Time To Seed The IHSAA Football Pairings?

(10-1-17) Is it time to seed the IHSAA Football playoff pairings?

• South Adams (6-1) and Adams Central (6-1)
• Northfield (6-1) and Churubosco (6-1)

 

• Southern Wells (1-6) at Eastside (5-2)
• Fremont (0-7) at Southwood (6-1)

Stateline area schools South Adams and Adams Central will match-up in the first round, both have 6-1 records. The winner of that game will play the winner of the Northfield-Churubusco game, both have 6-1 records. A very LOADED bracket.

In the bottom of the bracket three teams with records of 0-7, 1-6 and 5-2 will play. Southern Wells (1-6) only win came against Fremont (0-7).

Eastside (5-2) and Southwood (6-1), get a great draw and it might even look like a seeded draw in this tough sectional

In Class 3A, Bellmont (2-5) takes advantage of the blind draw playing Norwell (1-6), the Braves beat the Knights 21-7 on September 8th, one of their two wins.

Heritage who is 0-7 plays Lakeland 2-5, seeding would have made a lot of sense in this sectional.

• Ft. Wayne Bishop Luers (4-3) at West Noble (3-4)

 

• Heritage (0-7) at Lakeland (2-5)
• Garrett (5-2) at Ft. Wayne Concordia (4-3)

In Class 4A,  Jay County (2-5) will play at Logansport (4-3). This sectional features 7-0 New Haven and Leo at 5-2, pretty tough first round game.

 

• Columbia City (5-2) at Ft. Wayne Wayne (4-3)
• Leo (5-2) at New Haven (7-0)
• Ft Wayne South Side (1-6) at Ft Wayne Bishop Dwenger (5-2)

So what’s fair? There will always be arguments about how schools are placed in brackets for football tournaments.

Ohio has a computer points system for schools to qualify in football, seven divisions, eight schools based on these points qualify in each region, there are four regions in each class. Each region is seeded according to their ranking in that area.

Illinois has eight divisions and for any school to at least qualify for the playoffs they need five wins (doesn’t guarantee a spot) out of a nine game schedule, six wins guarantee you a spot, even if you won against those teams with all losing records. Teams are seeded according to regular season records and the higher seed always hosts the 1st round game.

Indiana is an exception to these and many other states, everyone makes the playoffs and their is no seeding for sectionals, with a blind draw. This allows for some of the situations we talked about in today’s draw. After playing a full-regular season of games their is no consideration for an undefeated school or a reward for having done well.

Which way works the best? If the goal is to find the best team in each class, blind draw makes it difficult sometimes for that to happen, some will say it is only fair to have a blind draw, because ‘everyone is equal‘. Some say you have to beat everybody anyway to win the title, while on the other side you take away a lot of the anticipation of making the playoffs since everyone qualifies.

It is hard to find two states out of the 50 that play football who handle playoffs the same. There is no perfect answer, some are better than others.