State Marching Contest vs. BOA

[tautry]

What are the differences in the scoring system? I was curious as to what comparisons can be made. I can't wait till Tuesday!!!

[LHSax]

The easy answer to this question is that BOA scoring puts a much bigger emphasis on GE, but even then you generally see the bands that do well in BOA also do generally the same in the UIL system (with a few extreme exceptions). The idea is generally that BOA generally rewards creativity and difficulty over cleanliness, while UIL does the opposite, but that's not necessarily a cold hard fact. That is not to say that BOA does not reward cleanliness (as I think actually happened quite a bit last night) and that UIL does not consider difficulty (I think difficulty was very rewarded at the area level - see Lake Ridge).

 

In the end there isn't much we can take from this past weekend because the only 4A bands that will be there tuesday that competed were Vandegrift, Cedar Park, VR and Azle. I think the impressive showings of the LISD bands in a really strong regional (12th, 13th, 17th in prelims, not to including Leander in 15th) only goes to show what we already knew...these bands are definitely contenders on Tuesday.

[heythere6]

Boa:

http://www.musicforall.org/what-we-do/marching/grand-national-championships/adjudication-handbook

uil:

http://www.uiltexas.org/music/marching-band/marching-band-scoring-and-advancement-procedure

 

hope this helps!

[Itank]

I don't know the specifics on the systems but I do know that something needs to be changed. Aledo made 11th at their area which didn't advance them to state but were class champions at BOA Super Regionals, beating bands like Azle who are going to state.

[principalagent]

Well for one, BOA and UIL judge different aspects of marching band, and comparing the two isn't necessarily fair (although, most bands that do well in one do well in the other). Secondly, Azle and Aledo are in different areas (even though they're really close to each other geographically), so you can't really say it's *that* unfair that one band is going while the other isn't just by virtue of how the areas are drawn. Even if they were redrawn in a way that allowed Azle and Aledo to compete at Area, or that Aledo was in a area that was less competitive, some other band would be "shafted". It's unfortunate yes, as Aledo is a great ensemble, but it's just how things go.