Anything that attempts to bring parity and fairness to a playoff scenario deserves attention and discussion. On the surface, the 1-16/32 seeding scenario appears valid but scratch a little deeper and for me at least, its very problematic. How does this work in reality ? A seeding meeting ? surely not. Defeats the whole purpose. It has to be earned on the field. The only true way to do this is to do away with regions and everyone play everyone. Clearly a logistical impossibility when it comes to travel / cost / time etc. Regions are logistically convenient with legendary rivalries but of course some are naturally stronger than others. Alister alluded too this. Our AAAAA region 3 is traditionally strong top to bottom. NW this year for example took us to OT and a whisker of PK's. They finished 1-7 and us 8-0. Wasn't a one off as we had almost a full starting 11 to pick from. Just a battle tested region. Our at large bid in Fort Mill just knocked a 1 seed in Blythewood ( who they also beat non region in season ) so yes, this system is incredibly harsh on NW for example and can seem unfair but at least it's settled on the pitch as it should be. Look at Greenwood just knocking off Dorman. Seedings go out the window in playoffs anyway with the pressure it brings but of course you need a structure to begin with. Any playoff structure will have its flaws. I do believe that regions are the way to go with perhaps more opportunities for at large bids. I would actually lobby for a few more of these and call them old fashioned wildcards. Even have a structure that gives each 1 seed a bye and then the at large / wildcards can fight it out for a spot in 1st round. Unless I am missing something here, and please correct me, but I can't think of how we could settle on a true seeding top to bottom without having an off the field discussion / debate on seedings; which then flies in the face of why sports are so alluring at playoff time. You don't play on paper as they say and we all love the cinderella story in any sporting bracket. As some have said, strength of non region has to come into play. I have always done chosen tough schedules from day 1. Perhaps the max preps Strength of schedule or some other algorithm comes into play that takes "opinion" out of the equation.
Great question though and a great topic and will yield to any suggestions that improves the current format.
