Outline of general changes to 2009 Competition Schedule, implemented to accommodate increase in number of teams (from 16 to 20 per division) and length of event (from 3 to 4 days):
- 4 pools of 5 teams each
- 2 pool play games per team per day on Day 1 and Day 2
- Pool games will be spread out over the first two days decreasing potential impact of unmatched byes, allowing more rest time between games, allowing more time to watch other games, and increasing ability to showcase highly anticipated matchup
- Traditional pre-quarter crossovers held at the end of Day 2
- Bye for pool winners still an incentive, but advantage minimized by holding only quarters and semis on Day 3
- 2 placement games for bottom 12 teams on Day 3
- Finals for each division on Day
- Note on seeding:
For seeds 17-20, the UPA Formats Manual uses the traditional "snaked" seeding to place teams in pools for a 20-team tournament. In the 1-advance, 4-pool formats such as the one used at the College Championships, the 9th through 16th seeds are flipped from the traditional snaked format, in order to get the optimal, "snaked" seeding matchups in the pre-quarter round. At the same time, this seeding set maintains the optimal matchups to determine 1st vs. 2nd in each pool (which determines which team receives a bye) and 3rd vs. 4th in each pool (which determines which team is eliminated).
However, there is no reason to deviate from the traditional snaked order for the 5th seeds in a pool. It is impossible to balance total seed for pools of five, no matter which seeding set we choose. The 4th vs. 5th place distinction is not a critical one from an advancement perspective, so there is no need to maintain the flipped seedings at the level of the 5th seed in each pool. Hence, the seeds were left in their traditional snaked order (17 in pool A, on to 20 in pool D) in the 20 team, 1 advance format in the UPA Formats Manual. This format (albeit spread out over four days) is essentially the basis of the College Championship format.
Furthermore, there are factors particular to the championship format that make this seeding set particularly attractive. The placement brackets at the College Championships do have 4th vs. 5th games, so the return to the traditional snaked order actually allows us to achieve the optimal matchup in those placement brackets, just as it does in the 2nd vs 3rd, prequarter matchups.
*Apologies for the delayed seeding announcement which resulted from travel and staffing issues related to other ongoing UPA events.
