After receiving feedback from its member schools, the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s Executive Board passed a tweak to the power point rankings on Monday that fixes an alleged flaw.
The implementation is immediate, meaning spring sports teams’ power rankings will be calculated by the new formula. The Tribune first reported a claim from local engineer John Carrieres that there was a flaw in the old system. The AIA denied this was the case, but the tweak to the system was unanimously approved.
Using the previous formula, Carrieres claimed teams were rewarded for playing in extra games regardless of result. It wreaked havoc during the winter season because sectional basketball tournaments caused for the total number of games per team to fluctuate wildly. Dozens of teams have missed the playoffs and the great majority have had its seedings affected by the flaw since the fall of 2010, Carrieres said.
Some schools were working hard to schedule more games during the spring so as not to be punished by the alleged flaw, but the modification could quell that concern.
The AIA said repeatedly that the new version presented was simply an alternate option, although revisions to the power point system are rarely done mid-season. AIA Director of Business Media Brian Bolitho said the AIA’s stance has not changed despite the executive board’s finding.
“The formula was working prior to this,” Bolitho said. “This committee took a look at this decision for normalizing games and felt that would be a better way of doing it.”
Reporters were barred from listening to the power point discussion amongst the board members because it was held in Executive Session.
Bolitho said this was done so the members could “freely talk within the board, so we could address their concerns before they voted on the recommendation.”
The committee will reconvene and further analyze the data at the end of the spring season.
Reach Kyle Odegard at (480) 898-6834 or kodegard@evtrib.com. Follow his blog at http://blogs.evtrib.com/varsityxtra, or find him on Twitter @Kyle_Odegard.
