March 31, 2014 by Charlie Eisenhood in News with 17 comments
With the regular season now in the books, teams are eagerly awaiting the final USA Ultimate rankings to see how many bids will be allocated to the various regions around the country. As always, there has been a close eye on the bid cutoff to see which regions will nab the final strength bids.
However, paying attention to last week’s rankings to attempt to predict this week’s may not be worth your time. Games for multiple teams near the bid cutoff, including Northern Iowa and Penn State, were not counted in last week’s rankings. It appears that games from the Queen City Tune Up were simply left out of the algorithm’s calculations.
Northern Iowa was listed as 6-4 in last week’s rankings; they had played 14 sanctioned games. Penn State was missing four games; Dartmouth and North Carolina State were as well.
Considering that Northern Iowa and Penn State were ranked #19 and #21, respectively, handicapping the outcome of the bid allocation (at least in Men’s Division I) is now impossible.
A source familiar with the situation said that games have slipped through the cracks as USA Ultimate transitions to their new score reporting technology system. Games are currently being hand-entered into the algorithm by USA Ultimate staff. More games than just those at QCTU were likely missed, though the extent of the issue is difficult to determine without individual teams cross-checking their records.
The rankings issues are another blemish on the new Score Reporter rollout that has frustrated tournament directors, players, and fans alike. It has been six weeks since USA Ultimate transitioned Score Reporter back to the old ScoreReport.net system to prepare for the switch-over. USA Ultimate communications director Andy Lee said at the time that the move would be completed in “several weeks.”
The preliminary end-of-season college rankings are expected to be released this Wednesday or Thursday, with an opportunity for teams to address inconsistencies before finalizing the rankings late this week.
