In our 40+ league, the league coordinator is also a captain, a captain of a very good team that many consider the "favorite" to win our league. On Saturday, my team went to their courts and beat them. Suddenly, today, I received an email from the district coordinator (who is in charge of organizing the district playoffs for my league and two others) stating that a fourth team, a "wild card" from among the second place teams, will be granted entry into the playoffs. Coincidence?
League Shenanigans? You Make The Call
- Thread starter J_R_B
- Start date
storypeddler
Semi-Pro
LOL. Maybe, maybe not. Do you know for sure yet that THIS team will be the wild card team?
No. There was no mention in the email how the wild card will be selected (which itself is slightly fishy...), and the league seasons aren't over.
With that said, it's at least 50-50 or better that the wild card will be the 2nd place finisher between my team and this team (we have one more head-to-head match coming up).
storypeddler
Semi-Pro
Well, on the positive side, it looks like you have something of a fall-back position. Play from the front and know you may have a safety net. LOL.
There are three leagues in our district. We were originally told that one team from each league would go to districts. In my league, the league coordinator is also a captain. His team is very strong and probably considered pre-season favorites to win the league by most people playing in the league. We go to their courts this past weekend and beat them. Two days later, the rules are changed to allow a "wild card". Doesn't that timing seem just a bit suspicious? I mean, they didn't even let the body get cold before changing the rules.
I don't know that it's not legit, and I'm trying to get clarification from the district coordinator (who is not the same person as the league coordiinator who is a captain in the league) on how the wild card will be chosen. The first tiebreaker in most situations is number of wins, but the three leagues don't have the same number of matches on the schedule, so I don't think they can use that in this case. If the wild card is just selected subjectively and not by some non-manipulatable formula, I'll be very suspicious.
Yeah, it's good that we have a potential back door, but I'm still going to put together my "A" lineup for that match and leave nothing to chance. They have to come to our house now, and they're going to get an even better lineup than they saw this weekend. This team is also a geographical outlier. They are an hour trip away in horrendous traffic where all of the other teams are within 15 minutes (their home club is actually not even technically located in our section). I had guys who couldn't make the trip (so I had kind of an "A-" lineup Saturday), and I can only hope they do, too.
If they follow how USTA selects wild cards pretty much everywhere else, it should be randomly selected between the 3 leagues and the second place finisher in that league gets the wild card.
It should have nothing to do with records between teams from different leagues as they don't play against the same teams so that type of evaluation isn't fair.
OK, thanks for the info. This is only going to get more and more interesting. One of the leagues is almost done. They have one team clearly head and shoulders above everyone at 8-0 and the second place team is 4-4. Our league schedule is short, but we're atop at 3-0 and the coordinator's team is right behind us at 2-1. In the third league, the schedule is about half done and there seems to be 2 teams getting some separation from the others. So the 4-4 team would have as much chance as a team from my league that might end up 5-1? Interesting.
schmke
Legend
In the PNW we have rotating wildcards to get to an even number of teams at Sectionals. The District that gets the wildcard for each division/level is documented well in advance and is on a standard rotation. No surprises or late changes.
Now, this being a rotation for Sectionals means the 2nd place team is one that did play in local playoffs (most of our Districts are large enough to have them at each level) so they weren't just second place in a sub-flight.
dcdoorknob
Hall of Fame
I know of a situation where there were 3 leagues, and all 3 2nd place teams were invited to a special round-robin at the end of the regular season to determine which one got to advance further.
This is getting fishier and fishier by the minute. The district person told me there was a "formula" that decides the wild card. I asked if I could get the formula so that I know where my team stands since this is pretty important to us and was told that this person (i.e. THE COORDINATOR ORGANIZING DISTRICTS) doesn't have the formula so I can't get it. Huh, come again?
typically it is a lottery, if your league has more teams than the other 2 leagues the chance is higher of your league getting the WC. Now this should have been put on paper well ahead of time. I would almost say you could file a grievance to State or Sectional office for clarification of WC implementation. If it was not on paper then it should not be allowed. At the very least a public drawing should have been held to keep it open and transparent.
schmke
Legend
From the Middle States Rules and Regs
http://assets.usta.com/assets/649/15/2013_Section_Rules_Final.pdf
"DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIPS: The area shall determine the progression from local league to Section Championship. This process – including the structure for any playoffs or championships (flight, area, for example) ‐ shall be distributed in writing to team captains prior to the start ofthe local league season."
And then:
"Wild Card Procedure
In any district where an additional team is needed to even out the flights, the following procedure will be used to determine who will receive the wild card invitation.
If all teams in contention played the same number of matches with the same schedule format(e.g., allteams played a double round robin, or all teams played againstthe same number ofteams,the teamwith the best statistics in TennisLink will be the wild card).
When the flights have different formats, we will take the percentage of match wins vs matches played; add the percentage of individual courts won vsthe number of individual courts played and average them. If one team has the best average by at least 5%, that teamwill advance. If not the top two will have a playoff
If no championship is held, the winner will be the No. 1 team in the final standings in TennisLink TennisLink uses national rule: 2.03H Procedures in the Event of a Tie in the nationalrulebook to break ties."
http://assets.usta.com/assets/649/15/2013_Section_Rules_Final.pdf
"DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIPS: The area shall determine the progression from local league to Section Championship. This process – including the structure for any playoffs or championships (flight, area, for example) ‐ shall be distributed in writing to team captains prior to the start ofthe local league season."
