Maine
Maine’s high school basketball classification system doesn’t work
One of many issues I write about loads at Maine Basketball Rankings is the significance of sustaining aggressive steadiness in highschool sports activities. It’s a necessary a part of the job of the adults who oversee this — be it the coaches, athletic administrators or the Maine Principals’ Affiliation.
Really, that’s the affiliation’s main objective. There’s plenty of elements that go into this, however the first one is ensuring groups are taking part in groups they’ll beat and absolutely the easiest way is to group them by enrollment.
The issue is, there isn’t a whole lot of correlation between faculty measurement and profitable, which results in conditions like in Class C tennis, the place a group has received 14 straight state titles and remains to be in Class C. The group might petition up, however some persons are glad to play Madden on the rookie stage. That’s why we’ve the Maine Principals’ Affiliation, to make sure a aggressive taking part in discipline and to create a system the place children no less than have an opportunity.
This has all the time been a problem, but it surely grew to become a much bigger one when Maine moved to 5 lessons for highschool basketball. Merely put, the state doesn’t have sufficient colleges to justify 5 lessons.
To be able to have a correctly functioning area, you want no less than 12 groups. Any fewer than that and you’ve got groups within the quarterfinals that aren’t, let’s consider, playoff caliber.
Since Maine went to 5 lessons, there have been 50 groups that superior to the basketball event quarterfinals after incomes fewer than 25 Heal Factors. Twenty-five Heal Factors typically means the group went one thing like 4-14 and has no enterprise being within the playoffs. Twenty-five Heal Factors will typically get you a preliminary sport because the No. 14 seed in Class C. These 50 groups received a complete of two video games, and each instances they beat a group that solely barely cleared the 25-point bar and likewise shouldn’t have been there. The opposite 48 groups misplaced by a median of 29.1 factors. Solely two of them stored their rating differential to single digits.
The place does the scale of the area come into this? Of the 50 groups, 49 had been in areas that had fewer than 12 groups.
You can even see this within the basketball event video games. Since Class AA began taking part in a full quarterfinal spherical in 2018, the No. 8 seeds in Lessons AA and D have gone a mixed 0-32, dropping by a median of 36.2 factors, with solely two of these video games being aggressive.
Evaluate that to Lessons A via C, which have a extra strong membership. These No. 8 seeds are 5-43 and the losses are by a median of 20.8 factors. That’s about what you’d need out of a No. 8 seed.
However this isn’t nearly one spot within the bracket. It isn’t simply a few groups that shouldn’t be within the playoffs. Issues like this have an effect on the complete event.
The No. 2 seed will get a weaker opponent than they need to, that means the percentages of an upset fall dramatically, which makes the trail of the No. 3 seed more durable than it needs to be. It makes the trail of the No. 4 seed more durable. Identical for the No. 5 and the No. 6. Principally, it’s an additional benefit for the highest seeds on the detriment of the remainder of the area. Certain, the highest seed in Class AA has earned a bonus. However they haven’t earned a glorified scrimmage in opposition to a program that commonly struggles in opposition to mid-tier Class C applications and will have been relegated.
However they’ll’t be relegated, as a result of there aren’t sufficient groups in Class AA.
Ought to we simply scrap the five-class system and return to 4 lessons? Sure. New York is including a sixth class, however the state has greater than 500 colleges. With the lack of Rangeley Lakes, there’s at present 128 boys groups within the state. The mathematics is fairly straightforward. However the proposal from the Maine Principals’ Affiliation for subsequent season is to do nothing.
Ought to we additionally determine one thing extra elegant than drawing a line within the enrollment sand alongside the traces of Indiana’s Match Success Issue? Additionally sure.
Now we have to do one thing.
As a result of proper now, we’ve a system that doesn’t work and is getting worse.