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Post by barbedad20 on Jan 5, 2007 10:13:53 GMT -6
I began this topic on Dist 4 thread but I think it needs to be seen by everyone.
Why is the Div I Playoff Brackets set up so Districts 1,3,4,7, and 8 have all 3 of their district teams meeting in the 2nd and 3rd round. This eliminates a district from having 2 teams in the finals like last year and most districts in the first 3 rounds you may be playing 2 games against a district foe. What really chaps my #@%* is that NO OTHER BRACKET ON THE BOYS OR GIRLS SIDE HAVE ANY DISTRICT 1 SEED ON THE SAME SIDE OF THE DISTRICT 2 SEED. How hard is it to place the 1st place team and the 2nd place team on opposite sides of the brackets? The LHSAA got it right on the other 5 brackets, why is it so difficult to have it done on the Division I Girls side. I know there is nothing that can be done about this years brackets (how dare they fix something so broke) but I do have 2 questions.
1) Am I over analyzing this to get my panties in a wad? 2) Who comes up with these brackets so we can voice our concerns for next year?
Thanks for letting me vent because the playoffs will be here before you know it.
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Post by pompey on Jan 5, 2007 10:36:18 GMT -6
That does seem odd. The beauty of playoffs, among many other things, are that you play someone else you likely have not played before.
If Dutchtown had to play St Joes second round and BRHS the quarter finals, almost makes district play seem somewhat moot.
Plus, like has been discussed before, beating the same team three times in same season is a tough task, especially if the teams are close in ability which i am sure is likely in some districts cases.
Very strange that it is not the case in other brackets.
Has it been similar in previous years too?
Now, hopefully not complaining come semi finals, because such is life, but an early playoff meeting seems a tad bizarre.
Good luck to all
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Post by Tigertail on Jan 5, 2007 10:38:48 GMT -6
Truly well put!
It sure seems like LHSAA is determined to keep the best 2 teams from playing in the finals because they are from the same district. It's a pretty lame attempt to add parity to the playoffs. Why not do what most other sports have been converting to and develop a power ranking system for the playoffs?
If LHS/Barbe or Fontainebleau/Mandeville happen to be the two best teams in the state in a given year...what is sooooo bad about them playing in the finals rather than rub each other out early.
This seems like an offsides the AR missed, doesn't it?
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Post by sockrdad on Jan 5, 2007 15:13:36 GMT -6
[I deleted what I originally posted. I had a brain fart and wrote something that probably should not have been here. If anyone read what was posted I want you to know that Barbedad20 and I are good friends. Our daughters play on the same select team. My apology to Barbedad20. After talking to Barbedad, I am going to put back my original post. He said he thought it was funny, so here it is again: What really amazes me is that he admitteed to wearing panties. From his post "1) Am I over analyzing this to get my panties in a wad?" My question was are they ORANGE like the T-shirt he wears at the St. Louis games?
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Post by LEObacker on Jan 5, 2007 23:03:44 GMT -6
I agree that the D 1 playoff brackets are quite queer this year. It would seem that they don't want to see an all district 3 final again. Odd that some districts are lumped on one half of the bracket and others strangely enough are not.
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Post by pompey on Jan 5, 2007 23:36:22 GMT -6
I do think you can opt not to participate in the playoffs. Think Belaire pulled ot a few yrs back having to face Sacred Heart. Yup, if no record posted, you're out and that wold likely come for informing the district chair of not wishing to participate.
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Post by sosoplayer24 on Jan 6, 2007 0:25:50 GMT -6
[I deleted what I originally posted. I had a brain fart and wrote something that probably should not have been here. If anyone read what was posted I want you to know that Barbedad20 and I are good friends. Our daughters play on the same select team. My apology to Barbedad20. It was a great post. I assumed you were friends and Brian would understand. Please put it back for all to enjoy!!
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Post by snowbird on Jan 6, 2007 0:32:07 GMT -6
It is my understanding that you do not have to participate in the playoffs...BUT...I assume that it is highly frowned upon by LHSAA if you choose not to participate. Every coach must download a form from the LHSAA website and send in a $21.00 entry fee by 2/1/07. It is article 10, rule 10.1.13, page C-27 of the LHSAA handbook. I know y'all love details, but look it up on the site if you want more as I am looking at the form right now and do not feel like doing the typing required to quote it. This is for all Bi-District qualifiers. The only scenario I see where a team would not want to participate (excluding unforeseen catastrophic circumstances) is in a district where all teams qualify and....OK for arguments sake....you are 0-10 with no soccer budget or support. Let's also say you are in SELA and you get sent to Shreveport (you can reverse this situation if you like). A school may feel it's not worth it to go play (as a wild card) a team that is a district champion with a 22-2-2 record and ranked in the top ten. It may cost, lets say, 800 dollars that you don't have to go play a game that, in all likelihood, you will lose. Remember what I said about school (read administrative) support. In that case, you would not send your fee in and the first WC that was left out of the playoffs would be in. That being said, it's my opinion that all teams qualifying ARE by fielding a team in the first place, bound in good faith to participate. If you don't want to go to the playoffs you should not compete to begin with. This info may not be absolute fact....I have never known or spoken to anyone first hand that actually chose not to participate. It is rare...and like I said...you probably don't win any points with LHSAA by doing this. I also agree that seeds should be on opposite sides of the bracket - but by the same token, to be the best you have to beat the best...at some point - sooner or later. I think the "travel consideration" should be thrown out. You do not see it in football.....and we all know football is king and the only real sport anyway . Why don't we just do it like that??.....too easy I guess.
