IAC announces Middle School all-subject team rankings

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Jcrmoon42
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IAC announces Middle School all-subject team rankings

Post by Jcrmoon42 »

In an effort to grow and recognize Middle School academic competition, International Academic Competitions is pleased to announce that it has begun ranking the top Middle School all-subject quiz bowl teams in the United States. In addition, the IAC is working to grow the US Academic Bee and Bowl and is currently looking for new host schools around the US. A further post in this regard and regarding USABB Nationals will be coming shortly.

The full Middle School rankings can be found on this page and will be regularly updated. PPB is the primary tool used in these rankings, with some exceptions that are explained below along with our methodology.

The task of ranking Middle School Quiz Bowl teams is one that has long been talked about but which has been avoided for various reasons. In considering how to go about this process, the major hurdle we needed to attempt to overcome was how to include results from formats that did not utilize bonuses or included them in some altered form.

In an attempt to accomplish this, we have looked at PPG, not as a raw number, but in comparison to other teams in a tournament, not including the points scored by that particular team. We take that number and adjust it to the field to minimize the affect of teams that dominate in very small fields. That number is then converted into a comparable PPB number when compared to averages across the total field of data. So, a team with an average PPG in a tournament with an average field is given an average PPB. This gives us a PPB-similar score based entirely on PPG.

In order to establish these rankings, we will utilize a team's top 3 PPB. All PPB scores will be adjusted similarly to Fred Morlan's rankings for High School teams, with the exception that we are calculating each NAQT MS set separately rather than treating them all as equal. We will establish an average PPB score for each set utilized during Middle School tournaments, removing the bottom 20% to eliminate very inexperienced teams that tend to skew the averages. We will then establish an average MS Set PPB based on this data and will adjust all PPB scores accordingly. To this point in the competition year, this produces an average of 17.13 PPB.

We will then average up to the top three PPB scores established by a team, only including PPG-adjusted scores when necessary. If a team has a PPG-adjusted score included in their average that brings their average down from what it would be if only utilizing PPB, then the higher PPB average is utilized in the rankings as we are at this point recognizing that PPB is a superior statistic for the purposes of comparison.

This effort is not intended to necessarily say that any given team is qualitatively better than any other. As such, there is no effort to include any subjective elements into these rankings. We recognize that many Middle Schools have a difficult time getting their best players to every tournament, and their statistics may not always represent their team at their very best. Again, there will be no subjective adjustment of these rankings, and that may mean that some teams receive an artificially low ranking. We hope that utilizing their top 3 scores will help to even out that factor somewhat. We are also aware that not all Middle School tournaments post their results to NAQT or to The Quizbowl Resource Center. If there are scores available that are not posted in either of those locations, please feel free to provide them so we can include those tournaments in our calculations.

This will be an ongoing work-in-progress, and we will revisit the logic used in creating these rankings on a regular basis. We do not suggest that these rankings are or will be the best way to rank Middle School teams, but it is the best we have been able to find thus far. We invite discussion and input from the community and hope that this will be a useful tool for discussion and comparison as we work together to recognize and celebrate the amazing Middle School teams we see around the country.
Jason Russell
IAC - Director of Operations, Middle School & Elementary Divisions
[email protected]
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Re: IAC announces Middle School all-subject team rankings

Post by etchdulac »

Thanks for putting this together. It will be interesting to observe.

Quick nitpick: the 50th team has an extra N in it. It's just Beckendorff.
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Re: IAC announces Middle School all-subject team rankings

Post by the return of AHAN »

I'll be interested to learn what sets will be considered in the rankings. I see we rank above Keith, which makes sense based solely on PPB, and we lost a tight one on the MS set you considered. However, when we played them on 137-A, we got whipped, despite enjoying a PPB edge for the tournament once again.
Jeff Price
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Barrington Station Middle School Coach (2013 MSNCT Champions, 2013 & 2017 Illinois Class AA State Champions)
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Re: IAC announces Middle School all-subject team rankings

Post by Jcrmoon42 »

Every set we find posted either here or at NAQT is included. We will happily include any other results that are made available to us!

