“If you gave an order that Santiago wasn’t to be touched, and your orders are always followed, then why would Santiago be in danger? Why the two orders, Colonel?”
Attorney Daniel Kaffee to Colonel Nathan Jessup… “A Few Good Men”
Aaron Sorkin via the portrayal by Tom Cruise
In my opinion, one of the greatest lines in the history of cinema. Of course it would have to be, given how I am built, more often compelled by logic than emotion as it pertains to most things. For example, I was playing with an idea about how to visually demonstrate the strength of the D3 volleyball conferences yesterday, knowing sorted tables and lists of “gobs” of data just don’t do for others what it does for me, especially if I am fully engaged. Somewhere on that path I became lost by the connective tissue that is the distribution of National Bids in D3 Volleyball in 2024. I ponder it from time to time, and if something strikes me where I think I can offer some clarity to those with far more influence than myself, I might even send an email to whomever I suspect that could be.
Yesterday was different. Even though I should have been putting the finishing touches on the T100, I became like a pit bull tugging with its master on a rope, unwilling to let go. As someone who taught Apportionment Theory in the classroom years ago, I am familiar with most models. Many written about the electoral college and what Jefferson, Quincy Adams, Hamilton (yes, the one Lin-Manuel Miranda’s pen and voice has graced us with, recently), and Webster had to say about it. I was reminded that Hamilton had an idea that George Washington squashed immediately, one which Congress went back to using 60 years later. Jefferson then produced a good one which favored large states (He was a Virginian, after all) which Quincy Adams later tweaked to favor smaller ones – being a Massachusetts man. Until Webster finally seemed to get it right enough for it to be Congress’ “go-to” multiple times throughout history. I started to be drawn in by a slippery slope of parallels to Pool A (Senate), Pool B (House of Reps), and Pool C (Supreme Court) in the bid system whose logic, sooner or later, crashed and burned in epic fashion. I wrote multiple flow-charts, papers as if they were journal entries, graphs, spreadsheets, all in an attempt to put my finger on the pulse of what was most gnawing at me about this year’s model of apportionment to yield National Bids. And then it happened! No, not an epiphany of such things, but the Super-Bowl. I woke up this morning better rested and realized what it is that rubs me the wrong way – Conference Strength & National Bids.
For those that clicked the above, you found neither an explanation for the National Bid procedure ( I didn’t want to put you through that!) or any commentary on the merits of any values, beliefs, or opinions required to produce it. Instead, it attempts to get to the root of confounding and the utilization of contradictory logic in arriving at a procedure, which dare I say is akin to Colonel Jessup in “A Few Good Men.” Why was this missed as being such by those who might know better? I think I now know why… It took me a while to distill my thoughts to just those few found on the link, even though my “Spidey Sense” was tingling the whole time! What seems like a series of rational steps creates a confounding and often paradoxical outcome, as teams from Pool A will always be disenfranchised by the introduction of new teams into the D3 landscape who do not join them. This is also a consequence of a fixed total of 16 to start the process. Maybe the powers that be have an agenda to incentivize conferences to invite these teams in, so that if they don’t, it will ultimately come back to hurt them in their attempt to qualify for the NCAA Tournament? Or maybe it is just an unintended consequence from whatever the agenda was in producing what seems to be a procedure discriminating against conferences. It certainly does, whether that was the intent, or not.
Most important throughout this whole process should not be this National Bids fork in the road I took along the way, however. I did finally arrive at the goal I set out to accomplish yesterday morning, before this epic detour in thought experimentation derailed what would have been an otherwise relaxing day. The graphic for depicting strength of conferences shown across the landscape, turned out to be the exact visual I had in my mind’s eye when the day began. It gives perspective beyond that of a simple list, I think.