How will the playoff brackets be determined?

[Cyclone1968]

Ok. 64 days until the opener and I am wondering about some of the mechanics of the new playoff system.

Is it stated how the state will fill the brackets? I think I heard that once things are set, they will not reseed after each round. Are the brackets set from the start like in years past with sister districts?

How will the two wild card teams be placed into the bracket? Will they both get paired with #1 seeds and then have 2 #2 seeds play each other? How will they determine who is the top #2 seed?

The 2015 playoff manual says that in 2016 the last alphabetical school will be the home team in in case of ties after round one.

Thanks!

 

[KidSilverhair]

These are all good questions, and I don't think the state has put out very many answers as of yet.

I believe it was stated the playoffs would go back to set brackets, but they can't really have sister districts any more, because there are seven of those and that's an odd number. I don't know if they'll try to use geography when setting up brackets from the get-go ... there's only two playoff games on campus now, since there's four rounds and the semis and championship are in the Dome, so maybe that's not quite as big a deal as it was with 32 teams.

So, basically, you're going to have seven district champs, seven district runners-up, and two "wild card" teams. I guess the state can seed them and bracket them however they want. I have no idea how that will work ... seems like at least one of the runners-up will probably end up with a home game in the first round. I would guess both wild cards would play district champs, meaning two second-place teams would play each other in a first-round matchup.

That's all speculation. I don't think there's been anything released officially to explain what they're going to do.

 

[IOU1]

I don't think anything can be written in stone because of the "Wild Card" teams. In a perfect system you would have 1 wild card team from the east and one from the west, but we all know that is probably not going to be the case every year. In the even that both wild cards come from (for example) districts on the far east side of the state, I think that is going to impact your seedings and brackets. Either way, I think that you are going to have a situation where a 2 is playing a 2 in the opening round.
Here is my best guess. I just numbered districts 1-3 as the east side of the state and 4-6 as the west side with 7 in the 'middle' for discussion purpose. No idea if that is remotely accurate to actual geography or not.
*Top bracket has a wild card (WC) team on each 'side' of the state. The result is that D7 is split, Champ on the west #2 on the east, and a 2v2 matchup on the east side.
*Bottom bracket has both WCs on one side...in this case the West. D7 remains intact and goes opposite the 2 WCs. #1s on the west side matchup with the WCs and you also have a 2v2 on that side.
Like I said, just a guess. Hopefully it generates some conversation.

 

[makelovenotwar]

First things first, 55 Days until opening.

The question and hard part is going to be the two "wild card" teams. The way this is set up with the top 2 teams from each division makes sense. We could critique the divisions but the idea has an appeal. Those last two teams are going to be a challenge and will always be a controversy. Do you use geographic balance? Power ranking (if so, which one?). Consider D3, we could easily get what is effectively 3 way tie for first place or a tie for second. My point is that you are going to have this outcome every year with 4 or 5 teams able to stake a logical claim to the last 2 spots.

Oh well, it will be interesting.

 

[ISUChip]

Those last two teams are going to be a challenge and will always be a controversy. Do you use geographic balance? Power ranking (if so, which one?). Consider D3, we could easily get what is effectively 3 way tie for first place or a tie for second.

Any teams that finish 3rd as the result of a 3-way tie for first will be moved to the top of the at-large list.

In the 32-team era (2008-15), there were a total of 20 three-way ties for 1st, and 1 four-way tie. No class had more than 2 of these situations in any given year, and the only truly challenging one would have been 3A in 2010, when D4 had a 3-way (at 6-1) and D8 had a 4-way (at 5-2). One of those teams would have to be left out, and I'm guessing it would have been the 4th-place 5-2 team.

 

[KidSilverhair]

One of those teams would have to be left out, and I'm guessing it would have been the 4th-place 5-2 team.

Ah, but the question remains ... how do you determine which one WAS the 4th place team?

Will they use the same tiebreakers for the wild card as they do for the districts? In most cases that makes sense, but when you start considering score margins for district games, well, not all districts are the same strength. So, yeah, I dunno. I kind of agree with you in this particular scenario that using district tiebreakers would probably work ... if you determine one of the first-place-tied teams somehow ranks below three other teams in their own district, it's hard to say they make the playoffs.

 

[ISUChip]

Ah, but the question remains ... how do you determine which one WAS the 4th place team?

In that case, it was a HTH result to determine 3rd/4th.
Carlisle +54, ADM +37, Norwalk +24, DC-G +24
Norwalk beat DC-G 7-0 in OT.

As for the new format, this is from a DM Register article in January:
1. Anyone considered a district champ; 2. Best district record; 3. Head-to-head competition, in district or non-district play; 4. The state’s point differential’s tiebreaker (changed to +/-17); 5. A random draw from the alphabet by the IHSAA, with the schools closest to that letter becoming the qualifier.

 

[IOU1]

Along with you guys, I anticipate the WC tiebreakers to be systematic and similar to tiebreaker scenarios in the past. Unfortunately, in the same way...I expect a deserving team to be left on the outside looking in at some point.

 

[ISUChip]

I expect a deserving team to be left on the outside looking in at some point.

Looking at 3rd-place teams from last year (yes, I know there were 8 districts instead of 7, which makes it an imperfect exercise), the at-large pool would have been:

Glenwood (8-1/5-1; tied for 1st in district) - AUTO

Solon (5-4/4-2, +45)
Carlisle (6-3/4-2, +32)
Bondurant-Farrar (6-3/4-2, +31)
Boyden-Hull/RV (7-2/4-2, +26)
Clear Creek-Amana (5-4/4-2, +20)
*All 5 teams lost to the top 2 in their district.
*Carlisle beat Bondurant-Farrar in Week 2.
*Algona and Decorah were 3-3 in district, so they were eliminated.

Depending on the actual wording of the criteria (which we haven't seen yet), the 2nd spot would have gone to either Solon (points) or Carlisle (1-0 HTH vs field).

 

[NeverReadTheTermsOfService]

They'll probably just have the coaches of all the non-playoff teams rank all the other teams and choose it that way. Or go the IGHSAU way and create their own rankings and then bracket teams based on those.