ABA NAAC starts today -- which region is the toughest?

The ABA National Appellate Advocacy regional rounds kick off today in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Next week, the Brooklyn and Seattle regionals will take place, and then in two weeks, the regionals will conclude in Boston and St. Louis. All in all, 207 teams will battle it out for the 24 spots in the national finals, which will go down April 7-9 in Chicago.

You may remember that last year, I did a very unscientific analysis of the "toughest" regional city in terms of program strength. I figured I'd do the same this year. I ran the numbers using three different metrics: last year's 24 ABA regional champions, the top 25 teams in the University of Houston Blakely Advocacy Institute's Moot Court National Championship rankings for 2009-10, and the current top 25 teams (for the 2010 ranking year) according to Brian Koppen's LawSchoolAdvocacy.com ranking site.

If we look at last year's 24 ABA regional champions, Seattle gets the nod for the toughest regional, hosting six schools that sent eight teams to Chicago's national finals (Texas Tech University School of Law (two teams), University of Texas School of Law, Loyola Law School Los Angeles (two teams), Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Thomas M. Cooley Law School, and University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law). San Francisco and St. Louis bring up the rear, with just two schools at each regional having Chicago-bound teams from 2010 (Baylor Law School and University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law in the San Francisco regional; Texas Wesleyan University School of Law and Washington University in St. Louis School of Law in the St. Louis regional).

If we use UH's MCNC rankings from the 2009-10 academic year, Seattle again comes out on top, with six top-25 schools battling for the four regional championships in that city (#3 Texas Tech, #4 Texas, #8 Chicago-Kent College of Law (Illinois Institute of Technology), #16 University of Arkansas School of Law, #23 Loyola Los Angeles, and #24 Cleveland-Marshall). Brooklyn actually ties Seattle in that category, with six top-25 schools (#7 Stetson University College of Law, #11 John Marshall Law School, #17 Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, #21 Brooklyn Law School, and #25 Seton Hall University School of Law). Again, St. Louis is the weakest, with just one ranked school (#18 Mississippi College School of Law).

Finally, under LawSchoolAdvocacy.com's 2010 running tally (which hasn't yet been "locked," although it does appear to be up-to-date), Seattle once again looks to be the toughest regional, albeit tied with San Francisco with five top-25 schools a piece. In the Emerald City, you've got #2 Texas Tech, #5 Texas, #11 Cleveland-Marshall, #16 University of Houston Law Center, and #22 Southwestern Law School. Meanwhile, in the City by the Bay, we see #3 UC Hastings College of the Law, #9 Loyola University Chicago School of Law, #12 Baylor, #18(T) Tulane University Law School,and #18(T) UCLA School of Law. St. Louis doesn't bring up the rear under this measure (although it was close); that honor goes to Washington, D.C., which has just one top-25 team under The Ranker's system: #23 American University Washington College of Law.

So, it seems pretty clear to me: Seattle is the toughest region (at least on paper) and St. Louis is the weakest.

Good luck to all you competitors and coaches. Come say hi to me in Seattle!