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Electoral college and Tennis

First seen Sep 28, 2020

Imagine if someone lost a tennis match 6-5, 0-6, 6-5 and claimed they should be considered to have won "because they got more total games" (16-12). That wouldn't be legitimate, because the agreement they played under was you'd win based on sets, not games.

NBA Version

Imagine someone won three blowouts, but lost 4 close games in an NBA finals. Them claiming they "deserved" to win because they got more points would not be valid.

This is what people who complain about winning the popular vote are doing; there was already an agreement about how a winner would be determined, and you can't change it later.

Same thing for baseball - "I should get into the playoffs because I got more total runs this year" is not legit. It's a type of renegging.

Although

Attempting to change the system is perfectly okay, though. Just not claiming that you "actually won"

Converting sports to "popular vote"

Lots of sports have "electoral-vote" type systems already in place.

  • Baseball - Rather than counting each game independently, you win the season based on the total number of runs you score in the season. For post-season series, you win based on the total number of runs you score over 7 games. Every series goes to 7!
  • Chess - play every game until the other player has no pieces left at all; your army is augmented by the pieces you retain at that point. Then put all your surviving pieces on the board or in hand for one final battle.

Converting "electoral-vote" type sports to "popular vote"

  • Baseball: each inning is its own game; treat the 9 innings like a 9-game playoff series.
  • Baseball, full lifetime - each team's rank is their total number of runs scored, ever.
  • Football - treat each quarter as a mini-game.
  • Football, reverse - your score is the number of points you give up; lowest score best.
  • Tennis - you win based on the total number of points you get (and switch from the love-50 system to 0-5 while you're at it - or leave it in place for extra irregularity)

Conclusion

Both methods are used and valid in certain contexts. Wiping the slate clean makes basketball series way more interesting - it would be terrible if ever series went 7 games and one team was effectively ahead by an 50 points to start the last game.