by AKKOLADE » Sun Feb 12, 2012 8:36 pm
Additionally, and in less of a set up for me to yell THE END:
As the only person who works on these rankings, most weeks, I put in at least 5 hours a week (maybe closer to 10 sometimes) hunting down stats, putting them into an Excel file, calculating adjusted PPB, calculating powers per game, and changing the text file to show teams moving around. This doesn't mention smaller tasks like changing every team's ranking for this & last week. My stat file currently has 2500 entries in it. My text file is currently an incomplete version of a top 300 ranking set. All this work is on top of my other quiz bowl work, my actual job, my social & relaxation time, etc. And this is all just to track the PPG, PPB, & power rates of teams.
I should also note that the process of putting the rankings together is really mind-numbing stuff. It's not much fun.
While I'm skeptical of the true meaning of a team's win-loss rate against other teams when it comes to rankings, I'm basically unable to track those stats. I've already maxed out how much time I can afford to put into the rankings; they're already pretty accurate, so I'm happy with what they accomplish for what I put into them. I was planning on kibitzing off of Excelsior for notable win-loss advantages, but unfortunately that's not going to happen this year.
I hope to work with some people to automate more of the process in the coming years.
Fred Morlan
PACE Vice President of Outreach, 2017-18
International Quiz Bowl Tournaments, co-owner
University of Kentucky CoP, 2017
hsqbrank manager, PACE member (former President and At Large member of Board), NAQT writer (former subject editor), HSAPQ freelance writer, former hsqb Administrator/Chief Administrator, 2012 NASAT Tournament Director