Do you think the Top 25 system should return?

[Latrobe's Finest]

If you go to one division, you destroy any competitive incentive for the smaller Open Class corps. These groups would go back to scoring in the 30s-40s by finals like in the days before Div II/III.

I think it makes more sense for drum corps to organize itself by corps size, but I don't know how that would work given the current membership model.

[supersop]

If you go to one division, you destroy any competitive incentive for the smaller Open Class corps. These groups would go back to scoring in the 30s-40s by finals like in the days before Div II/III.

I think it makes more sense for drum corps to organize itself by corps size, but I don't know how that would work given the current membership model.

90 was the magic number when it was 128 at full .......... so why not make the new number 100. 99 or fewer is OC ... 100 to 150 is WC.

[shostahoosier]

Make it all one division! There are plenty of Open Class corps that could take some World Class corps, and it'd be way cooler to have over 50 corps in the division than to have 2 divisions, one of which does not get nearly enough attention.

In 3 years Blue Stars went from a mediocre Open Class contender to a SOLID World Class organization. Who's to say the Oregon Crusaders (example) couldn't do the same thing if their bar was raised 23 spots?

Sorry...just wanted to say early, I agree with your sentiments about the Blue Stars upping their game...but they have NEVER been mediocre open class contenders.

The Cadets and the Blue Devils are the Blues Stars and Mandarins of World Class respectively (or were when the two latter corps were in Div II/III).

[shostahoosier]

90 was the magic number when it was 128 at full .......... so why not make the new number 100. 99 or fewer is OC ... 100 to 150 is WC.

I think because it has to do with more than corps size. There were several Div II corps that had 128 members back in the late 90s and they were pretty good, they just didnt want to deal with the competition or full tour of Division I. Of course, most of the stronger Div II/III corps marched full tours anyway (the last summer I marched Div III we had 35 shows!).

Personally I really liked scoring all the corps on the same sheets. It was fun to see how you stacked up against the big corps. My Div III corps once missed beating a semi-finalist corps (14th place the previous year) by 4/10ths of a point! Now THAT was motivating!

[08ThunderBass5]

I really like the idea of letting some of the top Open Class Corps into World Class quarterfinals. It would be a logistical nightmare...I think....but it was done before..

However I will say- Either I'm getting a better eye/ear for dirt or I feel like the quality of Open Class corps' performances is deteriorating. This is coming from someone who has only marched open class too by the way. I'm not sure what it is, and maybe it is that I'm just getting better at spotting imperfections, but I feel like the open class corps now just aren't as solid as they used to be....even by just a few years back.

Oh one other theory is that when World Class switched to 150 members, this shrunk the number of people who went to Open Class corps and thus began a bit of a deterioration of quality in OC.

Just some thoughts! Don't mean to offend anyone. :D

[shostahoosier]

I really like the idea of letting some of the top Open Class Corps into World Class quarterfinals. It would be a logistical nightmare...I think....but it was done before..

However I will say- Either I'm getting a better eye/ear for dirt or I feel like the quality of Open Class corps' performances is deteriorating. This is coming from someone who has only marched open class too by the way. I'm not sure what it is, and maybe it is that I'm just getting better at spotting imperfections, but I feel like the open class corps now just aren't as solid as they used to be....even by just a few years back.

Oh one other theory is that when World Class switched to 150 members, this shrunk the number of people who went to Open Class corps and thus began a bit of a deterioration of quality in OC.

Just some thoughts! Don't mean to offend anyone. :D

I think the quality in open class corps is diminishing but I think it has less to do with the World Class corps going to 150 (few of those kids would have marched Open Class anyway) and more to do with the better Open Class corps moving to Open Class and not being replaced.

A lot of corps came and went but Pioneer, Blue Stars, Mandarins, Spartans, East Coast Jazz and a few others were usually pretty consistent in Div II/III finals. These corps were pretty stable too...and wouldnt suffer from "flash in the pan success"-syndrome (ala Revo, Memphis Sound). There were more corps of course (Academie Musicale, Capitol Sound, Ventures, Patriots, etc.) that were often in the hunt too. Now it seems like a majority of corps in Open Class are small startups building their bases. It may take a while for Open Class to recover...but it needs to worry about surviving first.

[ShortAndFast]

I think because it has to do with more than corps size. There were several Div II corps that had 128 members back in the late 90s and they were pretty good, they just didnt want to deal with the competition or full tour of Division I. Of course, most of the stronger Div II/III corps marched full tours anyway (the last summer I marched Div III we had 35 shows!).

Personally I really liked scoring all the corps on the same sheets. It was fun to see how you stacked up against the big corps. My Div III corps once missed beating a semi-finalist corps (14th place the previous year) by 4/10ths of a point! Now THAT was motivating!

I also think that OC should be about a corps goals and financial means, not about size. The WC tour is a big undertaking, not every corps wants or needs to do it. There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to have a large, competitively strong group that only does a short tour.

I like the idea in this thread of giving OC more exposure to fans by having them compete on the same sheets as WC in quarterfinals. I don't like the idea of collapsing the two classes, or of letting an OC corps knock a WC corps out of the appearance fees/profit sharing that WC corps can earn.

[supersop]

I know I was thinking PIE IN THE SKY when I started this thread .......... and most of what has been said with regards to the current touring model and talent depletion due to increased corps sizes all make sense.

I guess my gut is just telling me now that the coup has resulted in the ousting of the previous BoD ... I have a feeling regional tours for June to mid July will be a huge part of the new business plan for 2011. If that does indeed happen within the next couple of years ........ I see a resurgence in OC corps ...... their competitive success ........ and a higher quality that should be allowed to go head to head with the WC corps.