LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR CHANGE IN NSAA RULES AND REGULATIONS
Title:

Change in Determining Final Rounds at District and State Speech

Author:A. J. Johnson
School:Hartington-Newcastle
NSAA District:3
 
Proposal for:Activities Manual
 
Classes Affected:All
Activities Affected:Speech
This proposal:WILL NOT increase costs to the school
WILL NOT increase costs to the NSAA
WILL NOT increase travel for participating schools
WILL NOT decrease a student's or coach's instruction time
Implementation date:2027-08-01
Sections affected in Activities Manual:Page
12
Article

Section

Summary:Determining Final Rounds at Districts and State:
The final round shall consist of six (6) contestants. The following procedures will be used to determine which students advance out of the preliminary rounds:
1 – Lowest Cumulative Speaker Rank If ties in cumulative score bring the number to more than (6), the following priority system shall be used to break ties:
2 – Head-to-Head Competition:
  A - If the tied speakers met in only one preliminary round, the speaker that ranked higher in that round advances.
  B – If the speakers met in both preliminary rounds, and the same speaker ranked higher in both rounds, that speaker advances.
3 – Reciprocals: Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Reciprocal 1 ½ 1/3 ¼ 1/5 1/6 1/7 As a Decimal 1 .5 .33 .25 .2 .17 .14 Then add these numbers and the contestant with the highest score is the best of the three, and the next highest score receives the next rank, etc.
4 – Opponent’s Average Rank (Strength of Schedule)- comparison of which students had more competitive rounds, based on the opponent’s average rank.
5 – Highest Cumulative Speaker Points
Rationale:Moving head-to-head competition to second ‘protects the one’ in each round. This would also create a tie breaker that is based on actual head to head competition results rather than a mathematical formula. Currently, with the tie break of Opponent's Average Rank, a student can beat a competitor they are tied with in a round, but still lose the tie break.
Pros:This takes the actual competition results more into play and it is also easier to explain with the head-to-head results.
Cons: