Why is there a Lottery?

TCUL believes in preserving the 4-3 gender ratio for our co-ed leagues (we have received requests to go 5-2, but feel this marginalizes women both in spirit and on the field).  For our traditional co-ed leagues we have roster sizes of 9 men and 6 women, and for our masters & spring leagues we have a roster size of 10 men and 7 women.  Due to the popularity of our leagues with men, it has historically been the number of women registrations that dictate the size of our leagues.  In every year to date, more men have signed up than we have room for.  We used to award spots on a first come first serve basis, but in the last year that was the case, the leagues filled up for men in less than 15 minutes.  This makes it so that anyone that can't be at a computer right when registration opens had no chance of playing summer league.  That system also had people playing in multiple leagues when there were a lot of people completely left out.  For those reasons we developed the Lottery.

How does the Lottery work?

When men register for our co-ed summer leagues, due to the popularity of the co-ed leagues, men can register for coed leagues, but they will be subject to a lottery process for gaining entry into league(s).  We run lotteries for each coed league, examine the results, and adjust for men who made it into multiple leagues where some men did not get drawn into any leagues--a subsequent lottery is drawn after limiting men who made it into multiple leagues to a single league. In most seasons, men will make it into one league with a few men ending up on a wait list. If there is an above average number of women registrants that can support larger leagues, it may be possible for men to play in multiple co-ed leagues. If this is the case, a second lottery is performed for those open spots (assuming ALL men have been placed into at least one coed league), based upon whether or not a player signed up to play in two leagues. 

Pre-lottery draw:

• Any man carpooled with a woman, both of whom reciprocate the linkage and have paid, receive an exemption. All men who fall into this situation will be placed at the top of the lottery draw so that they are guaranteed entry into the league (women no longer have to wonder if their male carpool will get into a league or not).
• The above item is valid only for one co-ed league, so if the same man attempts to register for multiple leagues with a woman carpool in each, the exemption only counts for one league. The others will be ignored.
• Male/male carpool groupings cannot be guaranteed to be in the same coed league, since each individual in the carpool is treated as an individual in the lottery draw. The only way to guarantee that a male/male carpool can play together is to register for the men's league.

*Note: If a woman who is a part of a man/woman carpool cancels her registration, the individual she is linked to will lose their exemption and will move to the end of the wait list (if leagues are at capacity). 

For sessions where only co-ed leagues are offered (and there is no overflow men's league to accommodate men who do not get into the co-ed leagues), a simplified lottery is performed, following these steps:

1. All male-identifying individuals who have a league buddy that is female-identifying bypass the lottery and are added to the league.
2. A lottery of all remaining male-identifying registrants is ran to fill out the remaining spots in the league. 
3. Any male-identifying registrants that do not make it into league are issued refunds. 

FAQ

Why do we have to go through (and understand) this complicated lottery process as a male-matching player?

We want to maximize the ability for male-matching players to play in coed leagues, while being as fair as possible. This is why we have implemented the lottery system to assign male-matching players to coed leagues?

How do I check my lottery status?

Lottery status will be communicated at the conclusion of the registration period. Once registration closes, all exemptions for woman/man carpools are made and the lottery is run. The capacity for each league is set by the number of women registrations. Upon registration close, we will communicate broadly the number of teams we can support in each league. We will then run the lottery to assign individuals to leagues, and once everything has been set (including a potential second lottery if needed) each registrant will be notified of which league they are in or which wait list they are on.

I'm a man carpooling with a woman.  Do I really get exempted into my primary league? Or do I have the possibility of still not getting into league?

Yes, you will get into your primary league of choice! Since every man/woman carpool guarantees one woman to participate in the league, and the women on a roster are less than men on a roster, there can never be too many men carpooled to women in a league... so you're in! Well, assuming the following conditions are met:

• You register during the lottery period and pay.
• Your woman carpool also registers during the lottery period and pays.
• You note the woman as your carpool.
• The woman you note also notes you as her carpool.

I'm volunteering to captain. That means I'm guaranteed to get into a league, right?

Unfortunately, no (well, unless you're a man carpooled with a woman so you'd fall into the exemption situation above, but that's the only way). We do not provide exemptions for individuals who note in their registration that they would be captain volunteers. We are happy you'd love to help out, and if you get into a league where you noted you'd like to captain we'll likely take you up on it, but it doesn't guarantee a spot in a league. In rare situations if a league is unable to field enough captains from the individuals who made it into the league (which would only happen if we could not get enough people from a league to volunteer as captains), we may look to individuals not in the league to assist. Before that is even considered, all of the individuals in a league will be queried to see if they would like to fill a captain position.