Well they kind of got it. It was because it was a big turnout from the midwest for the conference. Plus IIT was the principal school behind CARD, just so happened that many of the schools were Midwestern.
Since IIT was the principal school, ITR (team #1) was definitely in there. UIUC (Team #7) got involved because we found a thread on CD. Perhaps the rest of the teams can explain how the got involved?
We actually had almost 20 teams (I believe 16 or 18 was the number) at one point. That included, WPI, Southern Maryland, Princeton, Northeastern, CMU to name a few. There were a bunch of colleges that we were in contact with for a while but due to funding, bad timing and many other issues, it just didn't work out.
Looks like the Midwest just has a pretty strong alumni group.
