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3 regions but only two byes. Not so fast...

Hurst, 18 and one tourney (23 games + 5) or 16 and two (26 + 5)...oh and it's four scrimmages. But only the best and deepest make it that far and so that's the minority, not the majority. A coach, who thinks his team has a chance, should be smart enough not to wear out his players with too much action. Take a tourney off or, like Ft. Mill was smart enough to do, a few reg season games. Under the top four then seeding, reg's would be more valuable so a break from a tourney might be best. You know, as I, that it's the maximum allowed, not the minimum required.

CR, I haven't found out why the change was made, other than it was introduced as the regions expanded. 10 play with 2 resting, but now 16 with no break.

LF,

I agree. The cream will always rise to the top, but I'm all in favor of prolonging the exits of the "also-rans" a little longer!

NCAA basketball.

Not perfect, but the success in the conferences are separate from seeding for the big dance (A strong conference such as the ACC, for ex, can have two or three # 1 and other high seeds). Both can matter in soccer.

Some modified transition from region success to state is needed, I think. As has been mused about here.

Double elimination, like softball and baseball.

Title IX!!!!

3 regions but only two byes. Not so fast...

W&E, go to SCHSL and check the records, there were 4 Byes in the Upperstate: Mauldin, Hillcrest, Spartanburg, and Irmo.

3 Regions - 4 Byes.

Where you get 2 from that, God only knows...

Having lost more girls playoff games than any other active coach I can gripe about all the systems but would prefer to just say that the current seems the best of all the systems that we have used. Having participated in not 2 systems in the playoffs but 4, I would have to say that the one we have seems to be the best to me b/c of the quality of teams that we have in all 4 regions in the upperstate. 1st round games are no longer a breeze for most top teams & I see the gap only getting smaller & smaller each year.

The first system was everyone was in if you applied for the playoffs & then you were seeded into the lower or upper state depending on who applied not where your school is located; hence, we played in the lower state one year against Sumter.

The 2nd system only had 8 teams make the playoffs by points & we were seeded #8 & had a first round game against Mauldin; even though, we were 16-5 in the reg season & ended up 6th in the state overall rankings we played #1 Mauldin (didn't like that scenario much either).

Third system was 4 teams from region made playoffs & then seedings by points (top 4 got a bye--region winners & highest pt total not region winner), which only exists in AAAA division II football as far as I know.

Don't most sports use the same brackets as we do now?

Ron, truly you have suffered the slings and arrows of despair far too many a time my brother.

I never even knew about some of those systems.

I think the one we have now makes sense. And I think when things happen the way we want them to, the system is fine, when they don't, it is flawed.

What I would like to know, and W&E hasn't addressed this, but I think it should be addressed also, is why did we have the exact same region pairings in 4A this year as last year?

Simply for the sake of making it exciting for the kids, the pairings should rotate each year. Which I thought they had until this year.

4 teams from each region got to go? Thats the way they did it back the in the OLD SCHOOL, like I said. It's good to be right...AHEM. If it weren't the top four, some yahoo would schedule all the Laurens, Hillcrest, Yorks, and other AAAA non powers in order to out point the next guy.

Football uses this point system, but others use the region vs. region format. Baseball is the most unique using seeds from all regions so that there is a double elim format and a 1, 2, 3, and 4 seed from each region (if I remember correctly).

That being said, I think points are the best way to go. I'm not a fan of byes, but love the 16 teams and 8 games in the 1st round for the upstate. We're pretty generous here in SC that the top four out of six (I realize not all regions have six) get to go. It's not like we're juuuuuust missing getting a dark horse in the field. The lowest seed to ever win was the memorable #3 West Ashley team that played every game on the road en route to the title. We could even cut it down to three teams per, 2 byes, and 5 games for the upstate. That would make the field very concentrated and the region race very uptight for some.

My two cents: Using points based on class is fairly arbitrary and puts smaller schools at a disadvantage not related to skill. On the boys side, Greenville and Bishop England are always strong, but teams with tough region schedules would steer clear of these teams to bolster their playoff chances. Basically, we sacrifice season competitiveness to try to make the playoffs match our setups more. If quality large schools avoid quality small schools then the season is filled with noncompetitive games at all levels and only the region matchups will be worth anything.
If the region seeding is a problem, go to a subjective seeding method like A/AA. Committees vote on seeding which makes the teams try to impress the committee by scheduling games that are competitive and scheduling head to head matches with teams that may be even with them in the seeding. Personally I think this has worked great in 1A where Lincoln, Academic Magnet and Christ Church have all played quality schedules and they have traveled long distances to play each other.