All-Star Just A Thought Regarding Finals At Worlds

[FamousMatty]

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.

 

[OakleyXO89]

I do agree that top 10 should move on to finals, the small all girl division is crazy with the amount that competes in it. and idealy this is cheerleading a team in tenth could bring home the gold if the scores are close enough. so that 8th place team thats getting knocked out of finals with the 50% rule in a division with 14 teams, could be loosing their 1st place finish just because we aren't going with a more idea approach. sure that 11th place team will be out of luck but top 10 would certainly shorten how long finals is!

 

[FamousMatty]

Though I think that the concept of top ten advancing across the board would make worlds a whole lot more interesting, and maybe not so long day 2, I also can then see the argument for the other side of the coin. 6th place in Unlimited coed who was a senior coed 4 who happened to go 5 and get an at large bid one weekend, now advances to finals while 11th place small senior who is legit does not. That's why I think keeping 50% with a minimum of top 10 advancing keeps everyone happy and also eliminates the death of any division we don't want to see gone. I think less would leave large senior and more would enter medium senior making both fairly competitive if this was the case. Again just using large/medium all girl as an example. The same would apply for medium/large coed.

 

[SamanthaFoor]

i can most definitely see where your coming from by saying that the 10 should move on, however, my issue with this is that while all the teams in the small senior division are battling to be in that 50% that moves to finals, kids in the other division with 10 or less team would be getting their finals spot handed to them, and i think that this would almost make finals less prestigious. But thats just my opinion.

 

[FamousMatty]

I can see that too, good point. I kind of look at that almost the same as the international divisions that pretty much compete twice on day 1 for nothing. Last year open 6 U.S. teams competed once, then all got called back to compete again, then they called top 3 to compete day two. I guess the only division this year it would TRULY be everyone moves on would be Unlimited. Semi and Large senior are still competing to make top 10 with 4 not moving on. Unlimited all 6 would move on according my concept.

 

[FamousMatty]

SN: I miss the days when full paids were less abundant and earning them meant an automatic advance to finals. I think it made even the road getting to worlds much more prestigious. As it stands right now, if one at-large bid recipient in the large senior division were not to go to worlds, a Large Senior with a full paid is not advancing.