Planning in Sports
This domain examines competition planning: choosing a tournament format, drawing a fixture by hand, and knowing which committee does what. Numerical questions on byes, rounds and matches are almost guaranteed.
Tournament formats
- Knockout (elimination): a team leaves after one loss; cheapest in time, but weaker teams get very little play.
- League (round robin): every team meets every other; fairest, but needs the most time. A single league counts each pair once, a double league counts home and away.
- Combination: league within pools, then knockout among pool winners.
Standard formulas
- Knockout total matches = N − 1, whatever N is.
- Byes = next higher power of two − N.
- Rounds = the exponent of that power of two.
- Single league matches = N(N − 1) ÷ 2; double league = N(N − 1).
Committees
Organising, technical, finance, publicity, transport, reception, board and lodging, first aid, refreshment, ground and equipment.
Worked example
Draw a knockout for 21 teams. The next power of two above 21 is 32, so byes = 32 − 21 = 11 and rounds = 5. Matches = 21 − 1 = 20. Split teams into an upper half of 11 and a lower half of 10, then distribute the 11 byes so that a team is not given a bye in the second round after already sitting out the first. Always state N, byes and rounds before you draw the bracket - the examiner awards those marks separately.
Traps that cost marks
- Writing 20 matches for a league of 21 teams; that is the knockout rule.
- Confusing byes with rounds.
- Giving a bye in round two to a team that already had one in round one.