And then:
"Wild Card Procedure
In any district where an additional team is needed to even out the flights, the following procedure will be used to determine who will receive the wild card invitation.
If all teams in contention played the same number of matches with the same schedule format(e.g., allteams played a double round robin, or all teams played againstthe same number ofteams,the teamwith the best statistics in TennisLink will be the wild card).
When the flights have different formats, we will take the percentage of match wins vs matches played; add the percentage of individual courts won vsthe number of individual courts played and average them. If one team has the best average by at least 5%, that teamwill advance. If not the top two will have a playoff
If no championship is held, the winner will be the No. 1 team in the final standings in TennisLink TennisLink uses national rule: 2.03H Procedures in the Event of a Tie in the nationalrulebook to break ties."
Awesome. Thanks. This place is great.
Cindysphinx
G.O.A.T.
Do take a moment to review carefully all of the emails sent around declaring the format before the season started. If you are pals with another captain, you might check with him to see if he has an email on the subject, just in case you missed it or didn't get it.
It seems very likely that there was a statement of how the advancing teams will be selected.
It seems very likely that there was a statement of how the advancing teams will be selected.
The email was dated Tuesday the 25th of June and worded:
This was not mentioned to my recollection at the captains meeting and the other captains did not have any idea of it, either. The email wording makes it seem like a recent decision.
EDIT: As long as this is determined by an objective, verifiable formula, I'm OK with it. In fact, as someone mentioned, it gives MY team a second path to the playoffs as well in case we slip up in the rematch (this is a good team we beat, and it was probably a mild upset in most eyes, so victory in the rematch is far from a guarantee).
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Cindysphinx
G.O.A.T.
What I meant is that you should go back to the *pre-season* emails and re-read them carefully.
The reason I mention it is that our ladies 4.0 league was notified pre-season of an unusual format. The teams were divided into two flights. Each flight played around twice, and then each team played every other team in the other flight once.
The winner of each flight went to Districts. If you look at the overall league standings, the No. 1 team and No. 3 teams will be going.
The captain of the No. 2 wrote to me a few weeks ago. She had realized that she wasn't going to Districts because the No. 1 team is in our flight. This was stated in the pre-season email, but she had missed it.
So . . . it might be a good plan to triple-check everything before you launch a grievance.
The reason I mention it is that our ladies 4.0 league was notified pre-season of an unusual format. The teams were divided into two flights. Each flight played around twice, and then each team played every other team in the other flight once.
The winner of each flight went to Districts. If you look at the overall league standings, the No. 1 team and No. 3 teams will be going.
The captain of the No. 2 wrote to me a few weeks ago. She had realized that she wasn't going to Districts because the No. 1 team is in our flight. This was stated in the pre-season email, but she had missed it.
So . . . it might be a good plan to triple-check everything before you launch a grievance.
Cindysphinx
G.O.A.T.
If you are correct that this is a recent development, I would protest it even if it could inure to your benefit.
Having a fourth team at Districts is a big change. If that is the plan, it needs to be declared pre-season.
Having a fourth team at Districts is a big change. If that is the plan, it needs to be declared pre-season.
There's nothing in preseason emails or at the captain's meeting or anywhere else, but I'm certainly not filing a grievance against something that could work to my advantage. LOL. The only grievance I would file would be to get the formula that determines the wild card to make sure everything is above board. I'm certainly not against the concept of giving my team an extra way to make the playoffs.
The only thing I could come up with is because the league coordinator's team was upset on Saturday. They knew there were three leagues from the start, but this wasn't brought up until yesterday.
Cindysphinx
G.O.A.T.
Fair enough.
Me, I would protest it regardless of where my team stood.
The process needs to have integrity and accountability. That is important. If integrity means my team doesn't advance, I'm OK with it.
Yes, I will bring it up and make sure that is the formula they are using. If that's it and it was written and stored publically before the season started, then that's fine with me.
I dunno.....sounds fishy to me. FWIW, I remember when I played softball as a kid (maybe 9 or 10), the team in first place at the end of the season was the winner. Every year it was the team whose captain (somebody's dad) would write up the games in the paper. One year, when we played that team, we were down three runs in the last inning with two out. The captain dad decided to walk the player in front of me (loading the bases) so they could pitch to me (batting 8th). I burst into tears, then hit a triple. The next batter singled me in and we won the game and finished in first place. Somehow, that exciting come from behind victory never showed up in the paper, and then suddenly the rules were changed and we had to play this team again in a playoff. We lost. I guess not much is different now...some people are just always going to be scum.
Cindysphinx
G.O.A.T.
OK, that is just adorable. Here's my mental image of 9-year-old moonbat with his game face on:
Thanks, Cindy. Just lose the helmet and eye black and add a ponytail, and it would be perfect. As someone who was lucky to get the ball out of the infield, slugging a triple over the left fielder's head (and making the captain look stupid) was one of the best moments of my life.
