NAQT Div. II bids

quizbowllee <*charolee_at_quizbowllee.yahoo.invalid*> · Mon, 16 Feb 2004 05:14:50 -0000

I would like to take this opportunity to address NAQT's Div. II 
bids.  

First, thanks to all of you who have taken the time to personally 
tell me that you believe we  "were shafted," "were done wrong," 
or "received a raw deal."  The fact that members of the quiz bowl 
community who I have never had the pleasure of meeting took the time 
and interest to contact me speaks volumes.

Now:  In all honesty, we at Athens State left the Southeastern SCT 
very confident that we had earned a bid.  I am notorious for my 
pessimistic nature, but there was no way I could fathom not getting 
a bid after placing 2nd at such a large and strong SCT.  

When the initial bids came in, I was thrilled because I received an 
e-mail that said quote: 

Congratulations!  If you are receiving this email, then, based upon 
the results of the 2004 NAQT SCT Tournaments, your school has had a 
team (or teams) awarded one of the 32 spots in the Division II field 
of the 2004 NAQT Intercollegiate Championship Tournament.

Then, I read further and saw that we were waitlisted.  In turns out 
that NAQT sent the wrong e-mail to the waitlisted team. They did 
apologize, but I still think that was really rough...

I do take quiz bowl seriously, VERY seriously... But I'm not as 
vindictive and confrontational as "some" of you (you know who you 
are).  Regardless of situations, I try to keep the peace and go with 
the flow.  However, after consulting with my teammates and taking a 
REALLY good look at some of the teams that got invited over us, I am 
a little more irked.  Please consider the following:

At the Southeastern ICT we went 10-2, placed 2nd, and had 15.84 
bonus conversion.  I was convinced that our bonus conversion hurt us 
bad.  We're not strong on bonuses, but we WON matches, and that 
should be what counts.  However, notice that Columbia got an 
invite.  Columbia placed 3rd in their SCT, went 11-2 and had 15.51 
bonus conversion.  This ruins any theory that our conversion hurt 
us, as theirs was lower than ours PLUS they finished lower in a 
field roughly the same size (one team more).  Also notice that 
Maryland, who was 4th in that SCT got an invite.  And Swarthmore, 
who was 5th(!!!) is on the waitlist ahead of us!!!  

Then there is Caltech.  Caltech went 7-6 and placed 3rd in their SCT 
and got invited.  A 7-6 team over a 10-2???!!!  If the mysterious S-
formula allows a 7-6 team to get invited over a 10-2 team, it needs 
some serious revision.  NAQT says that its formula takes into 
account strength of field, but come on!  Maybe next year Athens 
State should go all the way to California to compete... then we 
could go .500 and get a bid for sure.

Also, as I mentioned in an earlier post, we found 12 tossups that 
we "powered" and didn't get credit for.  We didn't really care, 
because it didn't make any difference in any of our rounds.  But 
since we don't know how much powered tossups count in the S-score, 
maybe we SHOULD care - as obviously Win-Loss record means little.

Our last gripe is the inclusion of the KCQRL SCT.  I didn't realize 
until speaking to Chad Money from Kentucky at ACF this weekend that 
it was a "Kentucky only" event.  While I have nothing against that 
per se, I do feel that giving an automatic bid to the winner of an 
exclusive SCT such as that is questionable.  Why couldn't Alabama 
have had one?  Athens State would have to host as we're the only 
Alabama team on the circuit.  We could've just played each other and 
gotten the automatic bid.  Or, if they didn't get an automatic bid 
for hosting, each member could've played solo so we would have the 
prerequiste 4-team field... then we would've qualified that way.

Anyway, this post is sort of against my nature.  I know that every 
year SOMEONE thinks that they got screwed over and wines like a baby 
about it. I hate to be "that guy" this year, but even people I don't 
know are crying foul on our behalf.  Therefore, I would feel remiss 
if I didn't speak our part.

Please know that I have nothing at all against any of the schools I 
mentioned in this post.  I have never met most of you, and I plead 
our case based solely on what I see on the "Results" page at 
NAQT.com.  Also, I would like to point out that I have had some 
correspondance with the folks at NAQT and they have been nothing but 
cordial.  We at Athens State still enjoy NAQT games and will 
continue to play NAQT for as long as our team exists.   We do feel 
like they strongly underestimated the strength of the Southeastern 
teams.  Berry College, Furman, Florida B, Wofford, NC State... these 
were VERY tough teams and it is a shame that the Southeast only 
deserved one bid in the eyes of NAQT.  

Anyway, thanks for the support and for reading my rantings.  We're 
still keeping our fingers crossed that we get off the waitlist.  

Awaiting any and all declined bids, 

Lee Henry (speaking on behalf of teammates at ASU)
Athens State Quiz Bowl