Coaches Poll #1: 2015-2016 Preseason Edition

The following is a note from Bob Overing regarding the first Top 25 of the new season:

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back! It’s time for the 2015-2016 edition of the Premier Coaches Poll. As always, it only takes a few minutes and it’s pretty fun! I’d like to get about 20 ballots if possible, so please send the poll around.
Thanks to everyone who voted last season. If you recall, Peninsula AJ barely edged out Del Mar VB for the top spot in the final poll of the year. Congratulations to them and good luck to everyone competing for the Top 25 spots this year!

To get this initial pool of students, I took everyone from last year’s pool and subtracted the seniors. There may be some errors — let me know if that’s the case. For the 2nd poll once we have some tournament results, I’ll create a new pool of debaters who performed well this season. You can’t just rest on last year’s laurels!

Reminders

• Make sure you get your program’s OK to fill out the poll on its behalf
• I reserve the right to throw out votes that appear random or manipulative. This poll has legitimacy only if you base your ranks on your true beliefs about the Top 25 in the country.
• You should vote for your own students if you believe they are Top 25. It will not harm their points and it makes the poll more accurate

Scoring Rules

• Each school gets one ballot – it can be filled out by any coach associated with the program
• Each coach will rank debaters from 1-25 and points will be calculated by a simple Borda count: A 1st place vote is 25 points, a 2nd place vote is 24 points, etc.
• No ties are allowed
• Ranking your own students will not count toward their point totals
• The final rankings will be based on average points per ballot