Any seeding system is inherently statistical and prone to fluctuations in teams' performance. Many variations on the seeding system are clearly possible, each of which comes with a tradeoff such as higher subjectivity and requiring finer-grained reporting of tournament results and team compositions.

The Ohio Valley Region therefore validates the OVR Juniors' Seeding System each year, comparing seeding positions from the current season versus empirical data observed for the Ohio Valley Region-Molten® National Bid Qualifier. The sole purpose of this tournament is to earn a spot at the USA Junior Olympic Girls' Volleyball Championships. Consequently, the importance of fair seeding is arguably highest for this tournament, and teams are expected to bring their strongest rosters.

2008 Data

Comparisons of results from the Ohio Valley Region-Molten® 2008 National Bid Qualifier relative to the 2008 OVR Juniors' Seeding System are as follows.

150 teams entered the tournament. There were a total of 34 bids available at the time.

As of 4/28/2008, we received 3 reallocated bids. They have been awarded to two teams ranked in their top 5 teams and 1 team ranked in the 10-15 range.

These results are very similar to last year's (see 2007 Data, below).

Difference between initial rank and final finish:

2007 Data

Comparisons of results from the Ohio Valley Region-Molten® 2007 National Bid Qualifier relative to the 2007 OVR Juniors' Seeding System are as follows.

Examining age groups separately, we observed a new record low seed earning a bid. In the 16s, the #17 seeded team placed 5th to earn the last bid in that age division.