Top 25 Poll : Pre-Nationals Edition

bokonon90 · Sun, 04 Mar 2001 10:01:53 -0800

I am accepting proposed ballots to be used for a
Top 25 poll - ballots will be accepted from the
present until March 18, 2001. 

E-mail your
proposed ballots to the following address :

actop25_at_... 

 All members of the academic competition
are welcome to submit their ballots. The purpose of
this open ballot request is to create a stable panel
of knowledgeable voters that will vote in possible
future closed polls. (Yeah, I know I said that last time
- this is very much a work in progress.)

Voters are allowed to consider a variety of factors when
choosing a Top 25. Ideally they should pertain to this
year, and have a modicum of predictive value for this
year's national championship tournaments. Voters can and
should weigh currently available tournament results (of
whatever form) as they see fit. This poll is not rooted in
any particular format of academic competition, but is
intended to emphasize players currently playing for a
given program in an actual rather than in a "masters"
capacity, an important thing to keep in mind if one wishes
to consider "masters" and/or "trash" tournaments.

 Voters are asked to submit a ranked list of
schools from #1 to #25, without ties. List each school
with corresponding rankings, and list them only once.
A vote for "Michigan A" at #3 and for "Michigan B"
at #14 will be counted as a vote for Michigan at #3,
with teams 15-25 being moved up. Make sure you specify
which program you are voting for with sufficient
specificity (some abbreviations, like "UIUC"or "MIT" will be
sufficient, while "U of M" will not be ; certain abridged
names like "Missouri" and "Washington" are best avoided
since they are somewhat ambiguous.) 

 Your
ballot must contain at least 20 valid entries or it will
be returned to you. 

 Each #1 vote a school
receives is worth 25 points, each #2 vote worth 24, and so
on until 1 point is received for a #25 vote.

 Extreme outlier ballots will be excluded if they
significantly skew the poll results in any way ; in addition,
individuals submitting such ballots will not be invited to
any future panels. 

In case of voting
ambiguities, Katherine Harris will not be consulted. 

-Tim Young 
 Poll Administrator