Category: Nationals

Gonzalez Exchanges for Nationals 2017

Here we have a very long table for Day 1 of Nationals 2017. We will be playing 35 matches on Saturday. For many long reasons, the following table includes the pre-Nationals ratings for each exchange. The ratings are not updated round to round like they would be in reality.

For example, NSULA’s pre-rating is 40.640 and is for each of their matches. In reality their first match vs OSU will naturally raise or lower their rating, which in turn will affect the exchange against their second opponent, DePaul.

I guess to summarize, the purpose of this is to show you a close, potential weight each match has on each team’s rating. Exchanges are doubled for Nationals, so an even match will have an Exchange around 2. Most matches will fall within 0-2, while upset exchanges will be 2-4.  Continue reading “Gonzalez Exchanges for Nationals 2017”

Nationals 2017: Snapchat Geofilters

Well folks, as we gear up for Nationals 2017, I have some great news.  The NCDA Content Team has been working hard to integrate more social media channels into our overall media plan.  The NCDA will be very active on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram throughout the season’s final tournament.

But here is the big news for today:

Thanks to the designing skills of new content team member Brett Hadwin (CMU Alumni), the NCDA is proud to announce our first ever tournament Snapchat Geofilters:

(Click on each image separately for a larger image)

If you aren’t very knowledgable on what a geofilter is, here is a quick explanation:  Continue reading “Nationals 2017: Snapchat Geofilters”

The Future of College Dodgeball Series – Part 1: League Expansion

The following is the first in a series of articles that will be published on the topic of the future of collegiate dodgeball. NCDA Chief of Content Kevin Bailey and NCDA Director of League Expansion and Retention Jacob Leski will discuss a variety of topics, from league improvement and expansion, to the future of Nationals, the NCDA ruleset and how it will evolve overtime. We even discuss the likelihood of the NCDA eventually becoming a D1 sport with games on national television, etc.

The Future of College Dodgeball Series will even have some guest appearances, joining Kevin and Jacob in conversation. A lot will be discussed during this series, starting with Part 1 on league expansion:
Continue reading “The Future of College Dodgeball Series – Part 1: League Expansion”

The East Coast All-Stars

With Nationals around the corner also comes one of the fan favorite events, the All-Star Game presented by SAVAGE Apparel Co.  This year the game will be larger than ever before, both figuratively, and quite literally.  As Colin mentioned in his article, there are definitely members of each team that don’t get selected who are more than worthy of being called All-Stars for their team.  As such, I wanted to take the time as well to highlight some of the East Coast players that I believe could be All-East Coast athletes from this season.  This is not organized in any type of first team or top-15 group, but just giving recognition to players who have worked hard and performed well all season.

No this was not Co-authored by Colin O’Brien, it was however inspired by him.

Continue reading “The East Coast All-Stars”

Policy Proposal – 8 Person Board

Policy proposal UPDATE:

The Executive Board shall be comprised of eight Chairs. Seven of the Chairs that make up the Board will be voting members, and one of the Chairs of the Board will act as a nonvoting member.

This would be increasing the board by 2 voting members.

The proposed executive board is

President
Treasurer
Director of Officiating
Chief of Content
Director of League Expansion and Retention
Director of Nationals (Nonvoting)

*NEW* Director of Technology and Internal Affairs
*NEW* Director of Marketing and League Development

Supporting information and reasoning is included provided by Colin O’Brien

Continue reading “Policy Proposal – 8 Person Board”

Rule Proposal – Scoring Mechanics

Rule Proposal by Dylan Fettig

Rule proposal: The game is played in two 20 minute halves. Each half will only end with a point being scored. If there are less than 4 minutes left in the first half, the half will be called and the time will be rolled onto the second half. If a point is started, play will continue past the 20 minute time limit until a point is scored. If the winning team is up by 2 or more points in the second half the game will end with the time limit.

Reasoning: This rule encourages teams to play to eliminate the opposing team. Currently the team that scores the first point is able to sit back and stall the game out in order to win.

Example: The national championship game last year. GV was up by a point on CMU and time ended with a few GV players holding out CMU’s entire team. In all likelihood CMU would have taken the point with a few extra minutes and the game would have been settled in overtime.

Closing Argument: The game of dodgeball should be settled by fully eliminating a team, not by stalling out the clock.

Policy Proposal – Min Games Required for Nationals Participation

Policy Proposal (defined by NCDA Policy, but not Constitutionally defined)

I propose a minimum of 3 games to be eligible to participate at Nationals.

