What David and Julie said, but with an
interesting caveat:
If everyone who excelled at high
school quiz bowl stuck with the game in college, Harvard
(and a handful of other schools) would swamp the
circuit by sheer numbers. You'd routinely see tournaments
where the same school could send 6-7 teams and have
nearly all of them finish in the top
half.
Unfortunately, at the college level it becomes a tradeoff: Some
players who would have excelled decide to focus on
academics (or on Model UN or whatever the prime competition
is to qb itself these days). Or, sadly, some high
school stars burn out for various reasons.
(Or,
in the case of Harvard specifically, the funding
situation might discourage the more casual players, at
least this was true five years ago.)
Whatever
the case, the Ivy schools shouldn't have nearly the
advantage at quiz-bowl that an observer might expect, but
the potential advantage is still there enough that a
really ambitious coach or club president type could pull
off some amazing turnout.
Matt