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Monday, February 19, 2007
Bracket dilemma already apparent
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state playoff brackets have been set and this will make for another interesting tournament.
We’ve got the Norcross vs. Wheeler matchup that everyone wanted last season. The only bad part, instead of it coming later in the tournament, two of the state’s top teams will open the five-game championship tournament against each other.
Provided Meadowcreek gets past its first round opponent, it would meet the Wheeler-Norcross winner in the second round.
GHSA, we have a bracket problem.
The brackets are pre-determined before the season starts, which is the politically correct thing to do. You take out the chance for human error.
The flip side is the chance for a bracket error — premier teams getting eliminated before the championship game.
Like the NCAA will do in a couple weeks, let’s form a committee in each class — boys and girls — and draw up a bracket.
Also, there are some real good teams sitting at home because they didn’t win one more game in their respective region tournament.
It’s time to give some teams some at-large bids. The region champion and runner-up should be guaranteed a spot in the state tournament and then let the committee chose the other 16 teams for each class.
After all, the state tournament is to determine the season champion, not just the teams that played well for a region tournament.
There are some good examples like — McEachern and Miller Grove boys — sitting at home.
In the case of Region 6-AA girls — which was the strongest AA region in the state — two perennial playoff powers, Paideia and Pace, are at home because the region was so strong.
Greater Atlanta Christian, Avondale, Wesleyan and Buford all deserve to be there. So does Paideia, which had its string of 10 straight state tournaments snapped.
Let’s get rid of the concept of four teams from each region and chose the 32 best from each class.
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