Charts

 

 The graphs in the above images demonstrate the # of team from the top four districts in college sailing and their appearances at College Coed Nationals. The reasoning for doing a demonstration like this is because up until 2007 there was a set number of teams from the 7 districts that could sail at nationals. The set number was based off of how many teams were in a district. Although this system seemed to be even at the times districts such as the one Roger Williams is in had much better teams compared to other districts. College sailing got rid of the district rule and changed the format to a semi-final and final style format. This allowed for the best teams to be able to compete at Nationals rather than some of the best competing against alright teams who made it to nationals only because they competed in a weak district. The above pie chart shows that over the past 5 years the New England district (NEISA) has had the most amount of teams appear at Nationals. The second best district would be the Middle Atlantic district (MASIA).  The third best district in college sailing would be the South Atlantic (SAISA) with teams of College of Charleston and University of South Florida consistently qualifying for nationals.  The last disrict who seems to not be as competitive as the east coast college districts would be the west coast district Pacific Coast (PCCSC) with Stanford University qualifiying for the nationals over the last 4 years. The reasoning of demonstrating this out is because before the new format Roger Williams was unable to qualify for the National Championship because NEISA was only given 5 spots. Since the change of the format NEISA district in 2010 had 9 schools including Roger Williams qualify for the Nationals. NEISA and MASIA seem to be the two domonating districts with the most amount of team appearances at Nationals. I found this to be useful information because most kids who go to school to sail don't understand how important it is to compete in a competitive district. By having a visual representation a kid looking at colleges would want to consider looking at schools in the NEISA or MASIA districts based upon the amount of schools that appear at Nationals.

The new format also shows that in the past years when they association capped the number of schools from each district that the best sailing teams were not actually competing at Nationals. Under the new format this allows for the best teams to compete at Nationals. To make it to nationals a school must qualify to go to semi finals and then once at semi finals a school must got top 9. Nationals consist 1 of the top 9 team (schools) from both semi-final events. The total number of teams at nationals is 18. Last nationals 9 teams appeared from the NEISA distict including Roger Williams University. 

Overall I am pleased in the way my two graphs came out. However, if I had more time to do the project over again I would of tried to use Excel more to my advantage. My weak knowledge of the program held me back from creating the best visual possible with a great amount of detail. I am though pleased with the topic in which I chose to demonstrate because I am heavily involved with College Sailing and something like this has never been graphed out before. I think it is an important visual for people to see and understand how competitive the top 2 districts are compared to the rest. Overall, I am pleased with this assignment and will present it to the board at the next NEISA meeting to see if College Sailing organization would like to use the data and information in which I have gathered and visually represented. 

Hopefully my next visual will be of Roger Williams University not only appearning at Nationals but winning it also!!!