I’ve debated proposing this but I have considered it seriously over the past four years. In one point, I wanted to wait until we were geographically ready to implement something like this. And on the other, I didn’t want to prevent teams from joining at any point in the season. We’ve had a few teams who’s induction matches have happened at a Nationals (8-9 of our 46 schools). Now, the NCDA is becoming so large and active that a team that hasn’t played much that season is a hindrance to scheduling fairly for Nationals.  Continue reading “Policy Proposal – Min Games Required for Nationals Participation”

Rule Proposal – Team Catching

Rule Proposal by Jeff Starr

Slight modification of the team catch rule.

I think this is best explained with an example. Right now lets say its me on team 1 and Colin and Wes on team 2. There are a couple of scenarios where a team catch can be made. I hit Wes, Colin catches it clean. I throw at Wes, he blocks into himself, ball bounces off, Colin catches it. It should be noted that once my ball has hit Wes that it can hit any number of possessed balls and/or live players and still be eligible for a team catch. The wording used in the rule book is that a team catch can be made whenever a player is at risk of being out. Here’s where my proposal comes in. If Wes and Colin are grouped together and one of them blocks the ball, the ball hits Wes, and is caught (by either), it becomes the refs decision whether the ball hit Colin or Wes’ ball to determine if it was a team catch or a dead ball. I propose that any ball that has hit a teammate or a teammate’s ball is eligible for a team catch. I believe this would be easier to ref. Sorry if this was confusing, I wasn’t sure how to go about this proposal.

Rule Proposal: Balls Live on Play Stoppage Rule.

Written by: Wesley Peters

Rule Proposal: When a stoppage of play is called (of any variety), balls which are in the air remain live until they are either caught, team caught, or hit a surface/object/etc that renders them dead, regardless of whether they have hit a live player or not at the time of the timeout being granted. (AKA they remain live until they are dead, not instantly ruled dead) Further, if a referee is GENUINELY UNABLE to determine whether or not balls were airborne before or after the timeout is called, the balls will be considered to have never been thrown, and given back to the team that threw them in the first place.

Rationale: The rule is currently broken, and can be exploited in the following way: Team A throws (any number of balls, the more you throw the worse it gets) at Team B. Team B calls timeout as soon as Team A throws and the balls have entered Team B’s zone, but not close enough for them to be near anyone on Team B’s LAZ. Therefore, Team B is awarded those balls (Because they are dead upon timeout since they have been throw but not made contact with anyone on Team B, and Team A’s shot clock resets down to the lowest increment of 5.

So to summarize, Team B get’s Team A’s balls for the cost of their timeout, and Team A still needs to throw to reset their initial shot clock because even though Team B gets those balls that they threw, their throws legally do not count. The way the rule is currently written not only hurts Team A tremendously, but that effect is exacerbated if it happens on the throws immediately following a balls over call, thus effectively nullifying the effects of the balls over altogether.
I don’t recall why we initially changed this rule to balls in the air are dead off the official’s whistle, but I think it was because it was difficult for the official to rule whether they had been thrown before the timeout call. I think personally it is not that difficult to tell as an official if you are paying attention, so the pros should vastly outweigh the cons by changing this rule.

Also, I would like for this to be voted upon and changed ASAP so that any matches that may happen next weekend or at nationals are not subject to this possibly happening.

The Michigan All-Stars

As everyone knows each team this season is represented by two players for the All-Star Game presented by SAVAGE Apparel Co. (or maybe you don’t but in the words of the famous urban philosopher The Notorious B.I.G., “if you don’t know, now you know”). Now it may be true for many teams, but I think it’s especially true for the four Michigan schools that more than just two players per team are deserving of the status of all-star. So I decided to make a full team of the players from the Great Lakes State that I deem to be all-stars in addition to the eight players recognized by their respective schools.

The jerseys of the team that will be winning the All-Star Game presented by SAVAGE Apparel Co.
The jersey of a team whose GM is on the hot seat after some questionable draft picks

 

 

Continue reading “The Michigan All-Stars”

Rule Proposal: Shot Clock Officials

Rule Proposal by Ben Tubergen

Rule proposal: Shot clock officials are responsible for distinguishing a legitimate throw vs. a non legitimate throw.

My reasoning for this is that there have been multiple occasions this year where the shot clock official stops his/her count thinking it was a legitimate throw, then realizes the head ref thought it wasn’t, and then begins to pick up their count again causing confusion for the throwing team. Typically resulting in balls over.

I hope that wasn’t too wordy. But this is the scenario. Team A’s shot clock is at 12, team A makes a throw attempt that the shot clock counter deems legitimate, he/she stops counting. Team A continues play as if their shot clock has been reset. However the shot clock official then realizes the head ref deemed the throw illegitimate. The shot clock official then begins to either pick up their count from the time of Team A’s throw (at 13) or skips ahead to compensate for the time that elapsed (14 or 15). Leaving little to no time for Team A to react. In numerous occasions this scenario causes confusion for team A resulting in a balls over, because they’re listening to the count not watching the head refs signaling.