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Class A Postseason

PNation

Varsity
Aug 15, 2010
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There are still a things that are up in the air after quite a few upsets (sort of) last week but here is what I have.

District 1
1. HMS
2. South O'Brien
3. Gehlen vs. A-A winner
4. Gehlen vs. A-A loser

A-W beat South O'Brien to mix things up a bit, but looking at matchups with A-W playing HMS I am confident that this is what will happen.

District 2
1. North Butler vs West Hancock winner
2. North Butler vs. West Hancock loser
3. Newman
4. Saint Ansgar

North Union could force a 3 way tie for 3rd and 4th with a win over Newman, but I think with the way tie breakers work Newman and St. Ansgar would be in, and I don't see them beating Newman

District 3

1. Grundy Center
2. Wapsie
3. North Tama
4. Nashua Plainfield

If North Tama beat Grundy then it would be a 3 way tie, but I think Grundy wins, I am 99% sure that there is no way that N-P doesn't get that 4th spot with points.

District 4
1. North Linn
2. East Buc
3. Starmont
4. Bellevue vs. Clayton Ridge winner

North Linn will win, East Buc will be 2, South Winn could jumble things up with a win over East Buc, but this is the simplest way to look at things

District 5
1. Lisbon
2. Wapello
3. Alburnett
4. Highland

I don't see anyway that this doesn't happen, with who is playing who.

District 6
1. Belle Plaine vs. Lynnville Sully winner
2. Belle Plaine vs. Lynnville Sully loser
3. Madrid/Ogden
4. Colfax Mingo

If there is a 3 way tie it goes points for the first spot, then does it stay with points or go back to head to head, because if it stays with points then Ogden would be 4, and if Madrid doesn't win by 17 then Ogden gets the 3, so many things can happen based upon points.

District 7
1. Southwest Valley
After that I think Mount Ayr is in for sure, but could fall to the 3 depending on who wins between Earlham and Riverside, and then the loser of that game could fall behind AHSTW also, so Southwest Valley is champ, Mount Ayr is 2 or 3, Earlham vs. Riverside winner is in at 2 or 3, and the loser is 4 or 5 with AHSTW.

2. Mount Ayr/ Riverside
3. Mount Ayr/ Earlham
4. Earlham/ AHSTW

So basically Riverside is going to host, or be out.

District 8
1. Woodbury Central
2. LoMa
3. IKM-M
4. Tri Center vs Westwood Winner
 
The bigger question is how are they going to pair teams up as I know it is 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3. Travel i dont think will be a factor as everything is on friday nights so just to get those matchups you may see teams making that 2.5 hr road trip. I could also see some district rematches just because not a lot of teams in SE Iowa in class A. Another thing I want to watch is the game between Grundy and North Tama as NT really screwed up by having 2 kids kicked out of the BCLUW game and then missing the game with Wapsie and losing that game. They lose to Grundy and instead of most likley hosting as a 1 or 2 team they will be on the road as a 3. I could see them going to either Belle Plain or lynville Sully loser as that would be a 2 vs 3 match or the loser of West Hancock and North Butler.
 
I believe if they are kicked out of the game against BCLUW then they would have had to miss the Wapsie game, which they did and the Grundy game. That is partly on the coaching staff for leaving kids in the game when it was well in hand with a chance to get kicked out.

What I wonder is if they do sister districts or just do pods with 1vs4 and 2vs3 with a mix of district, because there are a ton of kids in the east central part of the state so many possible match ups. Personally I think the state should try to do what they can to get what they see as the top 4 teams to the dome.
 
An ejection is just 1 game witch they served in the Wapsie game. The game was not out of hand when the first kid was ejected for getting in the face and arguing and yelling at an official about a flag called. The second yes they were up 30 - 0 and on a simple tackle the kid throws a punch. They will be back vs Grundy as Im sure they will be back in the starting lineup. I dont see sister districts happening as the only thing definate as it says in the states football postseason that a district champion and runner up will host as a 1 vs 4 or 2 vs 3 matchup, so to me that means we could see rematches amongst district teams in the first round before it gets broken into pods and seeded.
 
This was close to 20 years ago, but when my buddy got kicked out for 2 unsportsmanlike he was suspended 2 games, like I said that could have changed.
 
If they are not doing sister districts this is what I would like to see, I predicted a few games to get these teams, but honestly if you replace the team with another from the same district in the same spot I wouldn't change much of anything.

