[eDebate] determining breaks

[Jason Regnier]

I propose the following way to decide breaks.  I call it the "Break Competition Selection,"  or BCS for short.  There are several components:

1) Polls

A)  A coaches poll of who they think the best teams are at the tournament.  This is to be conducted by a select group of coaches, based on seniority.  Each coach would rank ordinally the top 32 teams.

B) An "All Participants" poll (AP for short) where all of the debaters at the tournament ordinally rank the top 32 teams.

These polls will be added together and then averaged to produce a composite poll score that will form the first component score for each team.

2)  10 different people from the top mathematical/tech schools across the country will be asked to create different computer programs to calculate the best team at the tournament based on any number of different characteristics, including, but not limited to, record, opp record, speaker points, rep, previous tournament records, ranks, the ominous z-score, the other polls, or how many vowels are in the team's name.  This, for those of you who are concerned about the subjective nature of the first component, adds an element of "objectivity" to the proceedings.  These polls will be averaged together to provide the second component score.

3)  Opponent strength will be determined by ordinally ranking the number of wins accumulated by one's opponents.  The team's losses will be subtracted from that total (after all, you shouldn't get rewarded in your opp record for losing to that team).  Every team's opponent wins will be ordinally ranked.  then, each rank will be divided by 25 to give each team their opp strength component.

4) Losses - Each loss will be worth 1 point to give the total "loss score"

5) Subtotal - Each of the above components are added together to form the BCS subtotal.  Teams are ordinally ranked based on the points they've accumulated - lowest points being the best.

6) Quality wins are then subtracted from the subtotal.  If a team defeats one of the top 16 teams established in the subtotal then they get a "quality win."  They recieve an inverse function of 1.6 as a bonus point to be subtracted.  So, if a team beats the #1 team, then they get a -1.6, if you beat #2 then you get a -1.5, #3 is -1.4, and so on.

7) The total is formulated by subtracting the quality win points from the subtotal to give the final BCS standings.  Depending on the tournament, the top 16 or 32 or 64 point totals break, seeded as their ranking.

I think this would solve all the concerns of everybody. . . .

*hum*

jason
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