When the WIAA’s football brackets were revealed this past Saturday, I couldn’t help but get more confused as each new division was shown on my TV screen.
There was little rhyme or reason to how or why certain teams were placed where. I fully understand there will always be head-scratchers, but this year was next-level boondogglery. And yes, I just made up a word because the WIAA just made up a new way to formulate its computer algorithmic playoff seedings.
There are so many egregious missteps that I can only think ChatGTP — an artificial intelligence (AI) program that admittingly is still working out its own kinks — was put in charge to set it up.
The WIAA used to have in-person seeding meetings, where coaches from various regions would get together and determine a 1-8 ranking and who would play who. But politics got involved, and it was possible for teams of a certain conference to gang up on another into a bad early-round matchup.
Those meetings got so political, and the groaning of fans, coaches and schools alike grew so loud, that the WIAA put the kibosh on it entirely.
Instead, we were led to believe that a system similar to college football’s former BCS system would be put in place. There would be weighted categories, like head-to-head wins, point differential, overall opponents record, overall record of opponents in losses and conference ranking. We thought conference championships — let alone an unbeaten season — would play a major role and weigh heavily in the algorithm.
We thought a lot of things, but none of those appear to have happened.
Heck, the WIAA even rearranged all teams across the state into new conferences with the sole purpose of balancing these bullet points. It would make it easier to determine tiebreakers, and to see which teams are clearly better.
We were led to believe the changes would make sense, and that things would settle down a bit. Instead, it has only gotten worse. And the WIAA still hasn’t shared its formula with anyone.
“The last 2 years when we’ve asked WIAA for explanations at WFCA coaches clinic we get no explanations just a lot of vague answers or the most common answer — ‘well I’m not sure’ or ‘I don’t know, someone else determines that’ or ‘I’d have to find out,’” said Desmond Breadon, Black Hawk-Warren’s head coach in a social media reply to a comment I made this past weekend.
Ok, good. Now I know I’m not the only one flustered.
Still confused at what’s so egregious? I won’t get into them all, but let’s hit up on a few of them right away. Speaking of Black Hawk-Warren (BHW), they entered Week 9 with a 7-1 record overall, 6-0 mark in conference, and were ranked No. 3 in the state in Division 7. Their final game was at No. 1-ranked Potosi-Cassville, who was 8-0 on the year. The game was a hard-fought battle, and in the end, Potosi-Cassville took home the victory and the conference title.
The No. 1 team in Division 7, unbeaten, with two other ranked teams in their league (BHW-3 and River Ridge-9) — it was without a question that Potosi was the clear-cut No. 1 seed. Right? Wrong, according to whatever “formula” the WIAA used (which could certainly have been a drunk monkey rolling dice for each team in a smokey basement in Stevens Point — actually, this scenario makes more sense than the use of AI).
Potosi was given a No. 3 seed — which means at-best they are the equivalent of the No. 9 best team in the state. Their opponent in Level 1? BHW — a 6-seed. A complete rematch. In round one. River Ridge, meanwhile, scored a 5-seed.
My head-scratching was immediate. “Wait, aren’t there weighted categories?” I said to myself. Then I went to check some of the usual suspects.
Record/Conference finish: RR (7-2, 5-2 Six Rivers), BHW (7-2, 6-1). Advantage: BHW
Head-to-Head: Week 3, BHW wins 26-20. Advantage: BHW
Points/Point differential: BHW (344-76) +268, RR (263-104) +159. Advantage: BHW
Yes, you read that correctly — BHW had a higher point differential than total points River Ridge scored all season.
The only advantage RR had over BHW is that the Wildcats closed the season on a 5-game winning streak — which is based entirely on the way the schedule was set up and very little about what happened on the actual field.
For my money (sure, let’s put real money down on high school sports — at this point, nothing seems to matter anymore), the winner of PC/BHW is going to go all the way to state (and probably win it). But yeah, let’s make what should be at the very earliest a Level 3 game an opening-round affair on the same field with the same two teams as last week. Good job, WIAA.
