Cross Country Federation Selection Process, Updated 8/20/04

 

No process is perfect. However, the intent of the enclosed Federation Selection Procedure is to design a process that provides specific guidelines and consistency in the selection process from year to year.

 

In an effort to allow all teams that are being considered for advancement to the Federation Meet to be judged on related data, information should be gathered for each team from Invitationals and quality dual meets that have taken place during the last six weeks of the season.  Information presented prior to the McQuaid Invitational cannot be used in any decision making process.  The following data is recommended to allow for comparisons between teams:

 

  1. The Individual Winning Time and Distance of each race.
  2. Team Scores.
  3. The Number of Runners in each race.
  4. The times of the winning teams 1st through 5th Runner, Cumulative Team Time for 1st through 5th Runner, and Team Average Time for 1st through 5th Runner.
  5. The times of the petitioning teams 1st through 5th Runner, Cumulative Team Time for 1st through 5th Runner, and Team Average Time for 1st through 5th Runner.
  6. The times of any potential at-large teams 1st through 5th Runner, Cumulative Team Time for 1st through 5th Runner, and Team Average Time for 1st through 5th Runner.

 

(See the Excel Federation Comparison Chart for a Working Document to organize this data.)

 

Team Selection Procedures

 

  1. Friday before the State Meet, the Boys’ and Girls’ Cross Country Coordinators shall meet and rank the teams that are not participating in the state meet and could be considered for an at-large bid.  These teams should be ranked based upon the information received from the committee and each teams respective Section Coordinator.  The Federation Comparison Chart is recommended as a guideline for this process.  After discussion and ranking, not to exceed 15 minutes, a majority vote is taken to finalize the ranking of these teams.  If a majority is reached from the committee the ranking is finalized.  If a majority is not reached, additional discussion and voting continues until a majority is reached.

 

  1. After the completion of the entire State Meet, both the Boys’ and Girls’ Federation Committees will meet in separate rooms to make the Federation selections.  Data that can be used to make the selections for teams advancing to the Federation Meet is the rankings of at-large teams from Friday’s meeting, Merged Results (Including the Team Cumulative Times and Average Times for 1st through 5th Runner), the Individual Class Results from the NYSPHSAA State Meet and any information from the Federation Comparison Charts obtained from the past six weeks. 

 

NOTE:  If a team that participates in the NYSPHSAA State Meet wins head to head in its Class but loses to that team in the merge, the Teams Cumulative Time of the 1st through 5th Runner should take precedence in order to determine the better team.

                       

 

  1. A Team that participates in the NYSPHSAA State Meet and finishes as one of the top 5 teams in the Merged Results will automatically advance to the Federation Meet.  If any of these five teams fail to accept the advancement, the committee cannot automatically accept the 6th spot.  (Maximum of 5 Teams can be selected after this Step).

 

  1. The Winning Team from each Class at the NYSPHSAA State Meet will automatically advance to the Federation Meet if they finish between 6th or 10th place.  If any of these teams fail to accept the advancement, the committee cannot offer the position to the second place team in that class.  (Maximum of 9 Teams could be selected after this Step).

 

  1. The Teams that are remaining from the NYSPHSAA State Meet that remaining in the merge should be re-ranked based upon the Teams Cumulative Time of their 1st through 5th Runner from the NYSPHSAA State Meet Results.  Discussion (Maximum of five minutes) should take place regarding the fairness of this ranking and adjustments may be made.  After discussion, a majority vote is taken to finalize the ranking of these teams.  If a majority is reached from the committee the ranking is finalized.  If a majority is not reached another five minutes of discussion is allowed.  If a majority cannot be reached at this time, then the teams stay ranked based upon their cumulative time.

 

  1. At-large bids are considered at this point.  The remaining ranked teams from the NYSPHSAA State Meet are compared to the Top Teams from the At-Large Ranking that was voted on at Friday’s meeting.  Discussion is allowed for three minutes and a majority vote is then taken to determine which of the two teams advances to the Federation Meet.  This process continues until 13 teams have been selected to the Federation Meet.

 

  1. At this point, Section Coordinators are asked to remove any team from their respective section that is not deserving of one of the three final spots.  Five minutes of discussion is allowed on the remaining teams and then a vote is initiated.  Each Section votes for three teams and ranks them in order 1st, 2nd, 3rd.  When tallying the votes, 1st Place Teams earn 5 points, 2nd place Teams earn 3 Points and 3rd place Teams earn 1 point.  The three teams with the most points will advance to the Federation Meet.  If there is a tie that prevents the advancement of a third team, then a majority vote is taken to break that tie.

 

Individual Selection Process

 

After all the teams have been removed from the merge of the NYSPHSAA State Meet the first 18 individuals will advance to the state meet.  After these individuals are selected, each Section Coordinator selects two additional individuals from their respective section.

 

 

Companion Documents: … (To download with Microsoft Internet Explorer without opening, right-mouse click the links below)

 

            Microsoft Excel Comparison Chart … working document to organize data

 

            Hand Calculation Only Document