[Joe Johnson]

Those of you who attended the Great Lakes Regional and the Western Michigan Regional, know that Dave Verbrugge -- MC without peer -- pulled together a metric that he used to demonstrate (at least to the folks listening to him live) that the GLR was the toughest regional and the WMR was the toughest "pound for pound."

His metric was essentially this: Take all the number of teams that were finalist or winners of the divisions in Atlanta and see which regional had the most number of teams in that group of 24.

If you do that this year, this is what you get:

1. West Michigan Regional, Allendale, MI 6
2. Sacramento Regional, Davis, CA 5
3. Great Lakes Regional, Ypsilanti, MI 5
4. Detroit Regional, Detroit, MI 5
5. Finger Lakes Regional, Rochester, NY 3
6. Boilermaker Regional, West Lafayette, IN 3
7. Florida Regional, Orlando, FL 2
8. Pacific Northwest Regional, Portland, OR 2
9. Buckeye Regional, Cleveland, OH 2
10. Midwest Regional, Chicago, IL 2
11. Silicon Valley Regional , San Jose, CA 2
12. Palmetto Regional, Columbia, SC 2
13. BAE SYSTEMS Granite State Regional, Manchester, NH 1
14. NASA / VCU Regional, Richmond, VA 1
15. Arizona Regional, Phoenix, AZ 1
16. Pittsburgh Regional, Pittsburgh, PA 1
17. St. Louis Regional, St. Charles, MO 1
18. Chesapeake Regional, Annapolis, MD 1
19. New Jersey Regional, Trenton, NJ 1
20. Colorado Regional, Denver, CO 1
21. Las Vegas Regional, Las Vegas, NV 1
22. Southern California Regional, Los Angeles, CA 1
23. Peachtree Regional, Duluth, GA 0
24. UTC New England Regional, Hartford, CT 0
25. SBPLI Long Island Regional, Hempstead, NY 0
26. New York City Regional, New York, NY 0
27. Philadelphia Regional, Philadelphia, PA 0
28. Waterloo Regional, Waterloo, ON Canada 0
29. Greater Toronto Regional, Mississauga, ON
30. Canada 0 Lone Star Regional, Houston, TX 0

Looks good for WMR. With SAC, GLR and Detroit right behind.

But what if you take the WINNERS of the divisions:

1. Sacramento Regional, Davis, CA 5
2. Detroit Regional, Detroit, MI 4
3. West Michigan Regional, Allendale, MI 3
4. Great Lakes Regional, Ypsilanti, MI 3
5. Silicon Valley Regional , San Jose, CA 2
6. Finger Lakes Regional, Rochester, NY 1
7. Florida Regional, Orlando, FL 1
8. Buckeye Regional, Cleveland, OH 1
9. Midwest Regional, Chicago, IL 1
10. BAE SYSTEMS Granite State Regional, Manchester, NH 1
11. Arizona Regional, Phoenix, AZ 1
12. Chesapeake Regional, Annapolis, MD 1
13. New Jersey Regional, Trenton, NJ 1
14. Colorado Regional, Denver, CO 1
15. Las Vegas Regional, Las Vegas, NV 1
16. Southern California Regional, Los Angeles, CA 1

Sacramento is looking pretty tough.

But you can go with the FINALIST AND CHAMPIONS only

1. Sacramento Regional, Davis, CA 3
2. Great Lakes Regional, Ypsilanti, MI 2
3. Detroit Regional, Detroit, MI 1
4. West Michigan Regional, Allendale, MI 1
5. Silicon Valley Regional , San Jose, CA 1
6. Buckeye Regional, Cleveland, OH 1
7. Arizona Regional, Phoenix, AZ 1
8. New Jersey Regional, Trenton, NJ 1
9. Colorado Regional, Denver, CO 1
10. Las Vegas Regional, Las Vegas, NV 1
11. Southern California Regional, Los Angeles, CA 1

Again, Sacramento is looking pretty tough.

But WAIT, THERE'S MORE! What about the CHAMPIONS ONLY:

1. Great Lakes Regional, Ypsilanti, MI 2
2. Sacramento Regional, Davis, CA 1
3. Detroit Regional, Detroit, MI 1
4. West Michigan Regional, Allendale, MI 1
5. Buckeye Regional, Cleveland, OH 1
6. Southern California Regional, Los Angeles, CA 1

Bottom line: Define your metric and you can get just about any result you want.

So... ...what is your metric? Define a metric and argue that this or that regional is the biggest and baddest going on.

Joe J.