2011-2 McCafferty Standings

[vuweathernerd]

butler leads milwaukee by one, and valpo's tied for third, six points back after the fall season has concluded.

http://www.horizonleague.org/blog/two-time-defending-champion-butler-leads-mccafferty-trophy-standings-after-fall-season.html

[valpotx]

Is this the highest we have been at this point in the HL?

[vu72]

Butler leads because of cross country.  Not sure we should feel too bad about being behind at this point.

[valpofan56]

Butler leads because of cross country.  Not sure we should feel too bad about being behind at this point.

I get your point 72, but we have Cross Country too. It's not like Butler is leading because they got points in a sport we didn't have.

[valporun]

Butler leads because of cross country.  Not sure we should feel too bad about being behind at this point.

I get your point 72, but we have Cross Country too. It's not like Butler is leading because they got points in a sport we didn't have.

Cross Country is the sport that put Butler at the top. While we do have a cross country program, it seems to have silenced itself. I don't know why, but the recruiting hasn't been there for awhile.

[blackpantheruwm]

I've learned from people who used to work in the Horizon League office to not care for the McCafferty standings.

The points system is rigged to give a school like Butler, who fields more sports teams than everyone else, a chance to rack up the scores.  It only takes the top 5 sports of each gender - a couple years ago, Milwaukee had conference championships in 6 women's sports and one of our titles wasn't counted at all.

If Team A wins 4 titles and 5 second-place finishes in men's, it will only count the top 5 - so four titles and one of the second-place finishes.  If another school (Team B) wins 5 titles and finishes last in the remaining four sports, then that team wins the McCafferty trophy even if Team A goes 1-1-1-1-2-2-2-2-2 to Team B's 1-1-1-1-1-10-10-10-10.

Track and Field is weighted down so Milwaukee can't score more for winning an Indoor and Outdoor championship - if we win indoor and take second in outdoor, we get the average of 1st and 2nd place scoring.

All you need to do is go look at the Wikipedia page "List of Horizon League Champions" and see that Butler has 8 McCafferty Trophies to Milwaukee's 5.  I bring this up because despite Butler being a charter member in 1979, you can also see on that page that a 15-year head start on the Panthers hasn't helped Butler.  In Milwaukee's 17th year in the conference, we have 110 titles and are absolutely going to pass Notre Dame for the most in conference history this winter.  Butler has 95, which is impressive itself, except you have to note that they have been in the conference 32 years, almost double what Milwaukee has.

I'll take the number of championships over McCafferty Trophy standings any day of the week.  Notice that UCLA didn't make the C on their jerseys white for winning the Pac-10 all-sports trophy, they did it for national championships.  Our goal is to win conference championships, and we're doing it at a clip that Butler and no one else will catch.  Does this get ANY nod from the conference office? Nope.  Never mentioned once that we're flirting with the record, but we get a score update to let everyone know that because Butler has a group of kids that can run faster for longer than everyone else and nothing more, they've got the lead in the McCafferty race.

The McCafferty Trophy scoring system is set up so that it favors schools that sponsor the most amount of Horizon League sports.  I know it sounds weird that would favor those schools when they only take the 5 best from each sex, but the fact is that a school who has 18 cracks at a McCafferty score has a huge advantage over a school that has 15 sports that register in the McCafferty standings.

If I were making it, I'd take same scoring - 7 for a title, 5 for second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth, 1 for fifth, average out the score between regular season and tournament (so if Valpo wins the mens soccer regular season but is runner up in the tournament, they get 6 points), then take every McCafferty sport from each gender and average them out.  That way a school with 19 sports doesn't have an advantage over a school with 12, because you're averaging them all out anyways.

But the truth is that the McCafferty Trophy is another excuse to keep crowning Butler as the flagship program in the conference.

Like I said.  I'll take 110 Horizon League Titles over 8 McCafferty Trophies any day of the week.

[valpotx]

The funny part is that we are the only school with all 19 sports sponsored, yet we only have the 1 championship now  .  We will be changing that in the coming years though!

[valporun]

Yeah, I agree with blackpanther about the McCafferty trophy. It doesn't look as good as going back to the trophy cases and seeing the individual sports conference title plaques/trophies sitting in there. I certainly wouldn't go back to Valpo, and look for a McCafferty trophy when cross country and track are only 2/19th of the pie to winning that trophy. I'd rather than the conference titles pile up too. Yes, as valpotx said, "We will be changing that in the coming years". I  do believe that will happen, regardless of how much funding each sport continues to receive to improve their recruiting and equipment needs. I can't wait to go back to the ARC and see the trophy cases lined with HORIZON LEAGUE CONFERENCE CHAMPION trophies in various sports.

[agibson]

I know it sounds weird that would favor those schools when they only take the 5 best from each sex, but the fact is that a school who has 18 cracks at a McCafferty score has a huge advantage over a school that has 15 sports that register in the McCafferty standings.

I see what you're saying.  I do wonder if the rule (best five sports per gender) was originally intended to _help_ schools who were missing sports.  It would be a different kind of unfair to let all your sports count, when some schools offer more than others.  But, five does seem like a fairly small number.

I do think that it's strange that they never mention the methodology in the press releases.  I've not looked lately, but I seem to recall it's not so easy to find on the League website, either.

[gmoser1210]

I've never found the methodology anywhere.  If you find it, please let me know.

[agibson]

Panther at least seems to _know_ it.  Panther, what's your source?

But, in general, I have trouble finding such things from the Horizon League.  In the past, the men's basketball tie-breakers for tournament seeding have been hard to find, but at least sometimes available.  Most recently, I looked for the same rules for men's soccer and came up completely dry.

[covufan]

The funny part is that we are the only school with all 19 sports sponsored, yet we only have the 1 championship now  .  We will be changing that in the coming years though!

Changing it right now. 

[valpotx]

We won the men's sports standings, but finished 5th overall.  Great job by all involved, but especially our men's teams for stepping up their game!  I remember that when I was in school, our men's programs as a whole finished near the bottom of the Mid-Con each year, dragged down by S&D/CC/T&F.  Basically the only solid men's program was basketball each year.  It's curious that they only list the tournament titles, not overall.

http://www.valpoathletics.com/news/archives/2011-12/11839/valpo-posts-horizon-leagues-top-mens-sports-point-total/

http://www.horizonleague.org/blog/milwaukee-earns-sixth-mccafferty-trophy-as-horizon-league-all-sports-champion.html

[okinawatyphoon]

Why does softball not count in the standings?

[covufan]

Congrats to the VU Athletics Department - they have truly raised the level of VU sports!