SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Girls Varsity Soccer AAAA Upper State Bracket (Old School)

Just curious... why was it changed?

No, top four make it! Check my 2nd post. No Worstside! No North Disgusta! All regions equally represented.

Keepcoach01 makes a good point, if the bracket was changed, a top tier team like Fort Mill would adjust. 4A teams would stop scheduling A and AA teams unless it were to sustain an instense inter-city rivalry, and I imagine the playoff picture would have started a tad different than this year, progressed only slightly differently, and ultimately, ended the same way. To which we can say, little would be changed but the process, with the end result in tact.

All a change to the system does in the end is create different criteria for seeding and making the playoffs. All teams would adjust and soon there would be complaints that "SCHOOL A" scheduled their games with a weak 4A school before "SCHOOL B" was able to, thus forcing "SCHOOL B" to pound a weak 3A school but receive less points. What a shame!

The system was flawed then, and lent more to coaches who were adept at selective scheduling, you could almost schedule your way into the playoffs. Whereas the current system allows some teams an inside track based on being in a Region that is not as strong from top to bottom.

Neither system is perfect. But they are different. And since we live in a world of 20 second attention spans, it only makes sense to change it back to the way it was, so that 5 years down the road, we can change it back to how it is now!

Of course, if the system were different, Westside girls would have made the playoffs, which has to make me think, hmmm.......

NO!!!! TOP FOUR, THEN ALL ARE SEEDED!!!

W&E, read your post, that's just not how the Old School system actually works. Look at 3A Girls this year: Daniel, Travelers Rest, Greenville, Seneca, and BHP all made playoffs.

You would be describing a NEW SCHOOL

CR, I was there when we had the old system in AAAA. Such is how #4 finishing T.L. Hanna got the #9 seed in the upper state. I understand this "New School" benefits you, but it's not what I described nor how it was.

AAA is different than AAAA which is why I entitled this "AAAA Upper State Bracket(Old School)".

Now, what is interesting is why several teams had a bye. Some of you who were not there are forgetting the larger sized, but fewer regions out there. Things would have to be changed to accomodate the increase now.

How many games are you allowed to schedule? 18 plus two tournaments? If you make championship game of the Viking Cup (5 games) and play in the Fort Mill Invitational (4 games), that's 27 games. Make it to the state championship (5 games) and that's 32 games. I'm not even counting the three scrimmages.

So, from February 23 - May 11, a team would play 32 games in 78 days. That's fairly demanding, no wonder we see ACL's snapping.

In that old system, there were only 3 Regions in the Upperstate in AAAA. Now there are 4 AAAA Upperstate regions, which makes AAAA different from the (Old School) Bracket. Also, Region champs received a bye in the 1st round. In the same year you mentioned, this was not the case in the Lowerstate, with 14 teams making the playoffs.

Happy enough to be out of the playoffs, facing Dorman with 10 players in the 1st round only had so many upsides.

Any answer as to why the systems were changed, like NeverPlayed asked?

Both arguments are valid, but look at what has happened this year. Dorman and Mauldin are already out of the playoffs after the 2nd round. They are both too good to be gone so soon in my opinion. Not to mention TLH which ran into a "hot" Byrnes team from a exceptionally strong region and they were out in the 1st round. I think these teams have worked too hard and played too good consistently throughout the year to be out of the playoffs so soon....