The Pella-Xavier matchup last year was also under the present RPI system (Pella last year was in Xavier’s position this year, as a strong 8-1 team that didn’t win their district), so that’s not exactly a good comeback to a complaint about the RPI system.
RPI isn’t perfect, and I’d like to see it tweaked somehow (maybe RPI actually takes precedence over district titles, at least for home games ... if you win your district with a 6-3 record, maybe an 8-1 at-large should get that home game) ... but I don’t think it’s a disaster. While some of the pairings (particularly Xavier-NS, Indee-Pella) might look a bit unfair to the eye-test, most other games looked to be seeded just right for the first round. I think we got pretty much the top 16 in the class in.
Just for grins in an earlier post, I used the 2017 playoff model to build this year’s brackets. I took the top two teams in each district (using the 17-point tiebreaker, that eliminated Glenwood from D-9). Since that made 18 teams, I then cut the lowest runners-up based on the 17-point tiebreaker (by far, that easily eliminated West Delaware and Spencer). Again using the 17-point tiebreaker to find the lowest-ranked district champion, that put Lewis Central on the road.
Here’s what a non-RPI bracket could have looked like:
Lewis Central at SBL
Carroll at Norwalk
—
Carlisle at Dallas Center-Grimes
Harlan at Pella
———
Oskaloosa at Solon
Xavier at Independence
—
Iowa City Liberty at Western Dubuque
Washington at North Scott
Now the Lewis Central-SBL game looks a little unfair for being the first round. The other 7 games look pretty good. You’d likely have a second round of LC or SBL vs Norwalk, DCG vs Pella (or Harlan), Xavier vs Solon, and Western Dubuque vs North Scott.