Vote yes at your own risk, because the MIAA doesn’t know what the finished product will be for a statewide tournament.
The Tournament Management Committee received a mandate in 2016 to address equity with its postseason. Four years later they have an idea of how it could work, but there is still a lot to figure out for a statewide tournament format that will take effect in the fall of 2021.
The official vote is taking place on Friday during a Special Assembly held at Assabet Valley in Marlboro. As of Monday evening, 242 members signed up to cast a yes or no vote, with a simple majority passing or failing.
The TMC has the basic information for their plan: team sports will have upward of five divisions following realignment, 32 teams will be seeded by MaxPreps, other qualifying teams will fill in the bracket, MaxPreps will take over seeding later this year and the statewide playoffs will begin in fall 2021.
But there are plenty of unanswerable questions, mainly because the MIAA doesn’t have the answers and instead will use the next year-plus to iron out the details.
Talk about a leap of faith.
The TMC held regional meetings on Monday to discuss the proposal. At the western Mass. meeting at Chicopee Comp, questions were asked about long travel on school nights and what the tournament formats for sports like golf, wrestling and swimming will look like. The answers were: some games likely will be moved to the weekend and, that will be figured out at a later date, respectively.
Sounds reassuring.
Questions were brought up about MaxPreps and its formula. It’s not a simple equation and it’s under lock and key. The TMC misspoke when they said the 27-page formula could be looked it, even though MaxPreps said it’s proprietary. A representative from MaxPreps confirmed that the formula is private. Regardless, it has issues. For one, it doesn’t account for ties, according to the TMC. Apparently working ties into the 27 pages would have pushed the document to “Crime and Punishment” lengths.
MaxPreps’ FAQs section on the MIAA website takes you in circles. Take this answer to the question about strength of schedule affecting rankings: “There is no direct mathematical link between the strength of schedule and the rating. However, typically teams with a strong strength of schedule will earn higher ratings than a team with a similar record but much weaker strength of schedule. However, teams with a weak strength of schedule can still be highly rated if they have key victories over highly rated opponents or by winning consistently over the course of the season. Ultimately, you will see a few teams with a weaker strength of schedule that earn their way among the top-ranked teams, although they may never actually play directly.”
It was said at Monday’s meeting that leagues, conference, division and strength of schedule are not part of MaxPreps’ formula.
This was another answer on the FAQs sheet: “Defeating a team with a losing record that happens to compete in an extremely strong league can be more beneficial than defeating a team with a winning record playing an extremely weak schedule.”
And this answer: “There is no benefit or disadvantage to playing a team in a higher or lower classification.”
Of course there will be time to figure out MaxPreps. The TMC has a meeting scheduled for March 17 where they will work on the transition to MaxPreps for the fall 2020 season. They are asking that questions for MaxPreps be forwarded to them in advance.
The TMC and representatives from MaxPreps will then conduct a session on March 26 at the Massachusetts Secondary Schools Athletic Director Association conference to provide an opportunity for Q&A session regarding MaxPreps.
The March meetings might provide more answers, but the official yes/no vote is Friday. The MIAA will answer your questions at a later date.
Another issue is alignment. Moving hundreds of teams around to fill upward of five divisions is a monumental task. On the MIAA website there is currently a spreadsheet with sample alignments for all sports. It’s interesting, but far from complete. For example: Amherst Regional is placed in Division 1 for hockey. Pope Francis is Division 3. Those teams will be switched. After all, hockey, like football, is vastly different from other team sports and will be dealt with at a later date. Much like the official alignment process.
The alignment committee will be appointed by the TMC by the spring of 2020. The next alignment cycle starts in the fall 2021, the same time when the proposed statewide tournament will start. How quickly the alignment process takes will determine when appeals can be made and heard, and when the official alignments can be completed.
Knowing where teams will play and how it will all officially look before Friday’s vote would help the process.
If the format was finalized maybe some of the stress from this plan will be alleviated. It’s possible that if teams from western Mass. see that a majority of their potential playoff opponents are west of I-495, maybe voting yes for the statewide tournament is an easy choice. But that’s not an option right now.
The sectional tournaments have operated more or less the same since the 1970s. There has been little to complain about. There have been underdog stories and historic title runs. Games have been exciting and sectional tournament titles have brought immense pride to schools and towns.
You would think that before throwing that all away the MIAA would be able to show what they have planned.
What is planned is more planning. Make your vote count on Friday. Any additional questions will be answered at a later date.
Mike Moran is the Sports Editor and can be reached at mmoran@gazettenet.com. Follow on Twitter @mikemoranDHG.