My bet is that all you're seeing is a shift in the specific search terms that people use to research FIRST Robotics.
As evidence, I present the trend with respect to searches about the
general topic of the FIRST Robotics Competition, representing the sum total of all search terms that Google associates with this subject:
https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%2Fm%2F096kcy
In
this graph, I find it interesting that the summertime dip in interest has generally gotten deeper over time, whereas the dual build-season and competition-season peaks have gone through a bit of a cyclic trend with 2010 as the worst year and older+newer years doing better.
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EDIT:
And yes, you can definitely see the effect of that university in Switzerland when you look at the national distribution chart!
If the fan club goes away, or isn't always right in your face doing things the public sees, does that mean the reason for the fan club is gone? Nope. - Elgin Clock [more] 
05-05-2015, 10:13
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