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Post by imthebackseatcoach on Jan 6, 2007 22:50:01 GMT -6
Two years ago in DIID2 Bolton did not go to playoffs in WC position. Tioga was next in line to go and when they heard of Bolton's decision called in to confirm WC acceptance. However, the deadline was 11:00 PM the night before the 8:00 AM call and we were not accepted. Last year Pineville chose not to go to playoffs as a WC and as far as I know no one else qualified by calling in. Byes were given the opposing teams in both instances. I suppose you almost have to report if you are next in line for WC to be eligible for the position left open when a school chooses not to go just in case the opportunity happens.
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Post by snowbird on Jan 7, 2007 21:56:18 GMT -6
If you are a 3rd, 4th, or 5th place team, and send in your information for WC consideration, I believe you will be "bumped" into that vacant spot if you applied before the deadline. However, most of those 4th and 5th place teams do not send information in because they do not anticipate getting a spot in the playoffs...and when they find out there is one available it is too late. I could be wrong....with LHSAA you never know what may happen.
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Post by swlasoccerfan on Jan 8, 2007 9:59:19 GMT -6
What I think would be pretty cool is if they could do a "power rating" as seen on the boys site and put 1v32, 2v31, 3v30, and so on to where hopefully it would be 1v4 and 2v3 in the semi's. Just my incredible idea
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Post by Mung on Jan 8, 2007 14:04:50 GMT -6
In D2 32 of the 43 potential teams make the playoffs, which would mean the only teams not making it would bethe last place team from each district and 4 of the 2nd to last place teams. Some districts will have 5th-6th teams make the cut. After having a 2-8 or 4-10 district season, the idea of renting a bus for $800-$1000 to travel halfway across the state for another beating isn't very palatable. A couple of years ago ASH lost the opportunity to host Dutchtown in the playoffs, and had to pony up $800 to go to Dutchtown when their wildcard backed out and ours didn't. We may have lost at home anyway but it would have certainly been a better game with more fan support at ASH, plus the gate would have helped out our program which is always tight for money.
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Post by swlasoccerfan on Jan 8, 2007 14:18:43 GMT -6
ok so only top 16 teams make it to playoffs if there is such a few number of teams. Top 2 from 8 different districts. Even makes it simpler to have teams from same district on opposite sides of bracket.
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Post by Mung on Jan 8, 2007 15:02:49 GMT -6
Well, it's all about the money. LHSAA gets a piece of the gate from playoffs, so first round of 16 games for D2 is all gravy for them, and missing in your proposal. Then, 16 teams allows only 1st & 2nd place teams, plus 2 wildcards. We have 2 eight team districts, a seven and 2 6 team Ds, and there are many 3d and 4th place teams that are deserving. I like the idea of the power rating and seeding, but what if the seeding has New Orleans teams playing Shreveport teams? Nobody wants to travel that far until the later rounds. No matter what you do somebody is going to complain, so the status quo is what'll stay.
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Post by PumasFC on Jan 8, 2007 15:15:59 GMT -6
Mung is correct, It's about money (32 teams means more money), and is unlikely to change. However the first and second place teams from each district could be placed on opposite sides of the brackets with plenty of games that would not require Shreveport teams and New Orleans team to meet before round three. Then they could just alternate which teams hosted thoses games, one year let it be the northern team and the following, the southern half of the state.
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Post by swlasoccerfan on Jan 8, 2007 16:05:06 GMT -6
very true
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Post by laffan on Jan 9, 2007 6:53:49 GMT -6
Two LHSAA Truths: 1. LHSAA wants the $; and, 2. Soccer is not important.
To them, Soccer doesn't make money and its not important.
To them, LHSAA "time is money."
LHSAA won't take the "time" to analyze the brackets and come up with a way to make the playoffs competitive in the quarters and semis because it won't make them "money."
We soccer fanatics are yelling into the wind....
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Post by LEObacker on Jan 9, 2007 10:07:41 GMT -6
Well said suddendeath!! Power rankings are the way to go. It would maybe make teams seek out tough games during the season to try and get their "power ranking" up. Sad as it sounds some district winners are not as strong as the WC team from some other districts.
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Post by sosoplayer24 on Jan 9, 2007 10:36:50 GMT -6
We all have our opinions but are we taking action? Is there someone or a group to take this to? For the this one bracket to change so much after several years and the others to pretty much stay the same there has to be a reason. We need for the school administrators to address this with the LHSAA and demand a solution. To say that money is the driver and nothing will be done by the LHSAA is only true if the school administrators allow it to stand. There are several districts that will take a beating this year due to the bracket changes and the schools should stand up and make sure it doesn't happen again next year. Power rankings is the answer but again, unless the schools demand change nothing will happen with that. At minimum the standard should require that the 1 & 3 and 2 & 4 seeds from a district are in opposite ends of the bracket and travel distance is not the main driver of the schedule. Since common sense will never be part of the equation the athletic directors at the schools need to get the administrators involved and push these issues. That is when we will see change.
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