Referee by Avinash Kunnath via Flickr
As some of you have noticed, the Boys’ Semi-Finals have been riddled with controversy. It’s due to pure human error on my part – somehow, I jotted down the wrong winner in a Quarter-Finals match: Nathaniel won, but I advanced Tobias to the next round.
I’ve been puzzling over what to do ever since Patricia alerted me to the problem.
The two obvious possibilities are:
- Retract the original poll and issue a new one, pitting Archer against Nathaniel, as it should have been, even if it means that occasional visitors’ original votes are discarded;
- Continue as is, with Tobias remaining in the Semi-Finals. After all, referees make bad calls in sports all the time, and once the game is done, well … the game is done.
The first case requires rejecting hundreds of votes already cast, while the second scenario shortchanges fans of Nathaniel.
But then I thought of a third option, and it is the one I’m going to take.
While basketball is, necessarily, limited to two teams, March Madness Baby Names is not bound by court size. So I’m going to let both the Semi-Final polls continue as they are, but the Boys’ Finals will have three, rather than two, contestants: the winner of Archer v. Tobias, the winner of Finn v. Cian, and Nathaniel.
It’s an imperfect solution – the perfect solution is, of course, a souped-up DeLorean and a healthy supply of plutonium.
My apologies for the confusion, and thank you for your patience. March Madness has been great fun for me, and I hope one bad call by the ref doesn’t put you off the idea entirely!
The Boys’ Finals will post around 1:00 AM my time on Saturday morning, and I do hope you’ll come back and vote for your favorite of three!
