Can't necessarily say going by record would always be the answer either; it would tend to reward the teams with the easiest schedules. Don't think anyone questions the quality of the Wando team, but the same rules have to apply to everyone across the board. Bottom line, it's a simple and efficient way to make things happen, with the only number anyone has to look at being region rank. Nothing about a playoff bracket is ever going to be perfect; some things are luck of the draw. How far a team goes can be a product of what regions/teams they happen to be matched up against in the opening rounds. In 4A girls, for example, three of the top 4 ranked teams in the state had to play each other BEFORE reaching Lower State, but these brackets are set before the first game of the year is played with no way to tell for sure which teams will be filling them.
