Throughout most of the 2012 collegiate volleyball season a case could be made that the PAC 12 was the dominant conference. This begs the question, “What states and countries do these players come from?”
A quick review of the rosters shows that the teams listed 185 players. A breakdown of the players by their hometown follows:
• About 90%, or 167, of the players are American.
• American players came from 19 states.
• The teams had players from at least 3 states and up to 7 states.
• Every team had players from CA.
• The breakdown of players by state follows:
– CA 78 players, 46.7%
– WA 15 players, 9.0%
– OR 14 players, 8.4%
– TX 12 players, 7.2%
– AZ 11 players, 6.6%
– CO 9 players, 5.4%
– UT 8 players, 4.8%
– HI 5 players, 3.0%
– FL, ID, IL, NV – each two players 1.2% each
– MO, NE, NM, NC, OK, SD, VA – each 1 player 0.6% each
• Only 3 American players had hometowns east of the Mississippi
• Slightly more than 64% of the players are from the three West Coast states.
Clearly, the conference is regional and its dominance can be attributed to the quality of volleyball players from California and the western region.