PHOTOS: (L) Civic Stadium in Bellingham; (R) Game ball at 2018 district tournament at Mount Vernon High School. Photographer: Doug Lange
WIAA Approves State Seeding Changes
June 5, 2018
The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association has approved the use of a football seeding committee for state tournaments and adopted a new RPI formula for state basketball. The WIAA Executive Board took action during their meeting Sunday, June 3rd.
The new football committee will seed the 16 allocated teams into the state tournament bracket. Three committees of 10 members plus one chairman will be formed to analyze the quality of teams, with each committee overseeing two classifications. Committee members will be selected through an applications process with approval coming from the WIAA Executive Board.
The Executive Board also approved seeding procedure changes for basketball. The WIAA State Basketball Tournament will be seeded based on a team’s finish in the RPI. The board adopted a 40-40-20 model RPI formula (40% Winning percentage + 40% Opponents’ winning percentage + 20 % opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage)
The board also voted to adopt criteria to adjust the seeds of teams ranked Nos. 9-16 at the end of the season to avoid elimination games between teams from the same league.
The board also voted to allow an immediate window for 1B and 2B schools to opt up or down in football only. While the schools will normally need to wait until the end of a four-year classification cycle to change classification, schools in the 1B and 2B classification will have the opportunity before the 2018 season as well.
-Doug Lange
*Information via WIAA press release used in this story.
