Basketball committee recommends new seeding criteria, talks moving all championships to one site
The basketball committee held its annual meeting on Tuesday, and a bulk of the gathering was spent discussing each classification’s postseason format and seeding.
Here’s what each class ultimately recommended, with each change taking effect in the 2020-22 cycle, if approved by Legislative Council next April:
Class 1A
1A wants to move to a super regional format, which would put Districts 2, 3, 6 and 7 at a southern site, and Districts 1, 4, 5 and 8 at a northern site. Each super regional would have 12 teams in pods of three, and qualify four teams to the eight-team state tournament. In each pod, the highest seed would receive a bye, and play the winner of the two other teams in the pod.
The top three teams out of each district qualify for the super regional.
1A also changed its seeding criteria, and will use RPI, Packard Rankings, MaxPreps Rankings, and the CHSAANow Coaches Poll to seed the super regional. That is the same seeding criteria being used by 1A-5A football this season. The teams will be reseeded for the state tournament.
Class 2A
2A adopted some minor changes in their district makeup with some schools changing classifications. Trinidad will play in a district tournament with the Black Forest League, and Burlington will travel to the Lower Platte district.
On the Western Slope, Paonia, Hotchkiss, Cedaredge, and Olathe will join the San Juan Basin League to form a nine-team district. This change leaves the northern part of the Western Slope League in the district of 10.
2A will use RPI through its district tournaments, stopping it at the regional tournament. The regional qualifying format will take the top three teams from each district, and the next eight remaining top schools as determined by the RPI standings. They will re-seed going into the eight-team state tournament.
2A is planning to maintain current seeding criteria.
Class 3A
3A is not planning to change any formats, and is keeping its districts and regional seeding the same. The RPI will run through the district tournament, and stop at regionals.
Class 4A and 5A
4A and 5A are each maintaining their 48-team state tournament brackets. Both classes added some human element to the seeding criteria, where a committee can review the top 16 using a criteria of head-to-head, non-league schedule, and geography. RPI remains the primary seeding criteria.
A team may be moved up or down one spot from RPI ranking, however schools that are the only school from a mixed-classification league can be moved up or down two spots. In 4A girls, this is Mullen and Gateway — but no boys teams. In 5A, this applies to Palmer, Fruita Monument and Pueblo West.
A desire to move state tournaments to one site.
Borgmann spoke briefly about a desire to move all the state championships to one site, and hold them together in a major event similar to the state volleyball tournament, or the state wrestling tournament.
“We need to take a look at what we do, how we can improve, and how we can improve our student participants,” Borgmann said. “We need to be open to new ideas. Open your mind to changing the way we do business, and changing the way we showcase our kids. There’s a way you can do that at one site, and showcase every classification. It can happen.”
Of course, the right host site would need to be secured, and a new option may be on the horizon. There are tentative plans to build a new arena, one that may hold up to 10,000 fans, on the grounds of the National Western Complex in Denver.
Still, this may well be a few years off, if it were to come together.
“All I’m doing is planting a seed,” Borgmann said.
State tournament sites.
The sites for the upcoming 2020 state tournaments:
- 1A: University of Northern Colorado, Greeley. Note: Championship games held at Budweiser Events Center in Loveland.
- 2A: Budweiser Events Center, Loveland.
- 3A: University of Denver.
- 4A: Denver Coliseum.
- 5A: Denver Coliseum.
Notables:
- Each classification adopted recommendations for new district and league alignment. Those alignments will be available prior to the Legislative Council meeting in April 2020.
- There is a plan to run an evaluation event for girls, similar to what was run for the boys this past summer. More information will be passed along as it firms up.
- The All-State Games, held by CHSCA each summer, will be moving from Alamosa to Pueblo on the campus of CSU-Pueblo.
- Participation numbers for the boys and girls are both up over the past five seasons, with 11,723 boys and 9,045 girls participating in the 2018-19 season.
