Brumbaugh Cup changes scoring system

Michigan Cup

Mon, Nov  11, 2013 - By Mike Muha

The Brumbaugh Cup, which determines the top senior team on the Michigan Cup cross county ski racing series, is changing its scoring system for the 2013-2014 season. Over the past few years, the sum of all points earned by all senior racers on a team determined the team's total Brumbaugh Cup points. Larger teams had the advantage using this scoring system. The new scoring method adapts the scoring used to rank cross country running teams, and places an emphasis on stonger skiers on an individual team.

The Brumbaugh Cup will take the top 5 men and top 3 women skiers for each team, who will be scored using their numerical overall placing within their gender (1 point for first, 2 points for second, etc.). The team score will be the sum of the scores for the top 5 men and top 3 women for each team.  In the event that a team does not have a full compliment of the permitted scored skiers (5 men, 3 women), the missing male members will be scored by receiving a score equal to the total number of men in the race plus one point and missing women members will be scored by receiving a score equal to the total number of women in the race plus one point. The lowest team score wins.

Only senior skiers will be included in Brumbaugh Cup scoring. The Brumbaugh Cup will include all single distance races.  For the 2013/2014 season the included races are as follows:

Lakes of the North Winterstart Freestyle
Wintersonnewend Freestyle
REI Frosty Freestyle
Huron Meadows Invitational (Krazy Klassic)
Cote Dame Marie Loppet Freestyle
Gran Travers Classic
Forbush Corner Freestyle
Hanson Hills Classic
Boyne Nordican Grinder Freestyle
Black Mountain Classic
Black Mountain Freestyle

A traveling Brumbaugh Cup team award be presented at each of the included races. Brumbaugh Cup team standings will be posted at Nordicskiracer.com on a weekly basis. A final Brumbaugh Cup award will presented at the Michigan Cup Relays awards banquet. The final  Brumbaugh Cup season score will consist of the sum of the scores for the individual races. The team with the lowest sum total will win the Brumbaugh Cup.

Says Ernie Burmbaug, chair of the Michigan Cup Committee, "I think this is a very good program and restores one of the Michigan Cups to a strictly performance based scoring system."

What implications does this have for the overall Michigan Cup?

There is no change in the scoring system for the Michigan Cup; it will be scored exactly the same as last year:

All points earned by an individual from all races completed go toward their team's Michigan Cup Points. If a racer completes 10 races, the points earned from all 10 races go toward Team Points. In addition, all points earned by the team in the Michigan Cup Relay Race and Team Time Trial are added to the total team points.

As you can imagine the Michigan Cup rewards the larger teams and puts the smaller ones at a
serious disadvantage because the Michigan Cup includes the points from every racer on a team.

The new Brumbaugh Cup scoring system creates a Cup primarily based on performance. It is scored like a cross-country running event, where teams only count the top runners (in this case skiers). However they can start any number of runners/skiers at the race. With a limited number of skiers, the smaller teams at least have a chance at the Brumbaugh Cup, while the more prestigious Michigan Cup remains the same (everyone and all races are scored).