Sociology

Today in Sociology we had a group assignment, and we were supposed to debate a controversial issue. The winning side, as decided by the teacher, would get the participation points. The losing side would have to do a different assignment to get the same points. Okay, this would be okay if we got to choose our position, but we got assigned to a side because of where we sat. I was assigned to what I considered the losing side (I am writing this post in class before the outcome). I don't see how a teacher can make us do something to get participation points when we participated, probably more so because we were on the losing side. We wanted it more, but because the other side had a better arguement, they will get the points. I just don't get it.