Give your reasons. You are all over Twitter and on here saying "I hate it, I hate it, I hate it". Probably in favor of blind draws as well.

 

I hate blind draws too.

How does this affect the 14th Region?

This would help districts with three strong teams, such as the 37th in the 10th Region. In this district many times Brossart, Campbell County and Scott have "regional worthy" teams that don't make the regional tournament.

 

A year ago Brossart came within an overtime loss to Scott of making the regional tournament. They had beaten district rival Campbell County, and Mason County, the 39th District Champ who became the regional champ handily during the regular season, yet didn't make the regional tournament where they would have competed for the 10th Region crown.

 

In this format, even though they would have been a 3 seed, they would have at least had the chance to play for the regional championship, and not sidelined for the simply matter that they had the misfortune of being aligned in a strong district with three strong teams.

Every region should do this

So why are some of you "not" for it? I see continuous I hate it, I'm not for it but give no reasons as to why. I don't understand why people are so against it to be honest.

 

I don't think there is an effective way to determine the seeds of teams in the regions. I've seen people recommending every school play every other school in the region. That's fine for about 75% of the schools. However, I'm in a region with Burgin and Kentucky School for the Deaf. Neither of those teams have any business playing Pulaski, Lincoln, Southwestern, Wayne, etc. in order to determine a seed. They fill out their schedules with like-sized schools where they can be competitive and the kids can win some games. They are more than aware that they likely won't make the region tournament (KSD hasn't been since 1981, Burgin not since 1986). But if they have to play 15 games per year against teams that will beat them every single time, that limits the number of games they can play against similar schools. That's why I'm not a fan.

I'm also a huge fan of the district tournament. Each team in our district is close geographically (obviously) and have typically been competitive with one another. The crowds are large, guaranteeing good gates and good finances for programs that always need money. If they continued the district tournament and used it for seeding, then I'm not necessarily against this idea. But this pilot program would seem to be the first step toward moving away from districts and straight to regions. And no matter what method you used I'm not sure you'll get the crowds and the money from a first round region game where one team has to travel an hour to play another, especially if one of those teams is head and shoulders above the other.

Per the process outlined by "Region 15", it looks like you would only need to seed the 4 districts. The region draws could be based on rotation or blind draw.

I think this has good potential.

How does this affect the 14th Region?

 

They are losing Jenkins next season

Are any regional tournaments currently seeded?

A couple points I'd like to chime in about:

 

- I have zero knowledge or allegiance to the 15th region

- This would be virtually impossible in some regions as there are too many teams

- To me, going away from the traditional winner/runner-up of the district advance to regionals just delays the inevitable for the bottom feeders.

- In years where districts have 3 solid teams and 1 clunker team, it's just the nature of the beast. You have to beat people to advance. If you're worthy of winning the region, you should be able to win a tester of a game in the district with your season on the line.

- Finally, aren't all teams technically in the region tournament anyway with district tournaments acting almost like a pool play opener to the regional?

 

I say keep it the same since all regions can't feasibly change

Are any regional tournaments currently seeded?

 

Yes and no. There is no overall seeding, but district winners play district runners-up in the first round, so there is a divide of sorts.

 

It actually wasn't until the 1960s that district winners were required to play district losers and couldn't play a fellow district team.

That's what I thought - a district winner plays a district runner-up in the first round of the region, but there is no actually seeding of the 8 teams in the regional tournament.

 

I don't see how this new plan is an improvement over the current system, particularly for smaller schools. So many schools have no realistic chance of making it to the state tournament, so making it to the regional tournament is something they can work for and be proud of when it happens. That is gone under this new plan, since every school starts in the regional tournament.

 

The seeding of the regional tournament will definitely help the better teams, since they will be less likely to face more comparable teams multiple times in the regional tournament. There certainly are arguments that it should be that way. But some of the greatest stories from Kentucky High School basketball history involve unexpected results in the post-season. While we used to celebrate when a small unheralded school had success in the post-season, this new plan seems to be trying to make sure that doesn't happen again, or at least decrease the chances of it happening again.

I don't think there is an effective way to determine the seeds of teams in the regions. I've seen people recommending every school play every other school in the region. That's fine for about 75% of the schools. However, I'm in a region with Burgin and Kentucky School for the Deaf. Neither of those teams have any business playing Pulaski, Lincoln, Southwestern, Wayne, etc. in order to determine a seed. They fill out their schedules with like sized schools where they can be competitive and the kids can win some games. They are more than aware that they likely won't make the region tournament (KSD hasn't been since 1981, Burgin not since 1986). But if they have to play 15 games per year against teams that will beat them every single time, that limits the number of games they can play against similar schools. That's why I'm not a fan.

Both Burgin and KY School f/t Deaf opt out of playing district teams now. I'm sure they could opt out of playing 12th Region teams during the season and take a 4 seed when the region is played. They would then be playing a 3 seed which traditionally would not be the teams you mentioned above. They could then focus on playing teams of their caliber and not worry about seeding. For years now they both have take a 4 (or 5) seeds in their district tournaments since they don't play teams in their district during the regular season (except Burgin does play Mercer County once a year).

An actual coach just had a great point on Facebook...this will be like football when a helpless low seed has to travel 2-3 hours to get dismantled.