BEAVERTON, Ore. (June 28, 2007) -- Nike Inc. has today announced a revamped qualifying process into the fourth annual Nike Team Nationals cross-country event, slated for Saturday, December 1st, 2007 at the Portland Meadows facility.
The newly unveiled format more clearly defines how club teams will earn either automatic berths or at-large invitations into the popular year-end event, which last year crowned Manlius of New York's girls team and Bridgetown of Pennsylvania's boys team as champions. The updated qualifying procedure is more objective than previous versions of entry into the event, deferring to a distinct formula which allows prospective NTN teams a clear understanding of the process to qualify.
There are 22 berths per gender into the championship race at NTN, with 14 of those spots dictated by a top-two team placing in the Championship Division race at any of the seven new regioncal championships being contested at various sites in early to mid-November. Four additional automatic berths are to be awarded based on performances in late-November events while four wild-card berths will be granted using an at-large scoring system largely modeled after the current NCAA Division I model.
"We're very excited about the new format which allows spots to be determined right on the course, not on a conference call," said NTN co-founder Josh Rowe of Nike. "The regional championships will be huge toward further increasing the popularity of the sport to the younger masses and the new at-large format is one which several key individuals have agreed is a huge step forward in fairly identifying top teams."
The new system requires all potential NTN teams to compete at either the Regional Championship (7 regions)
or the key late-season meet within the New York and California regions.
The at-large component employs a point-scoring formula that rewards teams that perform well at their regional championship AND have performed well against the best teams during the season.
Simply put, the objective of the at-large system is to reward those top remaining teams that have sought out top competition during the season and defeated it.
Below is a breakdown of the various means of qualifying to NTN:
AUTOMATIC QUALIFYING FROM REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (2 berths from each of 7 regions)
The top two placing teams at each regional championship will secure bids to NTN. This will be based on the two lowest team scores solely from the "championship division" race. Only conventional five-runner scoring (using a sixth-runner tiebreaker, if needed) will be utilized.
AUTOMATIC QUALIFYING FROM SINGLE-STATE REGIONS (2 berths from NY region and CA region)
The top two teams at the final competition of the season only will secure bids to NTN Nationals.
In the New York Region: These two qualifiers will come from the Federations Championship race.
The two lowest team scores will earn the automatic berths. In the case of a tie, the sixth-runner tiebreaker rule will be utilized to determine team placement for advancement consideration.
In the California Region: The 20 lowest team scores derived from the combined race results of all divisions at the state meet (typically about 110 teams) will identify the same 20 teams to be used in a separate and smaller scoring merge. A race simulation score is obtained based on combining the finish times of the runners from these 20 schools. The two lowest team scores earn the automatic berths. (Exception: If either of the two lowest-scoring teams was actually beaten in its divisional race that day by another team, that other team gets the bid priority, based on its head-to-head victory.)
AT-LARGE DETERMINATIONS (4 berths - taken from any of the nine regions)
The primary objective is to identify the four best remaining teams in the country (after the 18 automatic qualifiers are determined) as the at-large qualifiers. The criteria for these at-large selections is two-fold, based on regional placement and a point-scoring system, which is largely modeled after the current NCAA Division I Nationals at-large qualifying system:
I) Placing at the Regional Championship:
A. A team MUST participate in the Regional Championship and compete in the "championship division"
race
at its regional. Otherwise it forfeits any chance of being considered for an at-large berth.
B. A team must place either third or fourth at its regional to receive consideration for an at-large invitation.
C. A fourth-place team at a regional cannot eventually qualify ahead of the third-place team at the
same
regional, but may qualify ahead of a third-place team from another regional.
II) Points via in-season victories over teams that eventually qualify into the NTN race in Portland:
A. Teams are awarded one (1) point for each "head-on" (same race) win against teams that
eventually did
qualify for Nike Team Nationals (either automatically or via the at-large process)
1) To earn the point for the head-on win, all of the following must occur:
a) the race must take place on or after September 20, 2007.
b) at least five teams must be in the race.
c) victory must come against an NTN-qualifying program's "A" team.
i) Beating an "A" team is defined as beating a lineup in which at least four (4) of the
same runners
from the team you beat during the season started for that team in
the Regional "Championship
Division" race as well.
B. The four teams with the most accumulated points in the point system receive the at-large berths so
long as
the criteria in above is observed.
1) If a third-place team from a region (Team X) does not have enough points to earn an at-large
berth, but
the team immediately behind Team X (Team Y) does have enough points to be
the next team selected,
both teams X and Y from that region will receive at-large bids if
at least two bids remain. Any
additional teams still under consideration for an at-large
selection will not be awarded points for having
beaten any team (Team X) advancing to the
championship finals by virtue of the points accumulated
by the team behind it in the region
(Team Y). Also, this aspect of the at-large selection process can be
employed only one time per
region and only the first time it is necessary to do so. This process cannot
be applied to
the final at-large selection as only one berth is available (the process requires two berths
to
still be available).
2) If two or more teams are tied on points for an at-large berth:
a) The first tiebreaker will be that the higher placing team will get the bid if both teams
competed in
the same Regional Championship race.
b) The second tiebreaker will be the won-loss records in head-to-head competition
between "A"
teams being considered for at-large selection. Only results from meets
contested between
September 20 and up to and including the Regional
Championship will be considered.
c) The next tie-breaker will be the best winning percentage(s) based on won-loss
record(s) against
common "A" team opponents from teams being considered. Only results
occurring from
September 20 up to and including the Regional Championship
will be considered.
d) The final tiebreaker, if needed, will be a committee vote emphasis placed solely
on the team's last
performance. The team with the majority of votes wins the bid.
With the exception of this final
tiebreaker (if needed), all subjectivity is otherwise removed in the new selection process.
About Nike Team Nationals
The Nike Team Nationals is a part of the larger Nike Nationals championship series which includes the Nike Outdoor Nationals and Nike Indoor Nationals. The series of events was established in 2004 to help strengthen the national circuit for high school cross country and track and field competition.
Following in the tradition of European cross country meets, the event will again feature a multiple loop race course with man-made obstacles built on the inside of the horse race track. Spectators will be able to enjoy a continuous live view of the race from the venue’s enclosed 3,000-seat grandstand. Again this year the Nike Team Nationals event is providing coaches handheld computer devices, utilizing FinishLynx tracking technology (created specifically for Nike Team Nationals), to see team scores posted to a live leader board every kilometer. The technology was first introduced in the race's inaugural year and provides instant feedback on a team's position in the race allowing coaches to adjust strategy in the midst of the event. In addition to real-time race tracking, event data is then transferred live to dyestat.com and to www.niketeamnationals.com following the completion of the race so spectators, participants and coach can replay the race and see how select teams and/or individuals ran.
About Nike
NIKE, Inc based in Beaverton, Oregon is the world’s leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide varied of sports and fitness activities. Wholly owned Nike subsidiaries include Converse, Inc., which designs, markets and distributes athletic footwear, apparel and accessories; Bauer NIKE Hockey Inc., a leading designer and distributor of hockey equipment; Cole Haan®, which designs, markets and distributes fine dress and casual shoes and accessories; and Hurley International LLC, which designs, markets and distributes action sports and youth lifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories.
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