NEO Sectional/District Overhaul

cardzfan1234

cardzfan1234

Well-known member
www.cleveland.com

Northeast Ohio high school basketball district tournaments revamped to blended seeding

Games through the district championships will be played at the higher seeds’ gyms.
www.cleveland.com www.cleveland.com

Surprised nobody started a thread yet, but did anyone notice the big news that came out yesterday? NEO District Athletic Board agreed to a major change in format for this year, and seemingly the future. Similar to what we see in other regions of the state, NEO is going back to a "super-district" style of bracket. For DI, there will be three "East" and three "West" districts. Although I think it is silly to focus on it being "East" and "West" when you start throwing in schools from Portage, Medina, Summit, and Stark.

One major change due to COVID is that the higher seed will host every sectional/district game. We saw similar things happening in fall sports with the higher seed hosting every district/regional round in football, basketball, and soccer. A major advantage to be the higher seed this year as we can routinely see schools travelling an hour or so for a week night sectional or district game.

This will be quite interesting to see how coaches are able to vote for such a wide variety of schools that they normally have little to no experience with.
 
 
So my understanding is you have a pool of teams of the 3 “east districts” and then they get divided up amongst the 3 districts? Like the top overall seed goes to east 1, then 2nd overall goes to east 2 etc? I guess this is much more fair and don’t end up with lopsided districts where one has 2-3 top 16 teams and another has 0
 
cardzfan1234 said:
www.cleveland.com

Northeast Ohio high school basketball district tournaments revamped to blended seeding

Games through the district championships will be played at the higher seeds’ gyms.
www.cleveland.com www.cleveland.com

Surprised nobody started a thread yet, but did anyone notice the big news that came out yesterday? NEO District Athletic Board agreed to a major change in format for this year, and seemingly the future. Similar to what we see in other regions of the state, NEO is going back to a "super-district" style of bracket. For DI, there will be three "East" and three "West" districts. Although I think it is silly to focus on it being "East" and "West" when you start throwing in schools from Portage, Medina, Summit, and Stark.

One major change due to COVID is that the higher seed will host every sectional/district game. We saw similar things happening in fall sports with the higher seed hosting every district/regional round in football, basketball, and soccer. A major advantage to be the higher seed this year as we can routinely see schools travelling an hour or so for a week night sectional or district game.

This will be quite interesting to see how coaches are able to vote for such a wide variety of schools that they normally have little to no experience with.
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This is very interesting. OHSAA website has the teams for EAST and West.

docs.google.com

DI-Boys Basketball 2020-2021

DI BOYS DI-BASKETBALL--2021,EAST,WEST 37 TEAMS,34 TEAMS #,NORTHEAST 1, 2, 3 (East),#,NORTHEAST 4, 5, 6 (West),3 DISTRICT TOURNAMENTS,3 DISTRICT TOURNAMENTS 112,ALLIANCE,150,AVON,CHAMPIONSHIP SITES,CHAMPIONSHIP SITES 724,ARCHBISOP HOBAN,152,AVON LAKE,@ higher seed site,@ higher seed site 146,AURORA
docs.google.com docs.google.com
 
Within Division 1, there are two pods. Each pod will produce three district champions, which advance to regional play. I have not seen how it looks in terms of regional play (i.e. which NE district tournament champions will form the all-NE region, while which NE district tournament champions will be part of the mixed region).

All 30+ teams in each pod will be ranked in the coaches' vote, which then creates the seeds. From those seeds, teams will then have the right to choose which of the three district tournaments they want to compete in (by the meeting, we'll know which district champions will face each other in regional play). In the east, there will be two brackets of 12 and one 13 for teams to enter; while in the west, there will be two brackets of 11 and one of 12 teams.

In D1 East, the lines will look as follows:
NE 1 (12 teams): 1-bye, 2-3, 4-bye, 5-6, 7-bye, 8-9, 10-bye, 11-12
NE 2 (12): 13-bye, 14-15, 16-bye, 17-18, 19-bye, 20-21, 22-bye, 23-24
NE 3 (13): 25-bye, 26-27, 28-29, 30-31, 32-bye, 33-34, 35-bye, 36-37

Teams will pick which line they want to be on the bracket in rank order.

Division 2 -- two pods, one pod has two regional spots on the line (east) and the other pod has three spots on the line (west). I am going to presume that in the west pod, there is one bracket where teams will feed to a different regional

Division 3 -- two pods, each pod has two regional spots. I think this is a self-contained regional

Division 4 -- two pods, one pod (east) has two regional spots, while the other pod is an "old school" district tournament. The teams in the east pod will could be choosing not only which district bracket to be in, but also which regional semifinal opponent they would face, depending on the regional draw.
 
Very lazy move by the OHSAA and the Districts to push for the higher seed to play on home floor. They are ruining what used to be one of the greatest tournaments in sports. That along with freezing teams in their current division for multiple years is also very lazy.
 
Oliver24 said:
Very lazy move by the OHSAA and the Districts to push for the higher seed to play on home floor. They are ruining what used to be one of the greatest tournaments in sports. That along with freezing teams in their current division for multiple years is also very lazy.
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welcome to the new world order.... the beginning of the end to normalcy in this country as the left will now systematically take away things we enjoy in the name of giving hand outs... wait and see how well this post ages... goodness I hope I'm wrong...
 
Laziness? I don't think that is it. Who wants to be a neutral site host in a COVID season anyway?

