'Smith Scale of Excellence' Explained, Car Links and BK

This morning I set out to name a Four Corners All-Sports champion to commemorate the end of the 2008-09 prep season.

I devised a points system to rank the teams and Farmington beat out Piedra Vista by the smallest possible margin. FHS averaged 7.1667 points per team and PV averaged 7.1578. The result formed the basis for my column.

District 1-4A Results
1. Farmington, 7.17
2. Piedra Vista, 7.16
3. Aztec, 5.60
4. Kirtland Central, 5.25
5. Shiprock, 3.95

District 1-3A Results
1. Bloomfield, 8.62

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You'll notice the Bobcats outperformed all the local 4A teams. I found it hard to compare the two, as the District 1-3A competition doesn't stack up. Also, you'll notice the absence of Navajo Prep. I compiled the results of every sport from a combination of searching our archives, picking the memory of sports editor Darren Vaughan and poking around on the internet. I couldn't find enough data to complete Navajo Prep's result.

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Here's a more in-depth look at my system, which I dubbed the Smith Scale of Excellence. There are four different point categories used to evaluate each sport:

1) District Standings
• 5 points for first, 4 for second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth and 1 for fifth.

Example: This is straightforward.

* Note: Aztec's boys soccer team didn't win a district game, but finished third because Kirtland Central and Shiprock didn't field teams. I still awarded them 3 points for third.

2) District Tournament
• 3 points for first, 2 points for second and 1 point for third. If no tournament existed, the district standings doubled as the theoretical results.

Example: The Kirtland Central boys basketball team finished fifth in the district standings, but upset Aztec and Piedra Vista to finish third in the District 1-4A tournament. Therefore I awarded them 1 point for the "district standings" and 1 point for the "district tournament" for a total of 2 points. By contrast, Piedra Vista got 3 points for finishing third in the regular season and 0 for finishing fourth in the district tournament for a total of 3.

* Note: Farmington's softball team finished second during the regular season. There is no District 1-4A tournament in softball, so I assumed that the Lady Scorpions finished second in both. Therefore, they get 4 points for the district standings and 2 points for the "district tournament" category for a total of 6. (In sports like cross country, where there are no district standings but there is a district championship, the championship results dictated the points for the "district standings" category.)

3. Comparative State Tournament Result
• 3 points for advancing further than the other district teams, 2 points for the second-best finisher and 1 point for the third-best finisher.

Example: Piedra Vista got three points for advancing to the 4A baseball championship game, while Farmington lost in the semifinals (2 points) and Aztec lost in the first round (1 point).

* Note: Shiprock and Aztec both lost in the girls basketball quarterfinals. Therefore they split the 3 points for second and third (I awarded each team 1.5 points).

4. State Tournament Success Bonus

• 3 points for state championship teams, 2 points for state runner-ups and 1 point for state semifinalists.

Example: Piedra Vista's softball team earned 3 points for winning the state championship. Aztec's football team earned two points for losing in the state championship. Kirtland Central's girls basketball team earned one point for losing in the state semifinals.

* Note: Some sports do not have "semifinals" or "finals." I awarded a third or fourth place finish as 1 point, a second place finish as 2 points and a first place finish as three points. Aztec's boys track team finished third at state for a 1 point bonus. They also were the district's top finisher (3 points) for a total of 4 points at the state meet.

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After I added up each school's total points, I divided by their number of teams that competed. Piedra Vista scored 136 points from 19 teams and Farmington scored 129 points from 18 teams (the Lady Scorpions didn't field enough golfers to compete in District 1-4A as a team).

I think my system works pretty well. I eyeballed some comparative totals and felt like the results were logical. Here are some examples you can debate:

* Farmington and Piedra Vista's baseball teams both scored 11 points. The Scorpions got 5 and 3 in the "district standings" and "district tournament" categories for winning their ninth straight district title, 2 points in the "comparative state tournament" category for advancing further than everyone but PV, and 1 point in the "state tournament success bonus" category. PV got 4, 2, 2 and 3 in the same categories.

* Aztec's football team totaled 13 points compared to KC (7.5), PV (5.5) and FHS (2).

* Farmington's boys basketball team scored 11 compared to Shiprock (6), PV (3), Aztec (2) and KC (2).

* KC's girls basketball team scored 12 compared to Shiprock (7.5), Aztec (5.5), PV (2) and FHS (1). I feel like Shiprock's girls were closer to KC than that talent-wise, but I guess they did lose all three meetings and didn't advance as far in the state tournament.

* PV's softball team scored 14 compared to FHS (7), Aztec (7), KC (2) and Shiprock (1).

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Cars: I know I called choosing between the Bugatti Veyron and the SSC Ultimate Aero hard in my column, but I live for tough choices like that. I have to go with the latter. What a gorgeous car! Oh, and the 1,287 horsepower doesn't hurt.

Here are the top 10 most expensive cars in the world, in stock form.

BK: All that thinking about Burger King roused my appetite, only to disappoint me yet again this afternoon. I ordered a large No. 5 combo, "an additional large fry" and an apple pie. I throw in the word "additional" because sometimes fast food joints think I'm just clarifying if I leave it at "large No. 5 combo, a large fry..." but really, I want an extra fry.

Somehow the girl translated "large fry" as "large Sprite," so I got two large drinks instead of more food. Really, BK?

Hope you enjoy the column. Any thoughts on my system?

Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher