Eastern side of the State

[oldtimefootball]

For you guys that have a good grip on the RPI and new “tweaks” for this year?

What is the priority for applying the new tweaks? Probably a long shot but say team “A” lost in regular season to team “B”, and team “B” lost to team “C”. Final RPI lists team “A” as 15th, team “B” as 16th and team “C” as 17th.

Do you move team “C” to 16th and stop? Do you move team “B” to 15th first and then no longer a chance for team “C” since they beat “B”, but not “A”?

I know it is highly unlucky, but given some of the current team records, may not be out of the question.

 

[CF_93]

I assume in your scenario that team A never played team C. From what I gather, this applies only in cases where two teams tie for record, and are immediately adjacent to one another in the bracket, or a 16 and 17 RPI ranking for that matter, again, where both teams are tied for record. It's not terribly clear based on the verbage there, but I would imagine that if there's a 3 (or more) team tie, RPI would again prevail.

 

[CFTigers68]

I just watched the CF/Ankeny game. Not sureif we are watching the same game. Ankeny only led the game for a few minutes of the game in the 4th QTR.

CF really could have ran away with the game it untimley penalties and costly mistakes took them out of the redzone

Yep. CF came right down and scored after Ankeny took the lead. Special teams play and terrible decisions on when to burn timeouts killed Ankeny. Ankeny is really good, but CF had that game most of the way through.

 

[KidSilverhair]

For you guys that have a good grip on the RPI and new “tweaks” for this year?

What is the priority for applying the new tweaks? Probably a long shot but say team “A” lost in regular season to team “B”, and team “B” lost to team “C”. Final RPI lists team “A” as 15th, team “B” as 16th and team “C” as 17th.

Do you move team “C” to 16th and stop? Do you move team “B” to 15th first and then no longer a chance for team “C” since they beat “B”, but not “A”?

I know it is highly unlucky, but given some of the current team records, may not be out of the question.

The way I read it, the head-to-head superseding RPI only comes into play for the last qualifier. The rule reads, "If two teams are side-by-side for the final spot in the RPI rankings and have played head-to-head in the regular season ... "

So in your scenario, Team A (as long as their RPI put them alone at spot 15) would be in, no question, head-to-head doesn't apply. Team C, which beat Team B, would get the final spot even though Team B's RPI was better than Team C's, because Team B lost to Team C head-to-head.

 

[franky1967]

The way I read it, the head-to-head superseding RPI only comes into play for the last qualifier. The rule reads, "If two teams are side-by-side for the final spot in the RPI rankings and have played head-to-head in the regular season ... "

Seems to defeat some of the RPI intentions

So in your scenario, Team A (as long as their RPI put them alone at spot 15) would be in, no question, head-to-head doesn't apply. Team C, which beat Team B, would get the final spot even though Team B's RPI was better than Team C's, because Team B lost to Team C head-to-head.

 

[ISUChip]

The way I read it, the head-to-head superseding RPI only comes into play for the last qualifier. The rule reads, "If two teams are side-by-side for the final spot in the RPI rankings and have played head-to-head in the regular season ... "

There's also a seeding component involved, independent of the final qualifying spot.

"If two teams are side-by-side in the final RPI rankings and played in the regular season, the winner of the head-to-head contest will receive the higher playoff seeding."

https://www.iahsaa.org/football/2019-rpi-information/

Had it been in place in 2018, Bettendorf would have been #4 and IC West #5, and Dowling would have jumped Waukee for #6 -- which would have set up a Dowling/Cedar Falls 2nd-round matchup.

 

[KidSilverhair]

You are correct. That makes the scenario really odd ...

15: Team A
16: Team B (defeated Team A)
17: Team C (defeated Team B)

I still say, by the wording of the rule, that you first determine the final 16 qualifiers - in this case, that puts Team C in over Team B due to the head-to-head. Team A remains as the 15 seed, since Team A and Team C did not play. That would kind of suck for Team B, but that's my interpretation, as I don't think "seeding" actually comes into play until you determine which 16 teams are in the playoffs.

I could totally be wrong, though. The interpretation could be Team B goes above Team A to the 15 spot; however, in that case Team A and Team C are now "side-by-side," so Team C remains at 17 and is left out of the playoffs. I dunno ...

 

[oldtimefootball]

Also, can it only be for same record teams? What if RPI #17 has a better record than RPI #16? Do they not get the same bump? Last year would have been a good example if #16 SEP (4-5) had been beaten in regular season by #17 Ames (5-4). Requiring same record would not allow Ames to benefit from new rule.

 

[KidSilverhair]

And franky, you're right ... the head-to-head adjustment could indeed go counter to the whole idea of using RPI. I mean, as far as I understand the rule, it doesn't matter how far apart the teams are in RPI ... if Team A is at seed 10, say, with an RPI of .6250, and Team B is right below them at seed 11, but their RPI is only .5975, if Team B beat Team A in the regular season, they get to "jump" over Team A. I think I'm okay with this, as it gives the actual head-to-head result some weight, but I'll be interested to see if it results in some weird outcomes (like the three-way scenario for the final two playoff spots mentioned).

 

[KidSilverhair]

Also, can it only be for same record teams? What if RPI #17 has a better record than RPI #16? Do they not get the same bump? Last year would have been a good example if #16 SEP (4-5) had been beaten in regular season by #17 Ames (5-4). Requiring same record would not allow Ames to benefit from new rule.

I don't believe this rule only applies to teams with the same record. The wording is "side-by-side in the final RPI rankings," which I interpret to mean next to each other (number 5 and number 6, or number 16 and number 17 in the RPI list). Won-lost record has nothing to do with it, as far as I can tell.

 

[TJ732]

Nobody is saying there is a East/West split
I am pointing out that several schools in the West and East. Will be playing in what looks like a all East/West type Bracket.

Cedar Falls played all West teams and Praire play one I think. Personally next to the RPI being the dumbest thing to be in High School Football, it's the Playoff Brackets A-D.

It's like funneling cattle into a shoot. Get away from that theory aswell. Didn't Bettendorf play Valley in the regular season a few years back?

So I don't see what the problem is, you are already playing regular season games with longer travel.

Nobody is saying there is a East/West split.... but everyone keeps saying East/West teams... LOL

 

[ronsss]

Just a thought after the first 5 weeks, the eastern side of the state is way down in terms of quality teams and individual talent. Don’t really see the Des Moines area play other than scores, but I have to believe that the state champ in 4A will definitely come from that area based on what I’ve seen. Cedar Falls is not even close to the same level as last year, Cedar Rapids area really doesn’t have a contender, Iowa City West is a skeleton of the last 2-3 years, and the Quad Cities area is way down in quality. Heck, Bettendorf is 4-1, but the four opponents they have beaten have a total of 4-5 wins and they might as well be running the ball versus just defense backs except against Cedar Falls. Just an observation.

complete opposite in 3a, the power is on the east side in 3a

 

[CF_93]

complete opposite in 3a, the power is on the east side in 3a

That’s because they’re mostly teams that have moved down to 3A within the last 6 or 7 years or so, like Xavier, Western Dubuque, and North Scott. All of those were at least competitive to strong teams when they were in 4A.

 

[Kraftwerk]

3A is stronger all across the state except around Des Moines