Gilbert Quinonez gquinonez@media.ucla.edu
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It is UCLA vs. USC, one of the better rivalries in sports.
Unfortunately, no one cares.
The Lexus Gauntlet Trophy is awarded to the school that does
better against the other in a combination of all varsity sports
played.
While this may seem like a good idea, are students and alumni
actually going to brag about winning this trophy? They will brag to
each other about the UCLA-USC football game, the men’s
basketball game and maybe the number of national championships won.
How many people at USC will brag that their rowing team beat UCLA?
How many Bruins will brag that their women’s golf team beat
the Trojans?
Statistically, the Lexus Gauntlet format makes exponentially
less sense the more I look at it. Most of the sports count for five
points. However, four of them ““ football, basketball
(men’s and women’s) and women’s volleyball
““ count for 10 points. The argument here is that these are
major sports, sports that most fans care about more. Still, if that
argument is true, don’t football and basketball get more
publicity and interest than women’s volleyball?
Shouldn’t those major sports be worth 100 points and the rest
be worth five?
Also, the formula doesn’t make sense. The Lexus Gauntlet
uses a winner-take-all format which gives teams all of the points
for that sport if they win the majority of the matches. For the
sports that just play once or twice a year, this works just fine.
However, some sports play multiple times. Beating the other team
five times out of five counts the same as beating them three out of
five.
Even more bizarre than the scoring system is the tiebreaker
system. With the women’s tennis team’s triumph over USC
Thursday, UCLA has taken a 55-52.5 lead in the Lexus Gauntlet
score, but the score will be tied if USC wins the rest of the
baseball points.
So exactly, what happens now? A rivalry can’t end in a
tie, can it?
The first tiebreaker is the number of games won between the two
schools during the regular season. Currently, UCLA is leading
15-13. UCLA would need to win one of the three upcoming baseball
games to win the ever-important, thrilling, Lexus Gauntlet.
Easy you say? The Bruins were swept by USC earlier this year,
losing one of the games 26-4.
What do I find wrong with the tiebreakers? Only regular-season
matches count. The postseason matches are the second tiebreaker.
Aren’t the postseason matches worth more? Isn’t that
where champions are made?
I propose some real tiebreakers. If USC complains of adding
national championships as a tiebreaker, I propose a fantasy
baseball battle between UCLA and USC. Here at the Daily Bruin, we
have a fantasy league guru who knows everything about fantasy
baseball. As the stat geek, I am also a great fantasy baseball
player.
I bet you can’t beat us, ‘SC!
Also, UCLA has more varsity sports than USC, with softball,
men’s soccer and men’s cross country. If USC were to
win the Lexus Gauntlet by a small margin, it could be because they
didn’t field a mediocre or bad team in those sports, allowing
UCLA a chance to beat them. All three of those teams I named above
did well this year and would give any USC team serious
competition.
Why does this trophy give anyone any motivation? Have you seen
it? It’s just a severed hand. I can see the baseball team,
after winning a game against the Trojans, circling around the field
holding the severed hand up in the air like the Stanley Cup. Of
course, the baseball team would still have a losing record.
Of course, no one cares about the Lexus Gauntlet. It’s all
about the USC-UCLA football and basketball games, a traditional
rivalry everyone cares about.