I was just looking at the teams that have fished or are fishing all three tournaments in their divisions also the challenge teams. If we take only 5% from each division and only 20% from the challenge, there could be less than 15 teams going to the championship. Is this correct? 5% of 43 teams Central (2 qualify), 5% of 33 teams east (1 qualify) and so on.
My question is, are you changing the rules so more can qualify?

Take another look at the rules. The 5-10% that qualify from each division is of the number of unique teams that fish a division not the number of teams that fish the whole division. So in the east for example it looks like there will be 5 spots from there going to the championship. (If we end up with enough "new" teams at Dunkirk to reach 100 unique teams) You are correct on the 20% going from the challenge group of teams.

Even with this it is going to be a smaller field at the 2010 championship then usual. My thought is there is no advantage to make a change now for next years championship as it is not going to lead to an increase of teams fishing this year this late in the game.

Matt D

We do take 5 - 10% of the unique teams from each division to the Championship. The range of 5 - 10% is decided upon by what percentage each division is to capacity. So in the Central this year we have:

97 teams at Spring Valley
73 teams at Lake Pepin
76 teams at Marinette
246 total teams in the Central with each tournament considered full at 200.

So take 246 / 600 (200 full x 3 tournaments) = .41 or 41% capacity. This is under the next threshold of 60% so the percentage of unique teams taken to the Championship will be 5%.

Currently we have 161 unique teams in the Central Division so we take 161 x 5% = 8.05 rounding down gives us 8 teams that will qualify for the Championship through the Central Division.

The cash bonus for the Central Division Team of the Year is figured at $30 per unique team. So take, 161 x $30 = $4,830.

The Central Division Team of the Year gets 65% of that amount which equals ~$3140. The remaining $1,690 gets split equally between teams finishing 2nd - 5th in the Central Division Team of the Year race. To qualify for the Central Division Team of the Year, you must have fished in all 3 tournaments within the division.

This scenario is specific to the Central Division. The other two divisions will play out the same way with different figures based on number of teams in the tournaments.

Any questions, please ask.

Thanks,

Jeff Ahlstrand
952-988-7417