Post by hiller 87 on Apr 9, 2014 18:38:08 GMT -6
Hey everyone,
I am no longer a member of a team, nor am I affiliated with the league in any way. However, I do care about the growth and longevity of the league, and I have an idea on how to make sure the league can grow- I believe that the NCDA should go from being a 15 on 15 league with 5 substitutes to a 6 on 6 league with 4-6 substitutes. The games would then be changed from 50 min to either 15 min or a best of scenario.
Here are my main reasons:
League growth: We’ve had 34 teams play in the league. 11 of them are now defunct, another seven have never played at Nationals. In related news, the league has also seeming hit a ceiling at 16 teams. A big issue for joining the league is the fact that you need to have 15 people to compete in a tournament. You could bring 10, but the majority of the time you’re going to get killed if you don’t show up with 15 or more. Playing 6 on 6 means that you can take a single SUV or van and get to a tournament instead of having to take a fleet of cars. Instead of getting 15 people to commit to something, you only need 6. It’ll let new teams be more competitive at first as well. I’ve seen first hand a lot of teams playing in their first year, and really only JMU has been a good team their first year. Most new teams have a handful of good players, but also have players that aren’t up to stuff just yet. Teams travel to tournaments to win, but also to have fun. However, traveling somewhere just to get your butt kicked probably isn’t a great experience. Having only 6 people on the court could help newer teams since they will have less drag weight. 6v6 games would also be quicker, so if you’re getting killed early on you don’t have to waste time as you’re down by six.
Teams could bring a 2nd/3rd team if they wanted to, with less people more teams could come, with the games going shorter more games could be played, the games would be faster (i.e. no stall ball tactics). Look at the BEAST: six teams went to the BEAST, but I think it’d be safe to assume that if the amount of players needed were dropped in half that maybe some other teams could go as well.
If the goal of the league is still to become a National league, and still wanting to grow dodgeball, then you need to cut back on players needed. We’ve already seen teams like Northwestern St. and Maryland have a difficult time getting to Nationals, what would happen if say UCLA or Boston College or South Florida wanted to come? Airfare for 15-20 people would be ridiculous for a club sport, and it’d be hard for people to miss two days of class to drive to Ohio for a dodgeball tournament.
People could allow multiple teams to play, such as a team like JMU who has a lot of players. There could be JMU Purple, JMU Gold, and JMU White. Individual teams would accumulate individual points separately. This way we can still honor the “more dodgeball=better” philosophy the league has had, while at the same time not punishing teams like CMU last year who had a hard time getting to 15 players.
In the end, the league is currently stagnating. I just hope you’ll at least consider this seriously. Good luck this weekend for people attending.
Sam
I am no longer a member of a team, nor am I affiliated with the league in any way. However, I do care about the growth and longevity of the league, and I have an idea on how to make sure the league can grow- I believe that the NCDA should go from being a 15 on 15 league with 5 substitutes to a 6 on 6 league with 4-6 substitutes. The games would then be changed from 50 min to either 15 min or a best of scenario.
Here are my main reasons:
League growth: We’ve had 34 teams play in the league. 11 of them are now defunct, another seven have never played at Nationals. In related news, the league has also seeming hit a ceiling at 16 teams. A big issue for joining the league is the fact that you need to have 15 people to compete in a tournament. You could bring 10, but the majority of the time you’re going to get killed if you don’t show up with 15 or more. Playing 6 on 6 means that you can take a single SUV or van and get to a tournament instead of having to take a fleet of cars. Instead of getting 15 people to commit to something, you only need 6. It’ll let new teams be more competitive at first as well. I’ve seen first hand a lot of teams playing in their first year, and really only JMU has been a good team their first year. Most new teams have a handful of good players, but also have players that aren’t up to stuff just yet. Teams travel to tournaments to win, but also to have fun. However, traveling somewhere just to get your butt kicked probably isn’t a great experience. Having only 6 people on the court could help newer teams since they will have less drag weight. 6v6 games would also be quicker, so if you’re getting killed early on you don’t have to waste time as you’re down by six.
Teams could bring a 2nd/3rd team if they wanted to, with less people more teams could come, with the games going shorter more games could be played, the games would be faster (i.e. no stall ball tactics). Look at the BEAST: six teams went to the BEAST, but I think it’d be safe to assume that if the amount of players needed were dropped in half that maybe some other teams could go as well.
If the goal of the league is still to become a National league, and still wanting to grow dodgeball, then you need to cut back on players needed. We’ve already seen teams like Northwestern St. and Maryland have a difficult time getting to Nationals, what would happen if say UCLA or Boston College or South Florida wanted to come? Airfare for 15-20 people would be ridiculous for a club sport, and it’d be hard for people to miss two days of class to drive to Ohio for a dodgeball tournament.
People could allow multiple teams to play, such as a team like JMU who has a lot of players. There could be JMU Purple, JMU Gold, and JMU White. Individual teams would accumulate individual points separately. This way we can still honor the “more dodgeball=better” philosophy the league has had, while at the same time not punishing teams like CMU last year who had a hard time getting to 15 players.
In the end, the league is currently stagnating. I just hope you’ll at least consider this seriously. Good luck this weekend for people attending.
Sam