Re: Winning versus scoring

ehillema writes:
> It is possible that we
may adjust procedures to decrease the
>
likelihood of making invitations out of order of final
finish within
> an SCT all the way down to
zero.
> 
> This would be a big change, though, and
complicated by the great
> variety of formats used at
the different sectionals. For instance, we
>
have had many instances over the years where final
official standings
> and overall winning percentages
are quite different things, due to
> playoff
systems and "upsets" therein.

As I said, my main
concern is that the global rankings of teams from all
SCTs should be consistent with the local rankings at
each SCT. Making this happen would require either
changing the global ranking system *or* changing the local
ranking system (or both).

> Look at what might
have happened
> in Div. 2 of the NE SCT this
year. After a round-robin, NYU was 10-0
> and
ranked 1st, while Yeshiva was 4-6 and ranked 8th. They
went to
> playoffs, with #1 playing #8 in the
quarterfinals, needing to win two
> of three. Yeshiva
played NYU very close, winning the middle game
>
before losing the deciding one by 70. A 70 point swing
can be made on
> a single tossup/bonus sequence
going the other way. Suppose that
> Yeshiva had
won that final game. At that point NYU, now 11-2,
and
> still statistically the dominant team in the
field, is eliminated in
> playoff quarterfinals,
and could place no higher than 5th in
official
> standings. Yeshiva, now 6-7, is guaranteed a spot
in the top
> four.

No, it depends on
how the official standings are computed. They should
be determined by NAQT's secret formula, or a new
version of it, since that's what counts in the end. Let's
say that according to some quirk (probably
unintended) of the formula, a team with NYU's round-robin
stats will be guaranteed to place at least second,
while a team with Yeshiva's round-robin stats will
place no higher than fourth unless it wins the
tournament. Don't you think some NYU and Yeshiva players
might want to know this before starting their playoff
games?

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