I want to start this post by saying I know most of the people at NAQT and to a man I respect them. That said, I can't tell you how mad I am at the organization
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That's pretty weak. I wonder how many times in history the #2 team at *any* sectional got passed over for a nationals bid. You didn't even mention the fact that Chicago *did* get a bid, and not even a waitlisted one, either. I assume that because of the high number of teams, Chicago happened to play a tougher schedule than DePauw, and maybe that isn't the strongest field ever, but when the DII field is almost always *larger* than the DI field at Sectionals, why do *fewer* DII teams qualify (just 26!)?
I wonder how NAQT would have felt if DePauw and Chicago had played the same schedule and finished with the stats they currently have. Would Chicago still have gotten an outright bid and DePauw spurned entirely?
One possible point of light: in 2004, Northwestern went 4-12 (!) in Division I at the DePauw sectional, but while we started off the waitlist, enough teams declined that we moved all the way from what I assume was seventh into an actual bid. Of course, as already noted, DI has more spots in its field. But at least it *has* happened.
Actually, both teams played exactly the same schedule -- they were in the same prelim bracket and both went 6-1. Then, they both made the top playoff bracket and played the four best teams from the opposite prelim bracket. So, I think the 11 games they played were against the same 11 teams. The explanation I got from NAQT was that it's "very difficult" for a team which finishes behind a team at the same sectional to get an ICT bid unless its stats are significantly better. Apparently, the greater the difference in record, the greater the difficulty of such "leap-frogging". Still, we know what happened...
Did Chicago beat DePauw head-to-head? That may have played into it, along with the superior stats, and certainly the record was not *much* different. Still, from "full bid" to "not even in waitlist top five" is pretty suspect, regardless of possible reasons.
I wonder how NAQT would have felt if DePauw and Chicago had played the same schedule and finished with the stats they currently have. Would Chicago still have gotten an outright bid and DePauw spurned entirely?
One possible point of light: in 2004, Northwestern went 4-12 (!) in Division I at the DePauw sectional, but while we started off the waitlist, enough teams declined that we moved all the way from what I assume was seventh into an actual bid. Of course, as already noted, DI has more spots in its field. But at least it *has* happened.
-Flax
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-Flax
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