One quesiton -- I am certain that the teams will be attempting to "balance" their plaintiff and defense teams while participating in the bracket system.
When knocked out, will they be allowed to "restack" their teams ?
In the bracket system, schools don't have one plaintiff team and one defense team. Instead, they have two teams, each of which prepares a plaintiff side and a defense side -- just like in any other tournament.
For example, suppose NYU makes the long swim out to Orange County for the tournament (actually, they
are planning on attending!) and in round one they face our friends from Claremont McKenna College. NYU has teams 564 and 565, and has designated that 564 will go plaintiff in round one; CMC has teams 732 and 733, and has designated that 733 will go plaintiff in round one. Meanwhile, Stanford is playing Berkeley with, say, each school's "A" team going defense. The winner of the NYU-CMC trials faces the winner of the Stanford-Berkeley matchup. We get these first round pairings:
Pl. NYU 564 v. Def. CMC 732
Pl. CMC 732 v. Def. NYU 565
Pl. Cal 663 v. Def. Stanford 820
Pl. Stanford 821 v. Def. Cal 662
Let's then assume that my two alma maters (NYU and Cal) claim victory by winning more of the four ballots from their respective trials. In the next round, both Cal teams and both NYU teams switch sides when they play each other. Put differently, since NYU 564 just went plaintiff in round one, it will go defense in round two...and so on:
Pl. Cal 662 v. Def. NYU 564
Pl. NYU 565 v. Def. Cak 663
Note that all four teams -- 564, 565, 662 and 663 -- have to play both sides of the case. For example, Team 663 went plaintiff in round one and defense in round two. So, to finally answer finalverdict's question, there won't be any need to restack to balance sides. (Schools may choose to balance their two teams more than they might in other tournaments.)
Meanwhile, Stanford and CMC have been eliminated from the bracket, but not from the tournament. They are placed in the general pool and can finish as high as third. Their second round opponent will be determined according to regular pairing procedures, except (1) the two teams from each school are still paired as a single unit (based on their collective record), and (2) there are never any side constraints when pairing because each school will always have one plaintiff side and one defense side per round. Thus, even for teams eliminated from the bracket, there is no need to restack or reshape their rosters.
Thanks for the question; I hope the answer was clear enough (it was certainly long enough). I am happy to answer any other questions that people may have about the bracket system.
Justin