HMS vs. Saint Ansgar

LoMa vs. A-A



Woodbury Central vs. AHSTW

South O’Brien vs IKM-Manning



West Hancock vs. Gehlen

Mount Ayr vs. Ogden



Southwest Valley vs Tri Center

Lynnville Sully vs. Earlham



Grundy Center vs. Madrid

East Buc vs. Alburnett



Belle Plaine vs. Nashua Plainfield

North Butler vs. Starmont



North Linn vs. Highland

Wapello vs. North Tama



Lisbon vs. Bellevue

Wapsie vs. Newman

For this I combined ranking and geography, I think Grundy and West Hancock are the two top teams, so I matched them with Belle Plaine and Southwest Valley who I think are probably the two weakest 1 seeds. I put Lisbon and North Linn together as either could be deserving of a spot in the dome, same with HMS and Woodbury Central. There are no district rematches in round 1, there actually wouldn't be that many in round 2 either. This wasn't that hard, and took me around an hour, but the state will probably take an easy way out and match up quality teams before they need to.
 
Nice picks I think you might be close. The only other thing I read in the post season maunual on the state website is it says in round 2 no district champions will be matched against each other.
 
I think the state strategically paired up the districts the way they did for the 1st two rounds of playoffs. Using sister districts so i.e. A1+A2 are geographically close in location and so forth down the line all the way to A7+A8. So for example A1-1 will play A2-4 first round and A1-3 will play A2-2. And that will be 1 pod. Thus eliminating two 1 seeds meeting in the 2nd round. Seems like the easiest way to do it rather than mix teams from different districts.. The only thing you could say is District A7 and A8 are the farthest apart looking at all the other districts.. Woodbury Central and Mt Ayr are about as far a part as you can get for sister districts at 3 and half hours. However with the first 2 rounds being on Friday nights I don't think state will take travel into that big of consideration. After the 1st two rounds from what I've read is the state has a phone call with the remaining 8 head coaches and those 8 + the state reseed the playoffs to make an 8 man bracket at which point determines who is playing who regardless of geography. Host site in quarters is based off district record. If both teams have the same district record than home team is determined by who is first in alphabetical order.
 
Here is my prediction on the pods assuming the state just does sister districts.

A1-1 HMS vs A2-4 St. Ansgar
A1-3 Gehlen at A2-2 North Butler

A2-1 West Hancock vs A1-4 Alta Aurelia
A2-3 Newman Catholic at A1-2 South O'Brien

A3-1 Grundy Center vs A4-4 Bellevue
A3-3 North Tama at A4-2 East Buchanan

A4-1 North Linn vs A3-4 Nashua Plainfield
A4-3 Starmont at A3-2 Wapsie Valley

A5-1 Lisbon vs A6-4 Colfax Mingo
A5-3 Alburnett at A6-2 Lynnville Sully

A6-1 Belle Plaine vs A5-4 Highland, Riverside
A6-3 Ogden at A5-2 Wapello

A7-1 Mount Ayr vs A8-4 Tri Center
A7-3 Riverside at A8-2 Logan Magnolia

A8-1 Woodbury Central vs A7-4 Earlham
A8-3 IKM, Manning at A7-2 Southwest Valley

I think I'm right on this scenario on District A7. If Mount Ayr and Riverside both win Friday then it would be Mount Ayr, Southwest Valley, Riverside, and Earlham. I may be wrong here.

After these pods it would be reseeded by state and 8 remaining head coaches.
 
Reading the manual it says that they will have first round pairings, but then re release pods after the first round, personally I like a straight up bracket, let’s say a number 4 beats a number 1 why punish them and give them another 1 when if it was a bracket they would have a 2 or 3
 
Reading the manual it says that they will have first round pairings, but then re release pods after the first round, personally I like a straight up bracket, let’s say a number 4 beats a number 1 why punish them and give them another 1 when if it was a bracket they would have a 2 or 3
So this doesn't make sense to me. If you're going to rebracket it into pods for rounds 2 and 3(quarterfinals) why would the 8 head coaches reseed it prior to the quarterfinal? So the manual says for the 2nd and 3rd round you will be placed in a pod and then play the winner of the other game. However under the semifinals portion it says prior to the quarters the 8 head coaches of the remaining teams will reseed it.

