I learned something Friday night and verified it on the VHSL website that blows my mind. (No point in reading further unless you are in interested in girls volleyball and/or are a person who appreciates common sense and logic.)
There are four conferences in the 1-A East Region (Conferences 41, 42, 43, and 44) and they each had their conference tournaments last week. In Conference 44, the only one I care about, Riverheads traveled to Altavista and beat the Lady Colonels three games to one to capture the Conference title.
The next step is an eight-team playoff for the Region 1-A East title, which begins Tuesday. The four Conference champs and their four runners-up will participate, with higher seeds hosting the four quarter-final games. Higher seeds will then host each succeeding game until a regional champion is crowned on Saturday night. So far so good right? Sounds just like any other tournament right?
But get this......the teams were re-seeded for these regional playoffs and somehow Altavista, even though it lost its conference final, has been seeded number two out of these eight teams. Riverheads is seeded number three. This makes NO SENSE on so many levels!
The four conference champs should be seeded in the one to four spots, using whatever criteria that might apply, and then the four runners-up should be seeded five through eight and have to travel on Tuesday. Naturally I am personally annoyed at this because it means that a Riverheads win on Tuesday, if they get it, will result in yet another trip to Altavista, assuming they also win their quarter-final game.
Even stranger is the fact that if Altavista has been given the number two seed, then that mathematically means that somebody (and I haven't even checked to see who it may be) actually WON their conference championship but has been "rewarded" for it by having to travel for a first round game on Tuesday, while a conference runner-up gets a home game. If I were that conference champion, I would really be ticked off by that.
These seedings could not be based on overall records, because Riverheads is 21-1 with its first loss being a long time ago, and Altavista is 17-3. So I have no idea how Altavista got such a plum spot.
I have discussed this with our AD, whom I respect greatly, so I understand he is powerless, but somebody somewhere dropped the ball if the system for this re-seeding is that wacky. Like I said, it bugs me personally because of how it will impact my school, but at the same time, it completely insults my common sense. Anybody else find this strange?
There are four conferences in the 1-A East Region (Conferences 41, 42, 43, and 44) and they each had their conference tournaments last week. In Conference 44, the only one I care about, Riverheads traveled to Altavista and beat the Lady Colonels three games to one to capture the Conference title.
The next step is an eight-team playoff for the Region 1-A East title, which begins Tuesday. The four Conference champs and their four runners-up will participate, with higher seeds hosting the four quarter-final games. Higher seeds will then host each succeeding game until a regional champion is crowned on Saturday night. So far so good right? Sounds just like any other tournament right?
But get this......the teams were re-seeded for these regional playoffs and somehow Altavista, even though it lost its conference final, has been seeded number two out of these eight teams. Riverheads is seeded number three. This makes NO SENSE on so many levels!
The four conference champs should be seeded in the one to four spots, using whatever criteria that might apply, and then the four runners-up should be seeded five through eight and have to travel on Tuesday. Naturally I am personally annoyed at this because it means that a Riverheads win on Tuesday, if they get it, will result in yet another trip to Altavista, assuming they also win their quarter-final game.
Even stranger is the fact that if Altavista has been given the number two seed, then that mathematically means that somebody (and I haven't even checked to see who it may be) actually WON their conference championship but has been "rewarded" for it by having to travel for a first round game on Tuesday, while a conference runner-up gets a home game. If I were that conference champion, I would really be ticked off by that.
These seedings could not be based on overall records, because Riverheads is 21-1 with its first loss being a long time ago, and Altavista is 17-3. So I have no idea how Altavista got such a plum spot.
I have discussed this with our AD, whom I respect greatly, so I understand he is powerless, but somebody somewhere dropped the ball if the system for this re-seeding is that wacky. Like I said, it bugs me personally because of how it will impact my school, but at the same time, it completely insults my common sense. Anybody else find this strange?
