For this year's homecoming, we will have a friendly competition among all sports programs' letterwinners. We are looking to see who can raise the most money for the Rice Owl Club, which supports all of our programs and student-athletes, the week of Homecoming 2022. The top three programs will receive the following award for their program respectively.

-1st place - $5,000 towards their operating budget for 23-24
-2nd place - $2,500 towards their operating budget for 23-24
-3rd place - $1,000 towards their operating budget for 23-24

-How to score?
-1 point for every donor who donates at least $10
-2 points for every donor who donates at least $50
-3 points for every donor who donates at least $100
-5 points for every donor who donates at least $500
-10 points for every donor who donates at least $1000
-25 points for every donor who donates at least $2500
-50 points for every donor who donates at least $5000

-Additional scoring
-50 points to the team that has the highest percentage of alumni donate
-30 points to the team that has the second highest percentage of alumni donate
-20 points to the team that has the third highest percentage of alumni donate

The competition will start the week of homecoming, Monday 10/24 at 7:00 a.m., and conclude on Saturday 10/29 at 5:00 pm. The top three programs will then be recognized and announced during halftime of the next home football game on 11/3.

These donations will also count towards Owl Club/Letterwinner regular donations and benefits which can be found HERE!

To make your annual donation to the Owl Club now or for the letterwinner competition the week of homecoming, please go to http://www.riceowlclub.com/give or call the Development Office at 713-348-8425.

Special Benefits for Letterwinners ONLY who join the Owl Club!

As a former Rice Owl athlete, you wore the same shoes of the great student-athletes we all work to support today. Therefore, we want to make sure that you have special perks for being part of the Owl Club to support Rice Athletics and all of the current student-athletes including connecting with them quarterly, in addition to all of the regular perks you get for being part of the Owl Club. These perks are not for just any Owl Club members or Letterwinners, but you must be both to enjoy these special perks which we hope you take advantage of.

-R-Room access for 11/3 Football Game (RSVP by 11/2)
-Trauber Suite access for one Basketball game - Date TBD (RSVP TBD)
-Party Tent access for one Baseball game - Date TBD (RSVP TBD)
-Quarterly Virtual Zoom Happy Hour invites to get to hear from our student-athletes and coaches.

In the well respected Rice tradition of 'ballot stuffing' (see SA President, Homecoming, etc.....), just letting y'all know that you can donate $10 through 10 different people -- and get the same points as donating a big one.

Doesn't this skew the balloting dramatically in favor of the sports that have/have had more players?

(10-25-2022 12:20 AM)NYNightOwl Wrote:  Doesn't this skew the balloting dramatically in favor of the sports that have/have had more players?

Yes.

So:

100 points to the alum who can come up with a provably sufficiently fair scoring system for next year that is complex enough to be incomprehensible to 99% of even Rice alumni.

+20 Bonus points for a subtle bias toward your favorite sport.

Just a clarifying note-- non-letterwinners can still earn points for the sport of their designation with a donation...

Quote:Just a quick note; all donations are meant to be to The Rice Owl Club. If you are a Letterwinner it will go to your respective program. If you were not a Letterwinner when making a donation there is a “special instruction” where you can write which sport you would like your donation points to go to.

(10-25-2022 07:26 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(10-25-2022 12:20 AM)NYNightOwl Wrote:  Doesn't this skew the balloting dramatically in favor of the sports that have/have had more players?

Yes.

So:

100 points to the alum who can come up with a provably sufficiently fair scoring system for next year that is complex enough to be incomprehensible to 99% of even Rice alumni.

+20 Bonus points for a subtle bias toward your favorite sport.

Make the donations a linear scaling -- not one that penalizes in a relative sense higher individual donations.

Normalize the points awarded by the size of the program.

That may not be complex enough. I'll work on the subtle bias bit.

Sweetening the pot...

Quote:Rice Owl Club
@RiceOwlClub
·
?THIS JUST IN!?
We have had an anonymous donor pledge to match up to $25 for each of the next 100 donations that come in! Letterwinners; who wants to win this challenge!?