Unusual number of teams declining

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by EricH

It's not a record, and it's a highly strategic move. I've seen the #1 seed in a Championship division ask 2 really good top 8 teams, that they knew would decline, to an alliance. 2 declines later, they picked another really good top 8 team, who accepted. I'm pretty sure that there's been a case of 3 or more declines before, too.

As for calling a team "stuck up", that's more insulting than any perceived insult delivered by a decline.

Yes, there have more than 3 declines.

I believe the year was '07 or 08', at Eastern Michigan University. During the picking, the #1 team tried to pick nearly all the top 8, one at a time. I was walking around the concourse and heard the first decline, then the semi-gasp when the second decline happened. I stuck my head in for the 3rd.

It had actually be a strategy discussed prior to the picking to break up a number of potential super-teams that year. There was a very long discussion here about it as well (with some people, as always, suggesting that teams were not gracious, were stuck up, etc), which was definitely NOT the case.