OCC All-Sport Standings (after winter sports season)
1. Lexington 74 (18 sports)
2. Wooster 66.5 (18 sports)
3. Ashland 57.5 (18 sports)
4. Madison 44 (17 sports)
5. Orrville 43 (17 sports)
6. West Holmes 42 (16 sports)
7. Clear Fork 39 (14 sports)
8. Mansfield Senior 35 (17 sports)
Notice that the top three teams in the standings all offer 18 varsity sports? Wooster, Lexington and Ashland are all Division 2 schools and are pretty well-rounded when it comes to success in all sports (Lexington has won the last 6 all-sports crowns)....and that's fine, but I don't think that it's an even system when schools can score points in sports that other schools DON'T EVEN OFFER.
I'm not a fan of the system, and not because Orrville is in the middle of the pack, but because schools that don't offer certain sports are penalized. It gives a natural advantage to the bigger schools in the conference.
Here's what I mean. Five schools in the conference don't offer all 18 varsity sports, and in Clear Fork's case, they don't offer 4 sports (boys and girls cross country and boys and girls swimming). So they'll only ever earn all-sports points in 14 varsity sports instead of the 18 that Lexington, Ashland and Wooster have. It's basically a given that Clear Fork will never win an all-sports trophy.
Madison (no girls cross country), Mansfield Senior (no girls cross country) and Orrville (no girls soccer) offer only 17 sports, and West Holmes (no boys or girls swimming) only offer 16 varsity sports. Along with Clear Fork, all are ranked in the bottom 5 schools in terms of standings.
My Solution
What if points were only counted in sports that ALL eight schools offered? You'd still be scoring 13 different varsity sports, and it would even the playing field for all 8 schools. Those 13 sports are....
Fall - football, volleyball, golf, girls tennis, boys soccer
Winter - boys basketball, girls basketball, wrestling
Spring - boys track, girls track, baseball, softball, boys tennis
If that formula were used, the standing would look like this...
1. Lexington - 49
2. Wooster - 42
3. Ashland - 39
4. Madison - 36
5. West Holmes - 36
6. Orrville - 35
7. Clear Fork - 32
8. Mansfield Senior - 23
No real change in terms of how the teams are ordered, but it's a much more competitive situation, no? Fourth through seventh place are separated by a mere 7 points.
It shouldn't reduce the importance of the 5 sports not counted in the standings, but in order to create an equitable environment, it only makes sense to count the sports that all schools offer.
The way it's currently setup, it's basically rewarding the bigger schools for having more sports.
What say you?
1 comment:
Great points Tim!
I think I would also add in the postseason factor...
Take Orrville for example...
Final Four in Football
Regionals in volleyball
Regionals in girls basketball
Regionals in boys basketball
Those are just the big 4 sports at Orrville....you add in the rest of them and we have a lot of success outside of league play. Why not reward those league schools that go deep into the postseason and make our conference look really good. Most years the OCC has 2 teams go deep into the football playoffs and sometimes has up to 4 schools make the playoffs...basketball is the same way. I think they should take into count the postseason.
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