<<Well, I can conjecture that some teams
put in a bid to host an SCT solely because they want
the automatic host bid, and that the number of SCT
host bids would decline if it were not given. There
are schools capable of qualifying multiple teams
which choose not to submit a bid, because it endangers
the second or third bid, be it D1 or
D2.>>
That is the thing. Well for hosts who could have 2d
bids (D1 and D2) the performance of teams at the fall
tournament should be the sole consideration. That way they
won't be penalised. I think I suggested this last
season. But the thing is nearly a third of the field
could be pre-determined via the automatic bid thing.
But NAQT can't really expand the field too much w/o
putting pressures on staffing.
<<Anthony,
who thinks that the cool FIFA model for someone to
imitate would be divisions assigned by geographically
constrained random draw with preset
seeds.>>
Heh. Such fun. ;)
Shawn Pickrell