Throughout the past week, Washington state high school basketball coaches, administrators and fans have been digesting the new WIAA basketball format for the upcoming winter season.
And, there is a lot to digest.
The new format beings in a 12-team state tournament format, complete with an RPI ranking system to seed the 16 regional teams. Four teams will get a first-round bye and the first round of state is single-elimination.
It is a departure from the previous 16-team, single-elimination regional-to-state bracket and eight-team state tournament that has been in place since the 2010–11 season.
“I am happy the state tournament will move from eight to 12 teams,” Montesano girls basketball coach Julie Graves said. “We are still not back to the 16-team tournament, but it is an improvement. Now, more deserving student-athletes, parents, bands, fans and communities are going to get the opportunity to experience the state basketball tournament.”
Here’s a quick summary: Teams throughout the state will compete in their non-league and league schedules. Once the regular season is done, those who qualified for their district tournaments will play and those tournaments will determine the regional berths.
After the district tournaments, the new format will take over.
Relying upon a strength-of-schedule formula — the Rating Percentage Index (RPI) — the WIAA will seed the state’s 16 regional teams.
The top-eight RPI teams will earn automatic berths into the state tournament, regardless of the outcome of their regional games. These teams will face each other in regionals to determine the first-round byes at the state tournament. Theoretically, the top-four RPI teams will host the fifth-through-eighth teams, with the winners earning the byes into the modified double-elimination bracket.
The 9th-through–16th RPI teams will meet in the regionals in a single-elimination bracket. The winners of these games will take on the losers of the top-eight games in the state first round. After the single-elimination state first round, the four bye teams re-enter the bracket and the tournament follows its tried-and-true modified double-elimination format.
The state tournaments will be at the Yakima SunDome (Class 1A & 2A), the Spokane Arena (Class 2B & 1B) and the Tacoma Dome (Class 3A & 4A) over a four-day span — Wednesday: single-elimination games; Thursday & Friday: bracket play; Saturday: trophy and championship games.
The RPI formula will be weighed like this for the first year: 25 percent will be the team’s win-loss record, 50 percent will be the opponent’s win-loss record and 25 percent will be the opponent’s opponents win-loss record. Coaches will have to turn in all of his/her team’s results to MaxPreps.com, which will administer and publish the RPI rankings for the WIAA, starting in the first week of January.
Did you get all of that?
The WIAA state basketball committee sent a survey on Aug. 15 to superintendents, principals and boys and girls basketball coaches across the state and 71 percent of those who responded were in favor of using 1–16 rankings to seed the state tournaments.
The new format was the second of three options given in the survey to vote upon. The first option was a 16-team tournament played over two weekends and at two different venues, known as the Final Four format — the semifinals and finals would be held on the second state weekend in Tacoma and Yakima. The third option was the now-former regional/state format we all loved to hate.
“I would have been happy with Final Four option as well,” Graves said. “All 16 teams playing at the same arena would be nice, but only 4 teams earn a trophy. I just felt there needed to be a change that favored the kids. Too many kids from 2011-2016 have been short-changed the true experience and atmosphere of the state basketball tournament.”
There are concerns about the RPI formula. Members of the state basketball tournament committee noted in regional media that the RPI would be adjusted as the seasons progressed. Casey Johnson, the WIAA’s Sports and Activities Information Director, noted the tournament committee is working on aspects of the RPI, including how to account for out-of-state competition.
“Right now, (competition above or below classification) is not in the formula,” Johnson added. “That was talked about, but we’re going to start with this formula and see where it goes. It is winning percentage (for now) and it doesn’t matter who you play.”
“I would hope the RPI system would benefit and be fair for all schools,” Hoquiam boys basketball head coach Curtis Eccles said. “It looks as though teams would be better off to schedule large schools for their non-conference games in the future.”
The RPI will be determined through MaxPreps, which will compile the game scores via coaches/school input, to determine the rankings. When asked about the frequency of scores “called into” MaxPreps, Johnson said 92 percent of basketball scores were reported last season.
“And, we believe schools and coaches will find more of an incentive to report their scores in order to get their RPI and rankings right,” Johnson said.
One issue not addressed with the format is travel for regional games.
Johnson said that the home teams — RPI seeds 1-4 and 9-12 — in regionals will be closer to home at the closest acceptable regional sites, which will be determined in November. The other seeded teams will travel, which could be close to home or more than 4 hours away, depending upon who is your opponent via the RPI rankings.
To use the past regional format as a guide, concessions were made for teams that had to travel from one side of the state to another, but schools won’t know until the pairings come out.
Above all, this format is a step in the right direction. Is it fair? We won’t know until we’re in the middle of it, but we’ll hear about it if it isn’t.
“Yes, I would prefer to go back to the 16-team format, but I’m just thankful they have changed it to at least 12 (at state),” Eccles said. “This will be far better than the eight teams it has been for the past six years. Overall, I am pleased with the new format, but I’m very interested in how the RPI will play out. I’m hoping that what ever they come up with is fair.”
Rob Burns: (360) 537-3926; rburns@thedailyworld.com; Twitter: @RobRVR
