It’s time to seed the playoffs
By mlycklama • Oct 28th, 2009 • Category: Football, News, column
Dear Idaho High School Activities Association, It’s time we talked.
Listen. I understand why you draw up the state football brackets before the season. I really do. Why subject yourself to the controversy of seeding teams when you can just point to a bracket and say, “You can’t blame us. We drew a bracket beforehand and this is just the way it came out”?
I get it. What you’re not getting though is that controversy is raging already.
When looking at a bracket without any teams, it makes sense. But over the course of a season, events unfold. And these prebrackets lock you into a system that, more often than not, does not pit the two best teams in the finals or reward the teams that had the best season.
Example 1: This year’s 4A football bracket.
After losing to Hillcrest on Friday, Blackfoot coach Stan Buck pointed out that even though he’d already beaten Pocatello and Century this season, those teams had the right to host Friday’s playoff game.
Century ended up beating Pocatello to earn its conference title and, in most cases, should earn the right to host a playoff game. Just not against a team it already lost to.
Those two teams can face off in the first round, and it’s not a terrible draw.
But this prebracket has locked Blackfoot into traveling to Century. Why not leave some flexibility in the system and let Blackfoot host the game?
Instead, Blackfoot will stay on the road throughout the playoffs unless 2-6 Burley makes a magical run to the semifinals. Before you laugh that off as impossible, remember that Burley only has to beat 4-4 Twin Falls and the third-place team from Boise to make it happen.
Meanwhile, Blackfoot has to beat the District 5 champ and then the District 3 champ, both on the road.
Example 2: Weighted brackets.
It wouldn’t be an Idaho state playoff bracket without one side loaded with the best teams and the other full of also-rans. The state lucked out with the 4A bracket this year, putting Blackfoot and Hillcrest on either side of the brackets. That’s a rare feat.
Two years ago, No. 1-ranked Minico and No. 2 Blackfoot met in the quarterfinals. Blackfoot won that game, then beat Pocatello, arguably the third best team in the state that year, and advanced to the title game to take on Nampa.
The result? A 46-14 Blackfoot beatdown that proved Nampa didn’t belong on the same field. The 4A bracket worked out better in 2008, but that’s just luck. The state didn’t have anything to do with it.
We’re set up to have another travesty in the 3A bracket this year. The top three ranked teams in the state, No. 1 Shelley, No. 2 Marsh Valley and No. 3 Buhl, are all unbeaten. And they’re all on the same side of the bracket.
It’s not hard to see those three schools deserve to be split up. Instead, the chalk scenario has Shelley and Marsh Valley face off in the second round. And what does the winner of that game get? Undefeated Buhl in the semifinals, if chalk holds up again. By the time the winner gets to the title game, it will be the easiest draw it’s had since the opening round.
If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. In 2004, undefeated Shelley and undefeated Marsh Valley met in the second round. Marsh Valley won and, surprise, surprise, went on to win the state title.
Again, I understand the state trying to avoid angry phone calls from outraged parents. I get plenty of those myself. But the system we have now isn’t better for anyone but the state activities association.
Several solutions are available from power rankings to a selection board. Heck, even wrestling coaches get together and seed their state tournaments.
If they can do it, why can’t everyone else?
mlycklama is
Email this author | All posts by mlycklama
Well obviously your travesty did not pan out. With both Marsh Valley and Buhl losing in the first round, we can see that both teams may have been overrated. Your suggestion would make high school football turn into a real travesty, along the lines of the BCS. Power Rankings with many teams having no common opponent are worthless. The current system is both fair and allows for teams to meet in the finals from different areas of the state, making for a more interesting game. We don’t really want to see so and so against so and so part 2 for the state championship game. The real unfairness in the high school football playoffs, is that the eastern teams play their playoffs in Holt Arena and then when a team from the north or east travels over there and loses because its the first time playing on turf. The eastern teams are at a huge advantage. Play the game outside where it belongs. Come on wouldn’t you really like to see the next Super Bowl at Lambeau Field? Now that would be some football.
Wow, maybe Marsh Valley and Buhl were overrated. However it still doesn’t make sense! Now what do we have? A Mountain Rivers Conference tournament! A couple of other observations that Duane seemed to have overlooked. Payette beat Fruitland and ended up with a better record, and then gets put at the bottom part of their bracket instead of the deserved #1 spot. Now Fruitland gets to play all but the championship game on their home field (and you have the audacity to say that the eastern teams get the Holt advantage?). Take a look at the online video of the Shelley/American Falls game, notice the nearly empty stands. Who wants to go late on a Thur. night to watch a laffer? Shelley played all but 1 play in the 2nd half with 2nd and 3rd stringers. Shame on the IHSAA not good for the sport, athletes or fans.
I don’t believe the power rankings are a good way to go. So a team is undefeated… That can mean two things: 1. They are good, or 2. They have a weak conference and schedule. That doesn’t mean that they are stronger than other teams with a better conference and schedule. Looking at the 3A schools: Weiser, Payette, and Fruitland all beat each other in their district, making each have 1 loss in the conference. Other losses came from bigger schools. Look at how they have played in the playoffs. Many people were writing them off, especially weiser, as they had more loses and they were playing one of the top teams in the state based on power rankings. Weiser handled themselves well in that game. Salmon beating an 8-0 Marsh Valley. Does that show a difference in schedule and conference difficulty? I don’t know. Overall, I don’t know what to do for the state tournament setup, but power rankings is not the way to do it and overall record is not the answer either. Last point, I agree with Ardery, lets have the state championship games played on Grass. The majority of teams in the state don’t get the chance to play on turf. Lets make an even playing ground (especially if it a school who plays on turf a couple times a year is playing another who never does).
Duane,
I’m not saying we should have a BCS in that power ranking should decided the two teams to play in the title game. I think we could use it to seed the playoffs, that’s all. All conference champs are in and pick the remaining teams to fill out the bracket by power rankings. The way Idaho runs its state tournaments, the regular season serves as a three-month exhibition season. It doesn’t mean anything.
And I don’t give two bits about geography. I want to see the two best teams in the state in the finals. Period. If it happens to be a rematch, then so be it.
Ardery,
My understanding with Fruitland is that three teams had one loss in the conference (Payette, Fruitland and Weiser) so they went to point differential. That’s what a commenter told me on this site, so I can tell you for sure that’s how it happened. But, in that situation, there’s not a lot of options.
Craig,
Again, I’m not saying power rankings would be the sole factor. I’m more of a fan of an NCAA tournament selection committee, using power rankings as a guide. David Bashore of the Times-News had a column that ran on the same day (http://www.magicvalley.com/sports/article_b6b5076b-d1e3-52c6-b0f3-ea93e0ecf90f.html) where Hillcrest and Blackfoot faced in the first round. I think we should avoid that.
What I’m really arguing for is some flexibility. Locking yourself into predetermined brackets or power rankings leads to unfortunate circumstances. If we had some sort of selection committee, we could take care of most of those. Not all, but most.
Oops. This is the link for the fictional power rankings:
http://magicvalleyovertime.magicvalleysites.com/2009/10/29/the-playoffs-that-could-have-been/