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FB Playoffs - Division One Projected Seeds and Matchups

10/15/2011, 11:00am CDT
By Nicholas Kartos

Below is my division one PROJECTIONS.  Please note these are only projections based on my best interpretation of the WIAA Playoff Regulations.  I do account for the Messmer/Shorewood possibility.  This also assumes, no further lawsuits.

SEEDING

First you start with undefeated conference champions and attempt to even out the sectionals so that they have an equal amount of undefeated conference champions.

D1 Undefeated Conference Champs:
Kenosha Bradford
Manitowoc Lincoln
Milwaukee Riverside
Verona
Waukesha West
Wisconsin Rapids

Next we need to identify the co and tri conference champs with one conference loss:
Appleton North  - 1 (co)
Kimberly  - 1 (co)
Eau Claire Memorial  - 1 (co)
Homestead  - 1 (co)
Marquette University  - 1 (tri)
Badger  - 1 (tri)
Brookfield Central  - 1 (tri)
Sussex Hamilton  - 1 (tri)

So that leaves us with two spots left to seed.  Next we have 2nd place finishers who were alone in second place:
Arrowhead
Middleton
Muskego

With three teams and only two spots left we have to go through the other criteria, with the next  being combined conference winning % of defeated conference opponents.  Middleton is at 38% while Muskego and Arrowhead are both at 36%.  

So Middleton gets a seed and it’s on to the next applicable tie-breaker, which is  first half defensive points allowed through week 8 in conference games only.   Arrowhead (13 points allowed) gets a seed over Muskego (42 points allowed).  And I immediately feel bad for whatever seeded team has to play Muskego in the first round.

Next we divide the teams up by regions and seedings.    This is my best guess:

NW Regional:
1) Wisconsin Rapids (undefeated conference champ)
2) Eau Claire Memorial (co-conference champ, 1 loss)
3) Appleton North (co-conference champ, 1 loss)
4) Middleton (2nd place, 1 loss)

NE Regional:
1) Manitowoc Lincoln (undefeated conference champ)
2) Milwaukee Riverside (undefeated conference champ)
3) Kimberly (co-conference champ, 1 loss)
4) Marquette University (tri-conference champ, 1 loss)

SW Regional:  
1) Verona (undefeated conference champ)
2) Homestead (co-conference champ, 1 loss)
3) Sussex-Hamilton (tri-conference champ, 1 loss)
4) Arrowhead (2nd place, 1 loss)

SE Regional:
1) Waukesha West (undefeated conference champ, less points allowed in first half of conf games)
2) Kenosha Bradford (undefeated conference champ)
3) Brookfield Central (tri-conference champ, 1 loss)
4) Badger (tri-conference champ, 1 loss)

Things that may jump out to you.  The first being that Middleton is in the Northwest, if you look at all the teams I have identified as 3 or 4 seeds, Middleton, Kimberly and Appleton North are the three most Northwest schools.   My guess is they wouldn’t give a 2nd place team a #3 seed over a co-conference champ and hence, Middleton moves to the Northwest since they are the closest out of all the 4 seeds.

Second thing I want to point out is that we do not have all the conference tiebreakers.  So, for instance, in the Greater Metro, they have some sort of tiebreaker that technically considers someone 1st, 2nd and 3rd.  So if Marquette (who I have as a 4 seed) won that tiebreaker over Sussex or Brook Central they could swap seeds with them potentially.  

Lastly, with D1 so many of the schools are in the Milwaukee area, it easily makes it the hardest to place schools.  

1st ROUND MATCHUPS

Once seeds are assigned, matchups are determined, not by opponent quality, but by driving distance.  The #1 seed is pitted against the closest non-conference opponent and so on.   If distances are similar, the higher seeds will play the teams with more losses.

With division 1, you have to look at the Northwest first – who is going to play Eau Claire Memorial and who is Hudson going to travel to play?  It seems as though the shortest drive possible is for Hudson to play against Wisconsin Rapids.  Oddly enough, those teams played week 1 , but previous season matchup is not part of the WIAA matchup criteria.

To travel and play Eau Claire Memorial the candidates are Bay Port, Everest and Preble.  With Everest being closest, they get the  nod.   From there we can pair up Bay Port and Preble with seeded foes Kimberly and Appleton North.   Since Bay Port is slightly more northwest we’ll put them in the NW.

Review:
NW:
1) Wisconsin Rapids v Hudson
2) Eau Claire Memorial v DC Everest
3) Kimberly v Bay Port

NE:
3) Appleton North v Green Bay Preble

So that leaves us with the rest of the jumbled mess.  We will start with 1 seeds going closest & worst and work our way through.  

NE #1 – Manitowoc Lincoln – closest to Germantown, Milwaukee City schools are about 15-20 miles further.

SW #1 – Verona – closest to Sun Prairie, but can’t play conference foe.  Next closest would be Watertown.

SE #1 – Kenosha Bradford  & #2 - Waukesha West – Pick a city school, any city school.  This is also where Messmer/Shorewood could come into play if they make the field.

However, I think they will make it easy on themselves and schedule Bradley Tech / Messwood in the same slot so they don’t have to do a lot of shifting.

Probably the oddest matchup I have would be Janesville Parker traveling to Riverside in the Northeast, but sometimes that’s how it shakes out.

Matchups
NW:
1) Wisconsin Rapids v Hudson
2) Eau Claire Memorial v DC Everest
3) Kimberly v Bay Port
4) Middleton v King  

NE:
1) Manitowoc Lincoln v Germantown
2) Milwaukee Riverside v  Janesville Parker
3) Appleton North v Green Bay Preble
4) Marquette v Bradley Tech OR Messwood

SE:
1) Waukesha West v Madison
2) Kenosha Bradford v Washington
3) Brookfield Central v Milwaukee Hamilton
4) Badger v Franklin

SW:
1) Verona v Watertown
2) Homestead v Milw Pulaski
3) Sussex Hamilton v Sun Prairie
4) Arrowhead v Muskego


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Tag(s): News  Nicholas Kartos