On the contrary; I think I'm placing all the responsibility on the students because I think they're the only factor that can cause change: I can't change Florida and am unlikely to sway the coaches myself as, after all, it's not my interests they ought to follow.Siverus Snape wrote:Before now (considering that Illinois teams have seen some significant success at legitimate national only in the last few years), I don't think that the students who represented Team Illinois both disliked the tournament enough to deem it unworthy and made the effort to make sure the IHSSBCA knew about their concerns. It seems to me that the major factor contributing to the IHSSBCA's poor decision was incomplete information. If you were a coach entrusted with making a decision about rewarding top students with a chance to represent their state at a national tournament, and as far as anyone had told you the students who had participated in the past enjoyed the experience, achieved significant success, and supported future funding, wouldn't you view the opinion of the students with more weight than the opinions of a minority of coaches, even coaches like Reinstein, Laird, and Riley? I honestly don't think you're placing enough of the responsibility on the students themselves for the decision that has already been made.
As for what I'd do if I hadn't heard grumbling from students and didn't know the Florida format was sucky, I really can't say. I suppose I'd try to research the matter further. If you held a gun to my head and made me vote without further research, I guess I'd probably vote for sending a team again. However, that's speaks to the other points, doesn't it? (I'll get back to this later.)
I'm really not sure. I think it would be less likely to succeed than the program I outlined (which may or may not succeed on its own; I'm obviously guessing here, as anyone must.) That said, I'd like to recapitulate the point that I'm not in the business of telling you what to do. Please, by all means, do what you think is right.Siverus Snape wrote:I understand you present a solution for top players to lodge their protests and express their disapproval in a way that couldn't be ignored. I've already explained the reason that I wouldn't be comfortable taking that option in this situation. I definitely respect your skills of logical argumentation, so I ask you directly: Do you really feel that a unified message to the IHSSBCA from the members of 2009's Team Illinois (post-NTAE) outlining the reasons why they feel that the organization should not continue to sponsor the event would not succeed?
I've said both of these things, more or less. I'm decidedly positing and owning the latter, i.e. that, unless something changes, the committee might as well make this same decision next year. Consequently, if you disagree with this decision, it's incumbent on you to change something.Siverus Snape wrote:In case I managed to misinterpret what your argument again, are you saying that you don't see anyone offering a reason why the IHSSBCA won't continue making bad decisions in general, are are you referring to the specific bad decision of sending a team to NTAE?
I also said the former, i.e. that this decision may evince the fact that the committee may be found wanting more generally due to insufficient information or something else (this speaks to the earlier issue.) I asserted that, to my eyes, that may be the case, but I don't know for now because I see a pattern of good things IHSSBCA does with this notable exception. The unqualified form of the former point was not one of my own, but rather an explanation of something Matt said earlier.
Now, I'd like to address this:
I thought I'd hit on an okay idea earlier. Hold an IHSSBCA "Prize Fight" Tournament (in NAQT or PACE format) in which the top several teams win paid bids to HSNCT or PACE NSC (or maybe the top several less a few teams win paid bids and some travel money.) I think that's a good way to use up this money: it increases by one the number of high-quality tournaments in our state while simultaneously promoting participation in the current nationals.David Riley wrote:Let's assume that the IHSSBCA does foresake (hmmm...that's probably not the right wortd) NTAE and decide to support NAQT or PACE Nationals instead, which is what I am hearing would be the best way to spend the money.
What would be the criteria?
I understand that the politics of the state are complicated and I'm not sure how good the legs are on such a proposal, but it's at least an idea - I'm not coming to the table with nothing and I don't understand why this would have a bad chance in the committee (bearing in mind, again, that it doesn't have to convince the mythical 51%, only 51% of the committee.) We can hold the tournament in Kankakee or somewhere (Urbana?) and make admission free to all and make sure some class-A teams or Central Illinois teams or something are taken to benefit whoever needs benefiting. Frankly, I don't see how that's less beneficial to middling (or worse) teams than what we have now; I think the fact is that what we have now is a much more efficient funnel of benefits to elite players than this system and is accepted because it has inertia.
MaS