We won't be getting many fans into these tournament games anyway, so forget the tournament atmosphere. I don't see a problem with higher seed hosting all of the way through for this season.
 
cardzfan1234 said:
Laziness? I don't think that is it. Who wants to be a neutral site host in a COVID season anyway?

We won't be getting many fans into these tournament games anyway, so forget the tournament atmosphere. I don't see a problem with higher seed hosting all of the way through for this season.
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It’s not about having fans, it’s about being familiar with the gym. The fact on how they determine seeds won’t tell you who should actually be hosting that game. Look at how people voted in football to try and get the upper hand. Lazy is a nice way of putting it
 
I can tell we have some real rays of sunshine on this thread lol

Anyway, smart move for this year to have higher seeded home games. Small crowds make neutral site games very costly. As long as it is just this year I like it.
 
For the kvetchers out there, given the COVID stuff, finding neutral sites is a pretty tough ask. With very limited attendance, there's limited financial gain for the host school (athletic department, booster organization, whatever) through concessions or whatever; remember that ticket sale revenue goes to the district board (or OHSAA at the regional level). The shift to higher seed hosting at the sectional level in recent years in NE Ohio (and possibly other areas) was due to finances and site availability (easier to get a school to agree to give up two or three nights in one week as opposed to an additional few nights the first week).
 
Bertha said:
welcome to the new world order.... the beginning of the end to normalcy in this country as the left will now systematically take away things we enjoy in the name of giving hand outs... wait and see how well this post ages... goodness I hope I'm wrong...
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Thanks Bertha. I really don't care how it travels. Our current state of affairs in the OHSAA is very sad. No one wants to stand up to it. I will.
 
bucksman said:
For the kvetchers out there, given the COVID stuff, finding neutral sites is a pretty tough ask. With very limited attendance, there's limited financial gain for the host school (athletic department, booster organization, whatever) through concessions or whatever; remember that ticket sale revenue goes to the district board (or OHSAA at the regional level). The shift to higher seed hosting at the sectional level in recent years in NE Ohio (and possibly other areas) was due to finances and site availability (easier to get a school to agree to give up two or three nights in one week as opposed to an additional few nights the first week).
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All tournament games should be neutral site. Covid is a lazy excuse. If they want to keep sectional at higher seed, I can live with that. But anything beyond that is stupid and lazy by the District Boards.
 
cardzfan1234 said:
Laziness? I don't think that is it. Who wants to be a neutral site host in a COVID season anyway?

We won't be getting many fans into these tournament games anyway, so forget the tournament atmosphere. I don't see a problem with higher seed hosting all of the way through for this season.
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In case you haven't noticed, covid has been overblown and an embarrassing display of human behavior from the beginning.
 
To me, the greatest travesty of all was freezing enrollment and divisional placement into the next season. That is supposed to be a 2 year roll-out, but because of the covid nonsense, they are trying to drag it out into a 3rd year. Its a really dumb and lazy move by the OHSAA. You have schools using enrollment numbers that are 3 years old to determine their division status. Flat out stupid. Simply wait until July to draw up your divisions. Covid is over.... not going to be an issue going forward,... except for the pansies who won't give it up. But from an administrators standpoint, covid is gonzo.

I use the world Lazy a lot with the OHSAA. Lets be honest, they really don't have the kids best interest at heart. All about supporting the organization and establishment. And when you do that, you will be labeled as lazy in my book.
 
First of all, not getting into the covid is real or fake or whatever... to each their own... but it's not lazy. There are many schools that typically host districts that weren't allowed or the rules were so strict that it wasn't worth it. Higher seeds being rewarded with a home game is fine in my opinion. I a year like this, home court is less of an advantage due to restrictions of crowd size. Yes, the familiarity of the court matters but not that much. I am glad they made regionals at neutral sites, but from what I hear, that wasn't easy either. They had to beg schools to host. It's just not easy this year.

If I was going to change anything... I think basketball needs one more division. I am fine with not separating public and private but I do think a 5th division makes a ton of sense. Especially for smaller D1 schools. A school with 350 boys playing one with over 1,000 seems wrong. We can do better. Football gets 7 divisions. 5 for basketball is reasonable and needs to happen.
 
HeartoftheMatter said:
First of all, not getting into the covid is real or fake or whatever... to each their own... but it's not lazy. There are many schools that typically host districts that weren't allowed or the rules were so strict that it wasn't worth it. Higher seeds being rewarded with a home game is fine in my opinion. I a year like this, home court is less of an advantage due to restrictions of crowd size. Yes, the familiarity of the court matters but not that much. I am glad they made regionals at neutral sites, but from what I hear, that wasn't easy either. They had to beg schools to host. It's just not easy this year.

If I was going to change anything... I think basketball needs one more division. I am fine with not separating public and private but I do think a 5th division makes a ton of sense. Especially for smaller D1 schools. A school with 350 boys playing one with over 1,000 seems wrong. We can do better. Football gets 7 divisions. 5 for basketball is reasonable and needs to happen.
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Totally agree with a 5th division. Its long overdue.
 
Oliver24 said:
Totally agree with a 5th division. Its long overdue.
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I agree it makes things more competitive, but there will still be outliers, svsm would always be around 2-3, in reality they are usually top 1-5 in the state regardless of division. I like how PA football did with their football system, if you’re dominating a certain division, you get bumped up
 
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