- Dec 14, 2009
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I spoke with a few people at U.S. finals in Virginia Beach this past weekend regarding the finals situation with some of these "dying" divisions. We came up with and idea, and would just like to get some thoughts on it.
As it stands 50% of a division makes it to finals. My numbers may be off but in the large divisions this would mean that only 7 large senior teams, 7 semi-limited teams, and 3 unlimited teams, will be moving on to finals. Meanwhile closer to to 20 or more teams will be moving to finals in the small senior and small limited divisions. Hypothetically speaking, let's say that Woodlands is in 8th day 1 at worlds and thus does not move on to finals according to the current set up. However a team that Woodlands may have outscored by more than 10 points in the small division if afforded the opportunity to move to finals in 20th just because the division is larger.
The idea that we came up with is as follows: What if we keep the finals cap at 50% with a minimum of top 10. So if a division is smaller than top 10 then the division as a whole moves on to finals. It is not a gym owner or coaches fault that their talent pool afforded them to enter competitively into a division that as a whole may be smaller. I understand that the Medium division is suppose to generate more competition for teams with larger numbers of Athletes next year. However, if we use Semi-Limited as a basis for this, that division is not exactly huge this year either. I feel as if all we did and are doing is splitting two division where we will see close to the same number of competitors in finals as last year, just in two separate divisions. If 7 teams stayed in large senior and 7 teams moved to medium senior next year, then we are looking at only 3 teams moving to finals in each division. So as it stands coaches and owners with larger numbers of athletes in their all-girl program have to make a decision of which division they want to take their atletes where they stand a very slim to none chance of making it to finals. Adding a little more on to this as well, with the current set up there is a possibility that a team who earned a full paid bid to worlds may be sitting and watching a team that was given a hand me down bid or rejected at-large bid compete on Sunday. That is not to discredit those teams in any way however do we honestly think that Small Team A deserves to go to finals with half squad level 5 skills over Large Team B with majority?
I know this wouldn't be a change made for worlds this year as it is right around the corner, however if we are going to keep worlds competitive for all teams and not just those in the small divisions, or with high chances of medaling in the large I feel this is something that should be addressed.
As it stands 50% of a division makes it to finals. My numbers may be off but in the large divisions this would mean that only 7 large senior teams, 7 semi-limited teams, and 3 unlimited teams, will be moving on to finals. Meanwhile closer to to 20 or more teams will be moving to finals in the small senior and small limited divisions. Hypothetically speaking, let's say that Woodlands is in 8th day 1 at worlds and thus does not move on to finals according to the current set up. However a team that Woodlands may have outscored by more than 10 points in the small division if afforded the opportunity to move to finals in 20th just because the division is larger.
The idea that we came up with is as follows: What if we keep the finals cap at 50% with a minimum of top 10. So if a division is smaller than top 10 then the division as a whole moves on to finals. It is not a gym owner or coaches fault that their talent pool afforded them to enter competitively into a division that as a whole may be smaller. I understand that the Medium division is suppose to generate more competition for teams with larger numbers of Athletes next year. However, if we use Semi-Limited as a basis for this, that division is not exactly huge this year either. I feel as if all we did and are doing is splitting two division where we will see close to the same number of competitors in finals as last year, just in two separate divisions. If 7 teams stayed in large senior and 7 teams moved to medium senior next year, then we are looking at only 3 teams moving to finals in each division. So as it stands coaches and owners with larger numbers of athletes in their all-girl program have to make a decision of which division they want to take their atletes where they stand a very slim to none chance of making it to finals. Adding a little more on to this as well, with the current set up there is a possibility that a team who earned a full paid bid to worlds may be sitting and watching a team that was given a hand me down bid or rejected at-large bid compete on Sunday. That is not to discredit those teams in any way however do we honestly think that Small Team A deserves to go to finals with half squad level 5 skills over Large Team B with majority?
I know this wouldn't be a change made for worlds this year as it is right around the corner, however if we are going to keep worlds competitive for all teams and not just those in the small divisions, or with high chances of medaling in the large I feel this is something that should be addressed.