So you may not play the team in the other game of your pod that wins? So if for example Lisbon and Grundy Center got put in a pod for rounds 2 and 3 and they both win their round 2 games they may not play in the quarters because it will be reseeded at that point? That's the way I read it.
 
So this doesn't make sense to me. If you're going to rebracket it into pods for rounds 2 and 3(quarterfinals) why would the 8 head coaches reseed it prior to the quarterfinal? So the manual says for the 2nd and 3rd round you will be placed in a pod and then play the winner of the other game. However under the semifinals portion it says prior to the quarters the 8 head coaches of the remaining teams will reseed it.

So you may not play the team in the other game of your pod that wins? So if for example Lisbon and Grundy Center got put in a pod for rounds 2 and 3 and they both win their round 2 games they may not play in the quarters because it will be reseeded at that point? That's the way I read it.
It will not be sister districts and as stated after rd 1 it will be put into pods where no two district champs will play each other. I honestly think in rd one you could and will see some district rematches and some teams making a 2 hr plus drive because mileage is not a factor with everything being on friday nights. Not sure where you saw the 8 coaches getting together as that is not the case at least in the small school side of the post season. The only thing the post season manual states is 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 and top two teams will host, witch is why I stand behind saying we are going to see district rematches otherwise why not already have it in the manual like all other sports that this district will face this district to move on.
 
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Not sure where you saw the 8 coaches getting together as that is not the case at least in the small school side of the post season.

It's in the postseason manual for the four smaller classes:

"The 8 head coaches that qualified for the quarterfinal round will meet prior to their quarterfinal round contest to seed the remaining 8 teams for the semi-finals."
 
So this doesn't make sense to me. If you're going to rebracket it into pods for rounds 2 and 3(quarterfinals) why would the 8 head coaches reseed it prior to the quarterfinal? So the manual says for the 2nd and 3rd round you will be placed in a pod and then play the winner of the other game. However under the semifinals portion it says prior to the quarters the 8 head coaches of the remaining teams will reseed it.

They're not reseeding the quarters. The 8 coaches that make the quarters will get together and seed the remaining 8 teams in preparation for the semifinals. That way, once the quarters are over, the last 4 teams will have already been seeded and can be slotted right in to determine the semifinal pairings.
 
It will not be sister districts and as stated after rd 1 it will be put into pods where no two district champs will play each other. I honestly think in rd one you could and will see some district rematches and some teams making a 2 hr plus drive because mileage is not a factor with everything being on friday nights. Not sure where you saw the 8 coaches getting together as that is not the case at least in the small school side of the post season. The only thing the post season manual states is 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 and top two teams will host, witch is why I stand behind saying we are going to see district rematches otherwise why not already have it in the manual like all other sports that this district will face this district to move on.
Why would they rematch districts right away in this substate round lol? Be the dumbest thing the state could do. If they did this then districts are pointless in the regular season. The state typical avoids matching up teams that have played in the regular season opening round if they can. I would not expect teams playing teams out of their own districts right away.
 
Their is no substate, and if you have paid attn their have been many times over the years that district rematches took place in the first round because in certain areas of the state you have few teams and in this particular year SE iowa has very few teams. I keep going back to if they were going to do sister districts then why not say that a long time ago in the post season manual that has been out for weeks as they do for all other sports? In a perfect world you would have 4 brackets of 8 teams and they play it out but thats not going to happen because the boys in Boone wont take the time to do that and actually have to sit down and figure out the top teams in each group.
 
Their is no substate, and if you have paid attn their have been many times over the years that district rematches took place in the first round because in certain areas of the state you have few teams and in this particular year SE iowa has very few teams. I keep going back to if they were going to do sister districts then why not say that a long time ago in the post season manual that has been out for weeks as they do for all other sports? In a perfect world you would have 4 brackets of 8 teams and they play it out but thats not going to happen because the boys in Boone wont take the time to do that and actually have to sit down and figure out the top teams in each group.
I never said it don’t happen I said they typical avoid rematch teams that have played. There would be no point to the expansion if they did this.
Also yes the opening round is substate, least to me. 32 teams are not state worthy. Also unless it changed don’t you have to win that opening round to receive a playoff appearance and trophy?
 
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If you have some free time, these three West Hancock guys did a podcast talking about West Hancock and all of the Class A matchups as well as the other classes. Enjoy!
 
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