Rule T7 says:
Quote:
Eight (8) alliances at Regional Events and thirty-two (32) alliances (8 per division) at The
Championship Event qualify to advance to the elimination matches. The alliances are
formed as follows:
• For Regional Events: From the top eight (8) seeded teams, starting in descending rank
order, a pre-college student representative selects an alliance partner from among the
remaining unpartnered teams. After all eight teams have selected their first partner, the
process repeats and a second partner is selected.
• For The Championship Event: Teams are evenly divided up into 4 “divisions.” Within
each division, from the top eight (8) seeded teams, starting in descending rank order, a
pre-college student representative selects an alliance partner from among the remaining
unpartnered teams. After all eight teams have selected their first partner, the process
repeats and a second partner is selected.
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As you can see, it says that a seeded team can choose an unpartnered team. This leads some people to say that at that point, all teams are unpartnered and the first seed can choose any team, including another seeded team.
On the other hand, it says that after all 8 teams have chosen their first partners, the process repeats. Presumably these are the same 8 teams that were seeded 1-8, since nothing is said otherwise (in 2000, when you could pick a seeded team, it was explicitly stated that if a top seed was chosen, then the 9th seed, etc, got to choose)
I know you aren't the only one confused...