with two exceptions, every state as well as the district of columbia crowns a state champion, and sends that team to represent it to one of eight regional tournaments. the exceptions involve california and texas. because of their large geographic and population sizes, california and texas send two representatives to their regional tournament; northern california and southern california in the west region tournament and texas east and texas west (whose areas encompass more than the geographical areas of east texas and west texas, splitting roughly along the i-35/i-37 corridor) compete in the southwest region tournament. up through 2018, the dakotas had one district spanning the two states, and its winner became the joint champion when advancing to the midwest region tournament. however, beginning in 2019, north dakota and south dakota are represented by individual teams in the regional tournament—creating an odd number of seven teams in the midwest regional.