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As of early 2007, the League decided to adopt the BUSA League proposal dependant on a few final conditions having been ironed out. Unfortunately an agreement could not be reached by the start of the 2007/08 season and as such the BUTTS League remained independant. However, they did alter the system under which the league was contested, and allowed the entry of Derby to the league this season, preparing for a possibly easing in of a BUSA Sysytem in future years if the conditions of joining can be agreed upon. Below is the intiial proposal from BUSA in the words of the (then) BUTTS Organiser, Alex Stuart, as he understood them from initial contact.
*********************** During the
Summer of 2006, BUSA Representatives contacted the BUTTS Organiser and
presented an offer of a BUSA League System. The idea is to create a Midlands
BUSA League, involving all the current members of BUTTS. Members would be rewarded
with BUSA points for winning the league, and would gain all benefits that come
with being associated to BUSA (such as the fact that some Students Union cover
the cost of travel to all BUSA Events).
BUSA said
that the running of the league would still be up to its members, so a form of
the BUTTS Organiser would still be needed as they themselves had no desire to
take on the organisational aspect. However, as a BUSA League, we would be
unable to prevent any University Archery Club within the midlands from joining.
As such, the League would most likely increase in size instantly due to
interest that has already been expressed from Universities such as Derby, Aston, DeMontfort
and Nottingham Trent.
This would
not be as much of a problem as it first seems, as BUSA have also request that
the SUS System of running a league be adopted in the Midlands League if it were
to go ahead (The System is to have separate matches, involving only 3 or 4 Teams,
so that not all Universities have to be present, and as such, each Team would
end up going to around 4 or 5 matches a year). They want all possible BUSA
Leagues to run under the same system. 10 Teams using the SUS system would be far
more manageable than under the current BUTTS System of having every University
present at every leg.
The
proposal has come under mixed response. The Benefits are large, as association
with BUSA allows the League to expand competitively, as well as give benefits
to individual clubs. However, there are criticisms of the SUS system. Mainly that
is a system focused entirely on the Team Recurve events. It is debateable as to
whether Compound and Individual Recurve are worth competition for if the best
in the league are not there to compete. This is a particular problem for
Compounds, where not all Universities currently in the league have Compound
archers, so there may in fact be no competition at all in some legs.
The other
main criticism of the BUSA proposal is that BUSA Points (still unspecified for
the quantity) would only be awarded for experienced competitions. Much like the big
BUSA events each year, Novices would be recognised in medals only, not in BUSA
Points. For BUTTS, as a league that prides itself on some of the superb novices
it has produced, as well as some of the heated competition in the novice
category over recent years, it is a worry that this fact may push clubs more
towards focusing on their Experienced Archers, and as such lessen the
achievements of a winning novice team.
The final
point is that many believe it would be against the traditions of BUTTS to transform
the league into a more competitive based system. Not only would it diminish
novice, compound, and single Recurve events, but that was not the reason BUTTS
was created in the first place. It was originally created as a friendly way for
archers to have some form of competition. It has been used throughout the years
to build links between the clubs, and often focus has been as much on enjoyment
and socials after competitions as it has been on the competition itself. With a
shift to a system where only a couple of Universities travel to a leg, many
worry that the friendly feel of BUTTS will be lost and replaced with one that
is far more set on competitiveness.
As has been
listed there are many benefits, and possible disadvantages of converting to a
BUSA System. Each current BUTTS League Member Captain has been contacted and
asked to get their club to make a decision on their view point, making clear
both the advantages and possible problems. A decision must be made fairly early
in 2007 if the change is to be implemented for the academic year 2007/08, so as
of the moment, the entire proposal is under consideration.
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