West and Poston talk about how weird this season has been and how that affects the ballots for top team of the year. They didn’t come to any conclusions, other than the team that wins AACS is most likely to be #1 on the final poll (except Matt wants to vote New Testament #1 no matter what). Please email us at podcast@biblequizzer.net with your thoughts. Listen Now. WARNING, the whole podcast is almost 50 minutes.
Comments 2
It is inconsistent to argue that KY be ranked based on their placement at the one tournament they attend, while Mukwonago is disqualified because they only attended 2 majors. Mukwonago is practically ineligible for AACS (with only one high schooler), and their program has never been to Athens. KY is quizzing in one tournament that does not have two of the top 3 teams realistically represented (NY and Mukwonago). Because several top teams have non-high school quizzers this year, AACS is NOT the deepest tournament of 2019; SCQANIT was. SCQANIT is the tournament of champions, and this year should be the main determining factor in rankings. Heritage is the best team in the country in 2019, and Mukwonago is the second best. KY may be great, but unfortunately we don’t have enough data to argue they are better than a fully-represented NY or Mukwonago.
Author
Thanks for your comment! I address the “weakening” of Heritage Mission at AACS in the next podcast. Having said that, your point is a valid one. As it turns out, Kentucky did not win and did not get a single first place vote. One of the reasons we are trying to get as many voters as possible is because we all have biases and the more people we have, the more those biases cancel out.:)
Further, there are teams ineligible for other tournaments (including other majors), and there are teams that just cannot make other tournaments. Each voter (of which I am not one this time) has his own belief on which tournament is the most valuable and adjusts his ballot accordingly.
Whether you think AACS is a good tournament or not, the fact is that most teams would choose it as the tournament to win if you told them they can win just one. It is one that teams value, and because of that, it will always have merit, even if the field at a tournament elsewhere is better.
My philosophy of voting, personally, is not to vote for the team I think would win in a mythical tournament in the future, but rather who accomplished the most. Personally, I think AACS is very important even though I am well aware that teams may not be at their best there.