Without March Madness basketball this year we are going to have to make due with March Madness track/XC this year. Here you will have a chance to not only do your own bracket but also vote for who advances in each round.
This is part popularity contest, part stats, part historical, and part analytical making it exciting and unpredictable just like March Madness.
Here is how things will work:
1. There are 32 individuals entered, the bracket will be released this weekend and thus there are rounds of 32, 16, 8, 4, then 2. It is a head to head matchup each week where we will release all matchups and voting will be open for roughly 4-5 days each round.
2. VOTE! Each round we need your vote on every matchup... even if you don't know who was better in your mind... make it just like March Madness and chose whichever name sounds coolest.
3. Finally here is how scoring will work. There are three components: fan vote (50%), stats vote (30%), and historical records (20%). The fan vote is the simplest where each athlete receives their vote percentage of 50 points. Meaning if athlete x receive 85% of the popular vote they get 85% of 50 points which is 42.5 points. The stats vote and all-time list vote is explained below but based on the simple principle that the better you were both in your event and overall in the state the more points you receive up to the 30 and 20 points each.
4. Lastly, fill out a bracket and email us your predictions. (njezva@gmail.com) and we will score your brackets. Correct picks for each round go 2-3-4-5-6 and the highest score wins. Whichever fan wins gets a feature article written about their team, athlete, or event of choosing.
Here is the bracket:
Play-in #1: Michael Morrison vs Gennifer Hirata
Play-in #2: Natalie Baird vs Matthew Zajac
Just outside the bubble: Dana Boone, Paula Girven, Rachel Butler, Carolina Alcorta, Sharif Karie, Alisa Harvey, Mike Newell, Rickey Harris, Kurt Powdar, Keith Holley, Ronnie Ray, Brandon McGorty, LaTasha Collander
Best of luck and check back later this weekend for the big dance!
More on the Stats Vote: (Highest potential points 30) Here the vote will be calculated based on the athlete's rank each year in their event plus their major wins. Athletes receive 3 points for every state title, 3 points for every national title, 3 points for ending the season VA #1 in their event, and 1 point for every state title relay or VA #1 they were on.
Since not all athlete run though we have to make a slight adjustment to totals for throwers, vaulters, and jumpers. If those field athletes sweep an event in any given year they receive 4 extra points and 2 extra points if they ended VA #1 in the same event both indoors and outdoors.
More on the All-time List Vote: (Highest potential points 20) Here the vote will be simply calculated by how many records they hold and where they rank all-time. For the first round athletes can receive 5 points for every state record they hold (today), 4 points for every state record they set (only get one or the other), 3 points for every appearance in the VA top 10 all-time list (today), and 2 points for every appearance on the all-time list in any given event (today). They can then receive an additional 2 points for every national record set and an extra point if that record still stands today. If that wasn't complicated enough we are making it even more complicated where points depreciate each round. So where points were 5-4-3-2 in round one they then become 4-3-2-1 in round two. Then they become 3-2-1-1 in round three then 2-1-1-1 in round four (the final four), and finally 1-1-1-1 in the finals.
The points for national records stays the same each round. Athletes can only max out at 20 points here so in theory some athletes may score 20 points in all five rounds.