Has USTA Florida botched the random round-robin format again?

In 2022 at Florida 18 & Over Mixed Sectionals, a disaster happened where two undefeated teams were sent home in the 9.0 flight.  Might it happen again?

This happened because the unflighted round-robin format was used with 10 teams with two sets of five teams on each side playing four teams on the other side.  This means in theory if all the teams on one side win, there could be five 5-0 teams, and they only took two teams to a final.  It is all explained here.

What is worse is they had five strong teams on one side and five weaker teams on the other, and sure enough four teams went 4-0 and two were sent home.

You would think an event like this happening would be a great learning opportunity and steps would be taken to prevent it from happening again.  Well, sort of.

This year, again at 18 & Over Mixed Sectionals, there are again 10 teams at both the 6.0 and 9.0 levels, and unflighted round-robin is being used with each team playing four matches.  The good news is it appears they will take the top-4 to semis instead of just the top-2.  Phew, we are safe then right?

Not so fast ...

Both levels appear to have had the short-sighted "two sides of five teams each" approach to scheduling, so there still remains a chance of five undefeated teams!

Here is what it looks like for 6.0 flight if you visually look at the schedule.

Yep, there are clearly two groups of five teams, the top row plays the bottom row, and it is possible either row could go 5-0.

And for the 9.0 flight.

We see the same thing here.

Now, will it happen?  The chances are probably low, but the mere fact the format is used in a way that allows for it to happen when it could easily be avoided is a gaffe.  All one has to do is actually make a random schedule instead of constructing a schedule that explicitly allows for the worst case scenario.

I don't know if anyone from the USTA Florida reads my blog, but if so, I volunteer my services for free to review your unflighted round-robin schedules in the future so this can be avoided.  I would prefer to nip this sort of thing in the bud before it is rolled out and can't be changed.  It isn't fair to the players involved.

Let's hope the worst case doesn't happen for the players' sake.  If the disaster is avoided, that doesn't mean the format is ok, it just means they got lucky.

Even the National format with 17 teams and a schedule that actually appears random has a chance of sending an undefeated team home and it has happened (also here).

Good luck to all the teams involved.  Make sure you smash your opponent lest you go 4-0 and lose out on the standings tie-breaker.