World of Pageantry

Tonight at the UIL AAAA State Marching Finals, a little known rule determined the winner of Class AAAA. The rule is called the Judges Preference Rule. It simply says that if two of the three Music Judges Rate 1 Band as No 1 and one of the two Marching Judges also rates that Band Number 1, the Band is declared Champion no matter what the scores of the other judges are. In this case North Lamar with an Ordinal score of 13 was awarded the Championship over Argyle which had an Ordianl score of 11. Here is how it happened.

Music Judges 1 2 3 Marching Judges 1 2
North Lamar 1 1 7 1 3
Argyle 2 2 3 3 1

In the recent history of UIL State Marching Contest, this is to my knowledge a first.

I'd be interested to learn what Music Judge #3 heard and didn't like. That's a pretty significant outlier.

Hostrauser wrote:

I'd be interested to learn what Music Judge #3 heard and didn't like. That's a pretty significant outlier.

And probably the reason for this type of rule.

From the UIL Web Page

Ranking in finals will be determined by adding the rank scores of all five judges.. The Band with the highest ranking will be declared the state champion. EXCEPTION: IN THE EVENT THAT A BAND RECEIVES A FIRST PLACE RANK FROM AT LEAST TWO OF THE MUSIC JUDGES AND ONE OF THE MARCHING JUDGES, THAT BAND WILL BE THE STATE CHAMPION. Second and Third place will then be determined by total rank scores. All other Bands in the finals will be awarded a State Finalist Trophy. (Note: This State Champion Format was recommended by the UIL/TMEA Music Advisory Committee and was approved by that body and by unanimous endorsement of the UIL Technical Advisory Committee.
This has been in effect since 2004.