First off, regarding R.'s post: my initial
message said, "apparently 'guaranteed' bids *at some
point in the selection process.*" Perhaps I should have
used the word 'assured': what I meant is that while
not all of these teams will receive invites in the
first pass, some of them will end up on the list in a
position higher than they would be based on SCT
performance alone.
Second: thank you for clarifying
the issues regarding (a) field size and (b) the fact
that it applies only to first teams from a school. I
don't know if the former was the case last year, but I
know the latter wasn't: Oklahoma B was allowed to
qualify because there was no overlap from their Oklahoma
A SCT team.
--STI