Ty, I disagree. The rule was put in place to increase the number of Women's regattas and overall women's teams participation in the ICSA. Although it has not improved/increased women's regattas overall the ICSA right away, I would disagree that it has hurt women's participation or the ICSA. Although the two Eastern conferences have taken advantage of the rule the quickest, it will start to move through the rest of the ICSA as people realize what it says.
The rules is really to the advantage of the larger (land wise) districts. Now instead of John Carroll, having to go to a women's qualifiers in Minnesota (a 14+ hour trek) when they have finals and don't feel they can qualify anyways, they instead can host an State of Ohio Women's Champs, and still count as participation for berth allocation. (which makes it okay for Minnesota to host Women's Quals). This increases the number of women's participation over all in the ICSA, and over time will increase the number of women sailing (hopefully). Do we get a bunch of meaningless regattas? Yes, but over time the meaningless regattas will either become meaningful, or die out of lack of interest. The need is for all conferences realize the power of this rule. It is easy to get people to travel a couple hours for a regatta, it is difficult to do so at the end of a semester when the regatta is 14 hours, or even 8 hours away. If this causes Nationals to be a weaker event, then it is a symptom of a bigger problem in the ICSA, and a problem which is easy to ignore when you just look at the top teams. Is the quality of sailing improving over the entire ICSA? Has sailing moved forward? (over the past 5, 10, 20 years?) This is difficult to say yes or no to, and it is difficult to say what will improve the ICSA. But this is all getting over the head of the original topic. Basically, the rule will improve sailing participation. It needs time to filter through all of the districts, and it should be no surprise for the MAISA/NESIA folk to take advantage of it first. They have highest density of college sailing professionals/serious volunteers and the rest of the ICSA can not resent them for that. We just need to adjust and improve. Alex USTST Coach PS. this may or may not have been a hint to the MCSA to make more small women's regattas next fall to take advantage of the rule. > > > > > > On 4/24/06, Ty Reed <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > As we have finished the intercollegiate women's district championships, > > it > > has come to my attention that the nationals berth allotment is not being > > > > divided based on performance or attendance at qualifiers. I hardly > > think > > that finishing over 30 to 40 points behind the winning team in a 11 boat > > fleet over 11 races is a performance worthy of qualifying for nationals. > > > > Certain coaches in the MAISA and NEISA districts have been exploiting > > the > > system to gain these berths by slapping together teams that normally > > don't > > compete for meaningless events in order to make ICSA think there are > > actually more teams competing in their districts (when I was in school I > > witnessed this). I would love to see a list of some of these schools > > that > > supposedly compete in those districts. > > This system surely is hurting participation in women's sailing across > > the > > country (at least outside of the two districts above named). It is very > > discouraging for a team to finish third place by only a few points in > > their > > qualifier after 15 races, and see teams with mediocre performances > > qualify > > instead. Some of the other districts are getting only one berth. It > > seems > > to me that the nationals this year will resemble the ACCs more than a > > true > > national regatta. Our district's performance at Nationals each year > > clearly > > shows that more berths are deserved. We either need a system that > > allows > > this to happen, or there should be less total berths. Either way > > mediocrity > > should not be rewarded. > > I am not trying to weasel my team into nationals this year. The current > > > > system is obviously flawed and as an association we need to create an > > equitable system for future years. > > > > Ty Reed > > UCSB Coach > > > > > > ________________________________________________ > > icsa mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=icsa > > > > ________________________________________________ icsa mailing list [email protected] http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=icsa
