Blogs : RunnerSpace Rankings

E-8 Women Rankings - Week 6

women's long jump

8:22 AM, April 30, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

Although I applaud the attempt to garner recognition and media coverage for our sport, the legitimacy of these rankings as a whole must be questioned if those compiling the rankings don't recognize that a MALE athlete has been put in the women's rankings.

It is likely better to have no rankings at all than to have such a basic error not caught.

Now it is obviously an error on the part of the coach when submitting a pop form to check the wrong box. But when compiling a subjective ranking, recognizing that no woman has jumped over 24 ft in the NCAA would have to throw up a red flag and require a few minutes of research. The mark alone let's one know it isn't a woman, but a quick look at that school's web site and roster would confirm it.

What is even more strange, and ultimately damning is that if the rankers did indeed believed this atlete to be female, that has jumped a full foot and a half further than everyone else, why would they only be ranked fourth?

Ultimately there can be no credibility to a ranking that fails to meet this basic standard of recognition in the sport it is attempting to rank.

RE: Long Jump

2:55 PM, April 30, 2008 .. Posted by runnerspace

Thanks for pointing that out for us. When I read your comment I was appalled that at this point in the season we would have such a big error. I looked into why it happened and think I have an idea of how it passed by so many people. Blake is also listed in the descending order lists that the NCAA publishes which was probably used by some of our staff in their editing.

I appreciate you pointing out the error. The rest of the message may have been a little over the top though. Everyone that works on this project volunteers their time and effort to publish these rankings. It is a huge undertaking and there is no doubt we don't have enough staff to use on the project with all the other things RunnerSpace is doing and how fast it is growing. So when you email whoever does the NCAA descending order lists I suggest you revise your wording and not send such a brash message to them as you did to us.

Further, as we are understaffed on this project, if you would like to help us each week please send me an email.

No credibility

1:05 PM, May 1, 2008 .. Posted by Lee Nichols

Hey anonymous: Yes, that was a dumb mistake, but I think our rankings are doing just fine on credibility. If you score our rankings, our top four teams match Track & Field News' rankings exactly, with just slight variations in point totals.

women\'s long jump

4:50 PM, May 1, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

I\'m not looking to get into a pissing match.
<br>
<br>But what you are telling me is that you all believed this long jump to be legit. It is within 4 inches of the World Record, and leads the NCAA women\'s list by more than a foot. Yet this would garner only the #4 spot on your NCAA projection?
<br>
<br>It wouldn\'t strike you as odd that this kind of a jump received NO mention in any track and field medium?
<br>
<br>I mean if you ranked the person 1st in your projection, then you are just making the same mistake the coach did when entering the POP form. A mistake and one that should be easily recognizable, but not a big deal.
<br>
<br>But you all legitimized what would perhaps be the second greatest female long jump OF ALL TIME and ranked it only 4th this season in the NCAA. That is where you lose your credibility. It has nothing to do with how closely your projected team scores match Track and Field News.
<br>
<br>So let\'s try to draw an analogy here. Let\'s say Pat Smith went 29:50 in the 10k and appeared on the women\'s rankings. Would you not rank Pat Smith 1st in the 10k (or perhaps just 4th using your subjective standards)? Or would you stop and say, wait a minute, we just had an American Collegiate record set by a woman from Iowa State that made big news. How come noone is talking about this Pat Smith person almost breaking the World Record? Don\'t you think that an NCAA woman challenging the World Record and leading the country by over 3 minutes would gain a little bit of recognition? It surely wouldn\'t take long to figure out that Pat Smith isn\'t a woman.
<br>
<br>

Re: Last comment

10:03 AM, May 2, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

GROW UP! You are such a child! Have you ever made a mistake?

Thanks to everyone who works so hard to put together these rankings! I appreciate all your work, even if sometimes mistakes are made.