How four teams get the shaft

[Buki4life80]

Wacky Watauga bracket shows problems in TSSAA system

Thursday, February 19, 2004

 

By BILLY DIXON

Times-News

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If nothing else, the Watauga Conference might have pushed things far enough askew to make the TSSAA stand up and take notice.

 

If so, it'll be one of the few positive things that can be said for the District 1-AA boys tournament bracket.

 

The conference tournament is set to begin on Saturday at Sullivan Central for four teams.

 

Then it will begin again on Monday for two more teams.

 

The other two schools will get their chance to compete for the first time on Wednesday.

 

Sound complicated?

 

Remember, this is an eight-team league. There's nothing hard about making a bracket for an eight-team league, right?

 

Oh, not so fast.

 

In all their wisdom, the conference coaches decided to come up with the most difficult, ill-conceived bracket of all.

 

It's a bracket so confounding that Times-News graphic artists went scrambling for the Excedrin after designing a template just so we can run the bracket in the paper.

 

The top two teams in the league have been awarded automatic byes in next week's regional tournament. That means No. 1 Volunteer and No. 2 Happy Valley will not play their first game until Wednesday.

 

By that time, it's entirely possible that one of four teams will be playing their third game.

 

The Falcons and Warriors effectively receive two byes. For finishing third and fourth, Sullivan Central and Elizabethton get a bye until Monday.

 

The other four teams begin play on Saturday and must win two games just to make the Region 1-AA tournament.

 

By getting greedy, those who made the decisions to make this happen have made a mockery of the system.

 

Now, it's high time the TSSAA stepped in and set standards for district tournaments.

 

Under current rules, the TSSAA only says that leagues must decide who will represent their district by a certain date, with no guidelines on how that is to be accomplished.

 

The result is an asinine bracket devised by the Watauga.

 

No such problem plagues the girls' bracket. It's a straight-forward affair with No. 1 playing No. 8, No. 2 playing No. 7 and so on.

 

That's the way it should be.

 

If the boys' coaches wanted the top two teams to automatically be in the region, then they should have forgone a tournament all together and simply qualified the top four teams based on the regular season.

 

Of course, the money to be made from a tournament makes that a mute point.

 

A tournament is supposed to reward the teams playing best at the end of the season. It's not perfect, but it's done in practically every sport at every level.

 

A good team that struggled early in the season still has a chance to make a run in the end.

 

What the Watauga bracket does, however, is punish those teams. That's the case much more so than the stated cause of rewarding the top teams.

 

In a seven-team league such as the Big 7, someone has to get a bye, so it makes total sense to move the league champ forward.

 

With eight teams, though, the reward for winning the league is that you get to play the worst team in the league. If you can't beat that team, do you really deserve to move to the next level?

 

The answer is obviously no.

 

What's funny now is watching all the coaches point their fingers in other directions. After talking with almost every coach in the league, I have yet to find one who admits to supporting this bracket.

 

When things play out at Central over the next week, more and more complaints are going to surface.

 

Maybe enough to make the TSSAA take notice.

 

Billy Dixon is a sports writer at the Times-News and is the author of the Patty Paper children's book series. E-mail him at bdixon@timesnews.net.

[sourone]

This is just typical Charlie Bayless. All it takes is four coaches to make decisions. Watauga has always been screwed up when Happy Valley is benefited.

[hvwarrior58]

ummm,i believe this bracket was made out before the year sourone,so i doubt charlie knew his team would be in 2nd.this is not the only conference that uses this bracket either.it does bring up good points in the fact that it rewards the teams that played better or at least won more in their conference.i dont agree with it,but i cant do anythin about it.

[hvwarrior58]

o,and btw,the writer is a fan of Sullivan North.that is why he is whinin

[sourone]

Sorry, but I think the tournament format is voted on within the past season.

[hvwarrior58]

i really dont know when they voted on it,but they still voted on it didnt they?that makes the whole conference wrong,not jus certain individuals.

[SportsFan98]

The reasoning in doing this, is the other AA distircts in the state usually has 6 teams, which gives the top 2 teams a bye, and an automatic bid to the tourney. This is only fair to reward the teams who played well all year, not to reward the teams who had one good night, and then goes and embarrases their district in the region tourney. Regions and Districts want the best talent representing them, and this is the only way...

[CHHS72]

The decision was made at least as early as last spring. The bracket was more messed up last year when only the Number one seed got a bye. That benefited Elizabethton.

 

Sourone you also need to know that the tournament next year will be at Unicoi County. This stuff is not decided at the last minute. No, the decision was not made during the season.

 

Yes. the writer of the newspaper article is a big fan of Sullivan North. In fact his brother helps coach the North team and is the head baseball coach at North. Had North benefited from the bracket I doubt that the article would have been written.

 

I see pros and cons in the system. HVWarrior is correct in saying that District 1-AA is not the only district to set its bracket the way it is. District 2-AA has a bracket just like ours and had it last year. It is obvious that the writer of the newspaper article did not do his research and should not be given much credibility.

 

The system helps my team this year. Last year it would not have helped Volunteer because they were the 5 seed. Everbody knew the rules at the first of the season. It is nothing but sour grapes to complain about the system now.

[Opperman]

Why not do it like some districts do it in baseball?

 

Top two teams are guaranteed a regional berth...if one of them doesn't make it to the semis, then the 4th place team in the district doesn't make it...if both don't, the third and fourth place teams don't.

[thorough97]

I believe that 6AAA used a simular bracket in the preD2 days.

[whatruwatching]

It was decided before the season that the top 2 would get a bye. The actual format may not have been set at that time but the teams knew what they were playing for SOOOOOO..would the sportswriter rather had his team play two games on the same night to "save" what the bracket looks like. And would the article have been written if North was 1 or 2...I think...I know..not.

Edited February 21, 2004 by whatruwatching

[marcvols]

These multiple byes go on in other districts as well; in my opinion, the whole TSSAA tournament is questionable - make it single elimination throughout and let's play