tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890625336346715414.post1292362422246114423..comments2023-11-28T06:47:38.822-08:00Comments on The Balance Beam Situation: Everything's Going To Change Now, Isn't It?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890625336346715414.post-7190924104068431262015-08-03T23:26:42.739-07:002015-08-03T23:26:42.739-07:00If Event Finals are eliminated (I assume the four ...If Event Finals are eliminated (I assume the four winners would be declared in semis, like the AA champ), why not have a Showcase where the gymnasts can perform their best events for the audience? Seniors could throw whatever difficulty they want and would include the top seniors from the lesser schools who have no chance to make finals or who usually perform well, but had an off day at Regional qualifying and failed to make the final.<br /><br />As for the freshmen, sophomores and juniors the Top 8 competitors on each event in semifinals (not including senior scores) could make the Showcase (kind of like after the Olympics when the gymnasts tour, but this is one night with less of the gymnast's choosing – doesn't have to be school colours).<br /><br />The Top 8 with no seniors would be something like this:<br /><br />Vault final:<br />1. Junior<br />2. Senior<br />3. Senior<br />4. Freshman<br />5. Junior<br />6. Freshman<br />7. Sophomore<br />8. Sophomore<br /><br />Since 2 seniors made Top 8 the next two non-seniors would qualify for the non-competitive, just for fun Showcase (everyone cannot qualify because of time constraints).<br /><br />So let's say spots 9-12 were all senior gymnasts as well as the 14 spot.<br /><br />13. Junior<br />15. Sophomore<br />Would be the final qualifiers.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890625336346715414.post-79292809118222403922015-08-03T17:27:05.745-07:002015-08-03T17:27:05.745-07:00I would love to see 16 teams and 4 sessions of pre...I would love to see 16 teams and 4 sessions of prelims. I agree about having 4 sessions of 4 for prelims on the same day though. I'm all about having the best competition, but I think that giving 2 of the 4 teams a day off would be really unfair to the other 2 teams that have to compete back to back. I would say that is a legit complaint as opposed to whining. However, I can see the problem from a judging perspective. That is a really long day. Perhaps, they could just have 2 sets of judges - 1 set for the first two sessions and another set for the last 2. Since, rotations could already be decided beforehand, it wouldn't really be an issue in terms of score determining rotation order. <br /><br />It would be a problem for event champions if they're going by prelims now, but at this rate, I would almost rather that they just go by RQS anyway. If we're still going to have EFs, then just go by the top 2 on each event from each session and for the AA, have top 2 AAers from each session compete each event during EFs pick the AA champ on day 3 as well. <br /><br />If there needs to be a day off with the hypothetical 16 teams championships or the current format, then they should perhaps look into incorporating the mens and women's championships. I don't follow men's college gymnastics, but if women's prelims were Friday, men's finals on Saturday (not sure how their format is otherwise), and women's finals on Sunday afternoon, I would probably watch it. I'm sure there are reasons why they don't do this now, but just seems smarter to avoid having a free day in between prelims and finals and it could help grow the audience more for men's college gymnastics.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890625336346715414.post-61388347364074550472015-08-01T15:37:52.718-07:002015-08-01T15:37:52.718-07:00I think your 16 teams to nationals proposal is act...I think your 16 teams to nationals proposal is actually a really good idea and think you should do an individual post on it. I think one way to increase market appeal for gymnastics is to make the format more similar to the NCAA basketball tournament. IMO, the NCAA basketball tournament draws people in who know nothing about basketball, and I'd love for NCAA gym to have the same appeal. This format produces a "Sweet 16 and Final Four" just like basketball.<br />I think coaches whose teams were often in the top 16 but didn't always make nationals would be all for this proposal, it would help them put their team on the map. (I'm thinking teams like Denver, Illinois, Arkansas, Oregon State, Cal, Penn State, etc) would be all over this. <br />Also, to eliminate your concern that the Friday vs Saturday split is unfair (which it is) why not have a gymnastics marathon semifinal on Friday. You could have 4 sessions with 4 teams each (9AM, 1PM, 5PM, 9PM) and finals on Sunday. I think if I came for 8 hours of straight gymnastics on Friday, I'd want a rest day (as a fan) between that marathon and the finals. <br /><br />(I will say that I live in a city where college basketball is a BIG deal, so maybe I'm wrong that likening the format to basketball would increase appeal nationwide.) That said, I would love to see 16 teams to nationals and 4 in the finals happen. It accomplishes Marsden's proposal of 4 teams in finals and still increases the opportunity for teams to get to Nationals.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890625336346715414.post-19440785342648078312015-08-01T08:55:02.010-07:002015-08-01T08:55:02.010-07:00I'm not sure if we know yet. I've heard th...I'm not sure if we know yet. I've heard that it would be based on the semifinal day with all judges scores counting, but that seems like it would still create a whole mess of ties and nonsense. The Balance Beam Situationhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06753127027794415706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890625336346715414.post-72598706547714386972015-08-01T08:54:14.768-07:002015-08-01T08:54:14.768-07:00It's true and a worthy concern, but that could...It's true and a worthy concern, but that could also happen now. We can have a 4th-place team in one semifinal scoring higher than qualifying teams from the other semifinal. (It should have happened last year since Michigan in the first semi performed way better and should have scored higher than some of the teams advancing from the second semi, but got eliminated, which sucked for them but is just the way things go.) <br /><br />Overall, I think we need to move away from the idea of fairness as the ultimate goal. Sports aren't fair. In every sport that has any kind of knockout system, you have great teams getting eliminated early while weaker teams advance farther because of the randomness of the draw and the difficulty of their opponents. That's the whole nature of the NCAA basketball tournament, for instance. Do the teams that play the best always advance the farthest? No. That's what makes it fun. Creating an exciting event should be the goal, so while having the top-scoring teams going through might be more fair (although people would still find something to complain about—the scoring on day 2 was looser!), it would be way less interesting and pretty anticlimactic, especially if you watch, say, a whole session where none of the four teams end up advancing. The Balance Beam Situationhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06753127027794415706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890625336346715414.post-18719142676005915362015-08-01T04:37:00.948-07:002015-08-01T04:37:00.948-07:00If we get the 16 teams to nationals and 4 semi fi...If we get the 16 teams to nationals and 4 semi finals with the wiiner of each semi finals advancing to finals, you get the unfair situation that a team that finished 2nd of its pool may have finished with a higher score than the winner of another pool, and still not qualify... Couldn't just the top 4 scoring teams advance to finals?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6890625336346715414.post-91684053572271361132015-07-30T18:47:06.134-07:002015-07-30T18:47:06.134-07:00my question is since they are doing away with even...my question is since they are doing away with event finals are they doing away with all event winners or are they going to award those winners on semi night or on super six night? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com