From: Eric Jablow <ejablow at cox.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: sports seeding
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 21:38:27 -0500
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

On Mar 29, 2005, at 10:21 AM, Mike B. wrote:
>
> Thanks.  That makes some sense anyway.  I'm not sure I agree with the
> intent, and a better term may have been possible, but I guess if you've
> ever planted a lawn it makes some sense as it is.
>

There are two types of "sports seeding".  In a Swiss system tournament,
players are assigned opponents in the first round so that players of
similar
abilities are matched against each other.  In later rounds, players of
similar
abilities with equal records in the tournament are matched together, as
far
as possible.  Large chess tournaments are run this way, for example.

In single-elimination tournaments such as tennis tournaments or the
NCAA basketball tournaments, exactly the opposite occurs. In the
NCAA tournaments, for example, Teams are matched to reward
the highest-rated teams by giving them easier challenges with hope
of having compelling finals. In the first round, #1 plays #16, #2 plays
#15, etc.  Usually, the better-rated team wins, but not always.

In tennis tournaments, the top 16 (or 32) seeds are put in separate
brackets so they cannot meet until the round of 16 (or 32).  The
unseeded players are placed randomly.

The soccer World Cup draw is supposedly random.  However, it
always seems that certain countries never appear in the same group.
Britain never plays Argentina in the first round, for example.  The host
country always gets a favorable draw.  In short, they cheat.

Respectfully,
Eric Jablow