Greatest DCA Corps of All Time

[Donny Drum Corps]

I guess it is time for me to put in my bid for Blousemen as the greatest of all time, to get this thread back on track.

Do you realize how many times Blouse destroyed Phantom Vanguard? The numbers speak for themselves.

Donny

[Jeff Ream]

Glen,

Can you do the math on Blouse? DA may have a point

[Dale Bari]

I thought it might be interesting to compare the two different ways of measuring competitive results. The OP used average placements. I used average # of corps a particular corps beat.

OP list:

1) Caballeros 2.89 (43)

2) Empire Statesmen 3.19 (26)

3) Bushwackers 4.30 (27)

4) Buccaneers 4.36 (44)

5) Brigadiers 5.26 (23)

6) Sunrisers 5.89 (35)

T7) Hurricanes 6.00 (44)

T7) Skyliners 6.00 (39)

9) Yankee Rebels 6.46 (13)

10) Crusaders 7.54 (41)

11) Renegades 7.86 (7)

12) Mn Brass 8.19 (27)

13) Matadors 8.25 (16)

14) Steel City 8.33 (12)

15) Westshoremen 8.80 (30)

16) Corpsvets 9.29 (7)

17) Grenadiers 9.64 (11)

18) Hamburg Kingsmen 10.13 (8)

T19)Erie Thunderbirds 10.75 (12)

T19)Pittsburgh Rockets 10.75 (8)

My list:

1 Caballeros - 14.1 (43)

2 Empire Statesmen - 14.0 (26)

3 Renegades - 13.9 (7)

4 Bushwackers - 13.5 (27)

5 Buccaneers - 12.4 (44)

6 Brigadiers - 11.7 (23)

7 Hurricanes - 10.8 (44)

8 Sunrisers - 10.6 (38)

9 Skyliners - 10.2 (41)

10 Corps Vets - 9.9 (9)

11 Crusaders - 9.63 (41)

12 Steel City - 9.58 (12)

13 Minnesota Brass - 9.52 (27)

14 Matadors - 9.3 (16)

15 Yankee Rebels - 9.0 (13)

16 Westshoremen - 7.7 (28)

17 Kilties - 7.1 (10)

18 Thunderbirds - 6.4 (12)

19 Grenadiers - 6.3 (13)

20 Kingsmen - 5.8 (11)

21 Royalaires - 4.9 (18)

22 Rockets - 3.6 (8)

I whittled my list down to try to match up with the OP's. His screening requirements, I think, were 7 DCA appearances and Finalists. I’m not sure why his list doesn't include Kilties and Royalaires. Maybe it's because they weren't Finalists 7 times. But, not only does that not line up with the numbers he supplied in parentheses, it seems too highly restrictive too. So, I'll let him explain that.

It appears that I am including Class A data too when the OP did not. I wonder if the difference in # of years for Westshoremen is because the OP's list includes data for Bonnie Scots, or mine excludes it. (Not on purpose, mind you.) Ditto for Grenadiers, the opposite way (I include the 1960's Grennies; the OP seems to not.)

The reason for using my method would be it rewards corps that place more highly against better attended DCAs. A corps that places 10th, say, when only 11 corps attend DCA is a lot less impressive than one that places 10th when there were 26 corps. The greatest difference between the two lists is for the Renegades. They place 11th on the OP's and 3rd on mine. The Yankee Rebels change the next most, placing 9th on the OP list but 15th on mine.

If the data sets were mostly congruent, the average place (measurement from the top) added to the avg # of corps beaten (measurement from the bottom) should be consistent for all the corps. Let's take a sample: Cabs: 2.9 +14.1 = 17.0, Rockets: 10.8 + 3.6 = 14.4; Steel City: 8.33 + 9.58 = 17.91; Bucs: 4.4 + 12.4 = 16.8; Renegades: 7.9 + 13.9 = 21.8; Yankee Rebels: 6.5 + 9.0 = 15.5.

Renegades' result is definitely an outlier. This may be explained by my using Class A corps, which would inflate the number of corps beaten in recent years, as DCA has had an influx of small corps recently. (Although this would affect all corps equally, the longer established corps would have more years of smaller DCAs to hold their averages down.) And, Renegades fortuitously timed their highest placement to coincide with DCA's largest attendance year, giving them a strong bounce in this analysis. To be sure, we'd have to make sure that both lists used exactly the same data, and that is in doubt at this point.

I wouldn't use only this kind of statistic as a basis to judge the "Greatest DCA corps of all time", but it certainly does help.

Edited September 24, 2008 by Dale Bari

[JimF-LowBari]

The Yankee Rebels change the next most, placing 9th on the OP list but 15th on mine.

Wondering if Yankee-Rebels went down because they were in the first few DCAs when not that many corps competed. Buccs and Sky were in the first DCAs but they had more years to smooth out any funkyness. Rebs last DCA Final year was 1976....

Yeah, I agree with Christine.... statistics are fun.

[Jeff Ream]

oy, all this math

[Dale Bari]

Wondering if Yankee-Rebels went down because they were in the first few DCAs when not that many corps competed. Buccs and Sky were in the first DCAs but they had more years to smooth out any funkyness. Rebs last DCA Final year was 1976....

Probably so. In 1965, they placed 4th in DCA, which sounds pretty good. (Hurricanes were 4th in this year's Finals.) But, they only beat 2 corps (Rockets and I-men). The same happened in their next DCA season (1967): 8th of 10.

In their 3 years at the top ('69-'71), DCA had 15, 15, and 17 corps respectively, when the average for DCA, once Prelims was established (1968), in the years YR attended was 16.8. So, they failed to catch the breaks that would benefit a corps under this kind of analysis.

[Kay]

I guess it is time for me to put in my bid for Blousemen as the greatest of all time, to get this thread back on track.

Do you realize how many times Blouse destroyed Phantom Vanguard? The numbers speak for themselves.

Donny

You are dillusional my friend.........

[Dale Bari]

oy, all this math

You are taking notes, right? There will be an exam at the end of this thread.

[Jeff Ream]

You are taking notes, right? There will be an exam at the end of this thread.

like high school, anything beyond add subtract multiply and divide and i'll fail. If i had to do the mortgage stuff by hand and not allow the computer to do it, i'd be unemployed

[Dennis Argul]

Well, I hope we all get to see the greatest DCA Corps of all time next season!!