New Medal Count

The Medal Count has been updated.

The Medal Count issues a “virtual” medal to a school for having a team make the elimination rounds at a CDL tournament. The more a team advances in the elim rounds, the more valuable the medal — reaching the quarters (in either Division) is a bronze medal, the semi’s is a silver medal, the final round (but dropping) is a gold medal, and winning the tournament is a platinum medal. Reaching the octo-final rounds (at a tournament large enough to have octo’s) is a 0.5 bronze. Each medal is also given a point valuation, depending on its Division –e.g., a Varsity silver medal is worth 16 points, a JV silver medal is worth 6 points. All point values are doubled at the Chicago Debate Championship (T6).

The Medal Count aggregates the medals won by each school, along with these point valuations, as the season goes on, giving some measurement of season-long, total school competitive success, and allowing for a single League-wide Medal Count ranking.

Note that while the Tournament Reporting Notebook is apples to apples, the Medal Count is apples to oranges, in this sense: the RCC hasn’t had their T2 yet, it’s this weekend, whereas the other three Conferences had T2 last weekend. One countervailing factor is this: starting this season, National Circuit Program tournaments — the eight tournaments that the CDC supports beyond the six tournament CDL schedule — are accounted in the Medal Count. So several RCC schools have gotten a few additional medals so far this year by making the elimination rounds at NC Program tournaments.

Here are the top-20 schools right now in the 2010/11 Medal Count.

1. Northside (RCC)
2. Thomas Kelly (LCC)
3. Hubbard (“AA”)
4. Hyde Park (“A”)
5. Chicago Ag (“A”)
5. Jones (LCC)
7. Harlan (“AA”)
7. Mather (“A”)
7. Payton (RCC)
7. Westinghouse (“AA”)
11. Collins (“AA”)
11. Evanston (“A”)
11. Lane Tech (RCC)
14. Woodlawn (“AA”)
15. Whitney Young (RCC)
16. Alcott (“A”)
17. Prosser (“A”)
18. Michele Clark (“AA”)
19. Taft (LCC)
20. Lincoln Park (LCC)
20. Marshall (“A”)
20. Noble Street (“A”)

One only additional semi-related note. We earlier posted a Tournament Reporting Notebook that unfortunately was botched by hidden sheets (including a hidden Medal Count that was leftover from a previous season), rows, and columns that the blog auto-unhides, making the valid portions of the document very difficult and confusing to decipher. We’re working on that and should have an upgraded version of the Tournament Reporting Notebook posted here tomorrow, cleaned up and with no hidden sheets, etc. The top-20 rankings of schools, in both participation and participation increase this year, though, from the text of this previous post — these rankings are fully accurate currently.