I actually have no idea). We'll probably have to wait for later in the season when competitions actually happen to get a better idea of how many dropouts we really have had, though, to see whose name we don't hear (or hear for the first time) called up.

[knightmoves]

I wanted to know what everyone is thinking about falling state registration levels this year.

I think I'm seeing B affected a lot more than C, which probably isn't surprising, as B is more teacher-driven. As far as C goes, it looks like most of the schools we usually see at invitationals have teams this year - I've no idea whether that's likely to extend to the schools that we don't see at all until regionals. It seems reasonable that the schools that don't usually do a lot of competitions might be more likely to skip this year.

The challenge for SO is going to be whether they can recover the missing teams next year. If schools are back to "normal" in terms of allowing after-school clubs and field trips, then most schools will probably come back. If schools are not willing to do big in-person inter-school gatherings, they probably don't come back next year, and at that point those schools have been without SO for long enough that you're practically starting from scratch again.

[BennyTheJett]

Wisconsin took a large hit, with many of our smaller rural teams not registering.

[Galahad]

Hawaii too, we legit only have like 7-8 B teams compared to usually around 30

[Tailsfan101]

As far as we know, Idaho only has a few teams registered in both divisions. It's not very surprising for C, since in 2019 we only had 7, but B has taken a major hit this year, as they usually have around 30 teams, down to probably no more than 6 or 7. Also, Idaho SO has made a one-year rule that schools can only send one team to state, which will impact the numbers even further, especially in B, as B schools typically send several teams to state.

[pb5754]

Also, Idaho SO has made a one-year rule that schools can only send one team to state

Strange. I heard some states are toying with allowing multiple teams from the same school at states this year. I think Idaho is the first I know of to be going in the other direction.

In terms of my state, NJ is doing surprisingly well so far actually. In 2019, we had 72 teams in C and 59 in B. So far, we have 53 teams in C and 28 in B, and state registration opened less than 2 weeks ago. As with other states, B seems to have been hit harder than C.

[Unome]

Also, Idaho SO has made a one-year rule that schools can only send one team to state

Strange. I heard some states are toying with allowing multiple teams from the same school at states this year. I think Idaho is the first I know of to be going in the other direction.

In terms of my state, NJ is doing surprisingly well so far actually. In 2019, we had 72 teams in C and 59 in B. So far, we have 53 teams in C and 28 in B, and state registration opened less than 2 weeks ago. As with other states, B seems to have been hit harder than C.

Georgia is one such state allowing multiple teams from the same school at the state tournament this year.

It figures that NJ has lost little in the way of registration, since the state tends to fill up annually and is moreso limited by the lack of regional sites than anything else. There's probably a similar drop in interest but the usual interest is well above capacity.

[builderguy135]

Also, Idaho SO has made a one-year rule that schools can only send one team to state

Strange. I heard some states are toying with allowing multiple teams from the same school at states this year. I think Idaho is the first I know of to be going in the other direction.

In terms of my state, NJ is doing surprisingly well so far actually. In 2019, we had 72 teams in C and 59 in B. So far, we have 53 teams in C and 28 in B, and state registration opened less than 2 weeks ago. As with other states, B seems to have been hit harder than C.

Georgia is one such state allowing multiple teams from the same school at the state tournament this year.

It figures that NJ has lost little in the way of registration, since the state tends to fill up annually and is moreso limited by the lack of regional sites than anything else. There's probably a similar drop in interest but the usual interest is well above capacity.

This has probably been mentioned before, but a large factor in NJ's registration trend is due to second teams. Prior to this year, schools were only allowed to bring one team to regionals - this year, however, there is no team registration limit, with additional teams costing only $60 to register.