I would say the reason for such a decline is definitely the budget crisis. Not to be so negative, but money is being cut everywhere, and the state itself is crunched for money. If teams don't have a real stoic sponsor (who also happens to have really deep pockets) it can lead to a lot of trouble... a lot of schools that have never had a team also don't know about FIRST. It's okay though, Massachusetts will come back around and hopefully we'll see a rising trend soon!!!
-Jackie
Team 88