Anonymous, why would you need to map a school to a student? Wouldn't it suffice to just set up a regulation that you cannot have more than one judge from a school judging a heat? That way, "conflict of interest" would be less of an issue (I believe this was already mentioned in this thread). To expand on your analogy on international competitions, there may exist some schools that have more than one highly qualified judge; however, in the promotion of good sportsmanship, wouldn't the industry wish to deliver a fair competition? In the original scenario (a college comp from 2004), everyone loses: the winners, the losers, the judges, the competition promoters....

You seem to think it's more important to eliminate the appearance of bias than to have qualified judges. If all the qualified judges in a town work at one studio (not unlikely) then most of the judges should be from that studio. Only way to get better than that is to have the budget to bring in even better outsiders.

My argument is that it is an actual bias, not just an appearance of bias. In the original complaint, a school had three judges on the panel and the debate was that their students won due to favoritism. I see your point about expense; however, this competition was in the Boston area, how difficult would it have been to have a diverse panel? This is an interesting topic; unfortunately, my margins on this thread seem to be narrowing, so I will have to sign off.

Happy. This is a never ending story. I'll start with, I went to a seminar where most of the people there were professionals. The discussion got around to judging. I was most suprised when one of the speakers said. We have all been judging somewhere along the line where an organiser has sided up and told us who they expect to win. I was at a small comp. many years ago where the sole judge, judged, did his own scrutineering and recalled the couples for the next round himself. To me it seemed very apparent that he did n't trust the organiser. The judge was Guy Howard. that's right he wrote one of the books.Another time the sole judge was Len Scriverner. His method was to walk among the couples and tap a couple on the shoulder, which meant leave the floor. The last six standing were the finalist. He did the same in the final. This was a one dance competition. I was present when a very famous dancer and judge, who also wrote a book, after a major competition was telling a professional competitor that they were not the marks he submitted. He was telling him that he marked him in every round up to the semi final.Those marks were not there. As I started off with The never ending story.
One way with judging which could make it a bit more honest would be as was done in South Africa. I have a copy of the marks from the first round to the final. Five judges, two were rotated for each of the dances. Not heats but every dance. I think that the judges should be drawn, from a hat, if you like, just before each event. One last piece, I have a friend who was told he would't make the final this year six weeks ahead of the competition in which he had finished second two years in a row. She was right. He had not kept his lessons up. I dont know if there can be a remedy. But I do know why so many people leave the competition field.

I must have been fortunate for in my 20 yrs of dancing I always found the judging to be fair as long as there were an odd number of judges. The spectators always seem to know who the winner is and this keeps the judges honest. It's difficult for the judges when competitors are equal in ability or are all mking the same mistakes as they will be when all dancing at the same leval. Sometimes a shining star will arrive and dance quickly through all levals.

Dave. If the winners of one of the grades were called out soon after the event and not hours later. It would possibly be obvious to all that it was being routed. Several hours later it is not so obvious. Don't you agree.