But it’s not just a bad draw for BHW. In Division 4, West Salem had one loss all season — to the state’s top-ranked team, 3-time defending champion Aquinas. In Week 8, and by just two points. But West Salem is a 3-seed.
In Division 2, Beaver Dam went 8-1 on the season and were co-champions of the East Central with Port Washington. BD defeated PW 23-0 in Week 9, where PW entered ranked No. 4 in the state (because rankings don’t matter to cymbal-clanging, club-hopping drunk chimpanzees). However, the WIAA formula was like, “Beaver Damned be us if we make sense with the randomness” and made the Beavers’ only loss — a crossover in Week 3 to second-ranked Mount Horeb-Barneveld — count against them so much that No. 10-ranked BD is a 5-seed and on the road at Menasha.
You’re probably thinking, “Well, Menasha can’t be that bad, right Adam?” To be honest, I don’t know how good they actually are. But they finished the year 6-3 overall and second in their conference (FRCC).
Oh yeah, Mount Horeb-Barneveld, No. 2 in the state and unbeaten at 9-0, beating six playoff-bound teams along the way, like Baldwin-Woodville and Monroe in nonconference games, then knocking over BD, Stoughton, Edgewood and Sauk Prairie. The Vikings won the Badger Small with only one opponent coming within two scores.
The WIAA formula, again, as chosen by mushroom-tripping marmosets that steal Snickers bars from the local Kwik Trip next to the UW-Stevens Point campus, decided to punish MHB for their wildly successful season by giving them a No. 2-seed. Not the second-overall seed — a No. 2 seed. So, if MHB (again, 9-0 overall, 7-0 Badger Small) get to Level 3, the Vikings will have to travel to 2-loss, co-Parkland champion but still top-seeded fifth-ranked Waukesha Catholic Memorial.
I think it’s fair to say that what you do in the regular season only matters if you qualify for the playoffs, because at that point your future is based on a lemur reading tarot or a baboon throwing its feces against a wall with logos to determine the matchups.
Desie and I aren’t the only ones upset. Social media across Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and loud noises echoing from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi were all aligned.
“This is why there needs to be a committee or something. Computer rankings have been so bad for years,” commented Drew Morstadt, some dude on Facebook.
“There were times where things were a little off with the seeding but these brackets are on another level of broken,” wrote Daniel Herbers, another dude commenting on a post from the WIAA itself.
“Why does Aquinas get a number 1 seed when Columbus beat them this season?? Columbus deserves to be the #1 seed. This is pure disrespect by those at WIAA who did the brackets,” commented Barry Kautzer, seemingly another male from Wisconsin on the same Facebook thread.
What Barry didn’t take into account was a gibbon in his zoo cell pressing buttons on a keyboard that determined this entire mess.
“How does a 9-0 conference champ get a 3 seed?” wrote Joseph L Laraia II, which had multiple others jump in with their own befuddlings.
“Oconomowoc was conference champs of the Classic 8 (8-1) and they are a 6 seed,” replied Jason Treutelaar, who was true-to-his emotions and logic.
I think Herbers nailed it with a reply on one of the WIAA’s posts, celebrating its successful bracket reveal.
“Well this bracket is a literal joke,” Herbers said. He continued by rattling off at length solid points of a logical debate, with others positively reacting and replying.
“#3 Seed — SWAL Conference Champion 8-1 Cuba City. #2 seed — SWC Conference Runner Up 6-3 Lancaster. Head to head matchup in week two… 45-14 in the Cubans favor,” wrote Aaron Kaiser. “Help make it make sense.”
Listen, the WIAA has never been known for its best handling of … well, literally anything. But it all comes down to one thing: In order to be the best, you have to beat the best. And the best of the best will play at Camp Randall in Madison.
And in the end, mistakes, fan rage and all, the WIAA will still make a hearty profit. What a very corporate thing to transpire.
— Adam Krebs is the editor of the Monroe Times and can be contacted at editor@themonroetimes.com. He’s also available through third-eye WiFi, and through his Gmail account … uh, that’s not a Google Mail account, but rather a Gorilla Mail account: ThrowPoopAtYou@WeAreAllPrimates.joke.