Of course, sample size will definitely play a role here as it does in a tournament. The theory is that better PPB equals deeper knowledge, but that may or may not result in wins in the short term.
Jason Russell
IAC - Director of Operations, Middle School & Elementary Divisions
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Re: IAC announces Middle School all-subject team rankings

Post by the return of AHAN »

Right. But it's hard to feel optimistic about outscoring an opponent who has a decided edge in powers/tens (as Keith owns this year). Aside from NAQT sets, we will also face them, as well as St Mary's Visitiation on the Philly Cheesteak set in March. Daniel Wright will be notably absent due to Science Olympiad, but many of the top teams from around the state will be playing that set, too (Springfield Franklin, Buffalo Grove Aptakisic, Palatine Quest, & Rockford Marshall, to name a few).
Jeff Price
Barrington High School Coach (2021 & 2023 HSNCT Champions, 2023 PACE Champions, 2023 Illinois Masonic Bowl Class 3A State Champions)
Barrington Station Middle School Coach (2013 MSNCT Champions, 2013 & 2017 Illinois Class AA State Champions)
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Re: IAC announces Middle School all-subject team rankings

Post by Jcrmoon42 »

You are hitting on one of the reasons that we have explored adjusted PPG as a viable statistic. I think there is a path where that makes sense, but it will take more time and data.
Jason Russell
IAC - Director of Operations, Middle School & Elementary Divisions
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Re: IAC announces Middle School all-subject team rankings

Post by karstenontheshore »

I have a system of my own for rankings that's purely on the NAQT MS sets. I look at the 12 teams I have so far and rank therm from 12(best) - 1(worst) on 3 things, which are 1. Powers (in 9 Games, so if they played 7, I divide their powers by 7 and multiply the Powers per Game (which should really be a stat) to 9 Games) 2. PPG 3. PPB. Then I add up the points and rank the teams. I'll post my spreadsheet if there's interest.
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Re: IAC announces Middle School all-subject team rankings

Post by Jcrmoon42 »

karsten7814 wrote:I have a system of my own for rankings that's purely on the NAQT MS sets. I look at the 12 teams I have so far and rank therm from 12(best) - 1(worst) on 3 things, which are 1. Powers (in 9 Games, so if they played 7, I divide their powers by 7 and multiply the Powers per Game (which should really be a stat) to 9 Games) 2. PPG 3. PPB. Then I add up the points and rank the teams. I'll post my spreadsheet if there's interest.
I'm sure everybody would love to see it! When we set out to do this, we quickly realized that all of that information is not consistently available as local regions tend to do their own thing with format. Of course, more information is always better than less!
Jason Russell
IAC - Director of Operations, Middle School & Elementary Divisions
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Re: IAC announces Middle School all-subject team rankings

Post by karstenontheshore »

These are the ranked PPG/PPB/Powers PG from my rankings. In this, BASIS Silicon Valley is first, we're second, Midtown Classical is third, and Longfellow and Norfolk Academic Guild and Longfellow are tied for fourth.
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Re: IAC announces Middle School all-subject team rankings

Post by the return of AHAN »

Intriguing. The one issue you'll have a problem with in terms of defensibility is going to be that powers per game, especially PPG, is highly dependent on opponent. Our powers per match cratered when playing Keith on IS-173A last month, but were fine otherwise. If Keith wasn't there? We most assuredly post even better stats. Clearly Keith is better than us this year, but by how much relative to an MSNCT field remains an open question, at least until the Barrington Tournament*.

* - When we host our own tournament, we allow coaches to opt to put teams in a 'high' bracket, where the question set will be a high school novice set (PSACA Philly Cheesteak), and the field will feature four recent Illinois state championship programs, plus last year's MSNCT champion. There will be teams that finish in the BOTTOM HALF of that field that would make the Sunday playoffs of MSNCT, IMO. I'd be interested in your thoughts on how you might analyze PPG and powers on that set... Are there any other MS tournaments using that set that we know of?
Jeff Price
Barrington High School Coach (2021 & 2023 HSNCT Champions, 2023 PACE Champions, 2023 Illinois Masonic Bowl Class 3A State Champions)
Barrington Station Middle School Coach (2013 MSNCT Champions, 2013 & 2017 Illinois Class AA State Champions)
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Re: IAC announces Middle School all-subject team rankings

Post by karstenontheshore »

In my opinion, powers per game is so viable because it shifts. If you're playing a close game, but proceed to power 8 times, it reflects on both you and your opponent's skill. Teams that consistently power (GFA, BASIS, Midtown) are likely to do better at MSNCT because they are probably going to power the most and as a result, hear more bonuses. I know the PPB argument is valid, but I think that a lot of a team's depth can be shown via powers per game. For example, we've set the power record for MS-25 and MS-23, but our PPB is average among the top teams. If you're just looking at PPB, you won't really get a sense of our actual level. As to IS-A's, I'm not so sure if such a conversion can be done, at least not by me, as I am still a middle school student.
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