SoCal-LD Season Sweepstakes
As mentioned in an earlier post by Mike Marse (Cal-Baptist) we are proposing a new year long award system here at SoCal-LD.net. We’ll call it the SoCal-LD Cup. It is meant to both encourage greater participation in NFA-LD in Southern California and reward schools who exhibit excellence all season in the event.
We will offer three divisions of the Cup – the Lincoln, the Douglas and the top debater category.
Lincoln Division
The Lincoln Division will recognize the quality of a team’s performance in NFA-LD debate. We will measure the total number of ballots won divided by the total number of ballots eligible to calculate a win percentage. Schools will have had to met a certain minimum number of total rounds to be eligible for this award (probably at least 20). All elimination round ballots will count in this calculation to reward 3-0 decisions. This is in recognition that although Lincoln did not get the most votes in 1858 for his Senate seat he did such a great job he was elected President two years later.
Douglas Division
The Douglas division will simply count the number of ballots each team wins in NFA-LD the entire year. The school with the most number of ballots wins the Douglas cup. All preliminary and elimination rounds will count in this category. This is in recognition of that the fact that Douglas got more votes in the 1858 Senate election within the State Legislature.
Top SoCal-LD Debater
Finally, we will recognize the top SoCal-LD individual debater with the highest ballot win % over the course of the year. The same standards as the Lincoln division cup will be used to rank the individual debaters.
Since the mission of SoCal-LD.net is to foster NFA-LD debate within Southern California there will be limits placed on the eligibility for this sweepstakes award. First, only schools within Southern California are eligible for the award. Second, only tournaments within Southern California will count towards the award.
Southern California will be defined per Wikipedia:
Southern California, or SoCal, is defined as the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population centers on the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Ana, San Diego, San Bernardino, and Riverside.
If your school/tournament is within the following counties:
- Imperial
- Los Angeles
- Orange
- Riverside
- San Bernardino
- San Diego
- Ventura
You are eligible to participate in the award. If you would prefer your school or you as a debater not be listed in the season sweepstakes please let me know and we can exclude you from the rankings.
Tournaments will count from September 1st through the PSCFA Spring Champs tournament. All divisions will count equally towards the award recognizing the importance of fostering debate across all experience levels. Award winners will be announced shortly after the tournament. I anticipate getting sponsorship and mailing out nice plaques to the top schools.
Professor Mike Marse at Cal Baptist has graciously agreeded to do the record keeping this year. The results will be tallied here at SoCal-LD.net in a soon to be released feature.
As this is still a work in progress if you have any suggestions or changes please let me know in the next few days. We would like to have all of the criteria ironed out by the RCC LD in the IE tournament on October 4.
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Comments
No, I think we will treat all divisions equally. I’d be worried about a debater who moves up the ranks throughout the year – so if they spent fall in novice but spring in junior would he/she be ineligible for year long award? I think the divisions capture strength pretty well – a novice in novice is having a hard time wining just like an open in open. Given that a lot of debaters and schools are still adopting NFA-LD promoting the event at the novice/junior level is important.
I’m also open to amending the rules this year if we see a problem with sand bagging =)
Perhaps we could do a ‘judge division’ as well? Have the competitors select a ‘judge of the year’ on the website?
There are specific schools every year in so-cal that hold their people in novice/jv until they run out of eligibility in those specific events for both ies and debate (parli specifically). I believe that this is what you mean by sand bagging. We know which schools they are and if you don’t go look at how long teams were getting medals in lower levels before they moved up. I can think of about 2 teams in so-cal that do sandbag.
When it comes to awards that make your school look good, like best speaker in the region, people are going to do what they can in order to make their school look better; especially with the way budgets are this year… I could see a few schools going for the award as an attempt to make their program look solid.
I understand your concerns. However, as long as coaches are meeting the letter of the law according to eligibility I have no problem. It’s only when a coach puts a student in a division lower than he/she is eligible that it is sandbagging to me. If it truly becomes a problem we can look into creating different divisions for the top award next year…
My previous offer (from Debate Cooperative) remains open. To all NFA-LD Champions: public forum/any topic/either side/ proceeds to benefit debate charity of your choice.
So does me being from UNR disqualify me for competing in the cup? I would say about 95% of my LD tournaments will be in Socal. I want to be included!! =[[[
Travis,
Are you still coming down this weekend? If so, let’s talk there. Part of the idea was that there was going to have to be some limit (this was not intended as a national award) and it made sense to limit it to Southern California debaters and tournaments.
Oh… He already knows. The sad thing is. Me and Mat are the only Ld ers in the state of Nevada. Seriously.
Cool idea what you all got going on here!
Since I am just a poor slob in college and to make sure I understand this correctly; Lincoln is school wins/ballots, Douglass is total school ballots, and top debater is the person with the most wins/ballots come end of the year?
This is always an issue for NPDA season sweeps from what I understand. Certain debaters could spend their entire 20 rounds in novice and junior, win every one, and still be be considered ‘the best debater in the area’ even though the one tournament they were in open they went 0-5.
Maybe we can get the top-debater award a commemorative name, someone who is/was key to ld/debate in so-cal? I am not originally from so-cal so I wouldn’t know who to nominate for this award name so I can leave that up to those of you who are ‘seasoned’/'experienced’ in this arena. However, if I got the ‘Regan award for top ld speaker’ (doubtful) I may white out Regan…
Is there a way to have an open only division for the top debater award?
I know it may take adding another award, but maybe a best novice/jv and then the top award?
That way we can recognize the achievements in LD for all levels.