Keep in mind this?
Effectively, the state of Delaware has constructed a ladies’ lacrosse bracket which appears like this:
Yup, it is a stepladder, which signifies that, in case you have been seeded between 9 and 16 on this event, you needed to win two video games to get into the quarterfinal spherical, the place the highest 4 seeds, every with per week’s relaxation, would meet the 4 survivors from what’s a stepladder playoff format between the bottom 12 seeds.
I’ve seen numerous methods to decide on champions through the years. I’ve seen brackets of many sizes, league competitions which cut up for the ultimate few weeks of the season for the needs of promotion and relegation, and, the one selection which you see most frequently this time of yr in baseball and softball, the double-elimination bracket.
However I don’t suppose I’ve ever seen a Solar Belt-esque stepladder format in any high-school bracket, a lot much less within the lacrosse sphere.
What’s fascinating is that no different crew sport beneath the aegis of the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Affiliation has this format. The boys’ lacrosse bracket, which you might need seen because the one bracket you’ll see as being equal to the ladies’, is a straight 16-team bracket, with each crew taking part from the beginning.
Whenever you take a look at the outcomes of the DIAA boys’ lacrosse event, you would possibly see one rationale for the stepladder format: aggressive video games. Half the matches have been at operating clock by full time, with the winners scoring 16 or extra targets every.
However the Spherical 1 ladies’ bracket had the identical ratio of blowout matches because the boys; two out of 4 video games went to operating clock, though the Hockessin Stanford (Del.) vs. Townsend Odessa (Del.) completed with a nine-goal margin.
I get that, in event play, you wish to see aggressive video games all through the postseason. In spite of everything, because the previous saying goes, groups don’t study something if one crew beats one other by an awesome margin.
Nonetheless, I don’t suppose the state governing physique of sport needs to be within the enterprise of managing competitors like this. When you’ve got 16 groups in a bracket, why not have or not it’s an orthodox, symmetrical bracket the place groups must win an equal (or fairly equal) quantity of video games to win the event?
Only a thought.
