A- Mamo vs Scarsdale final game of season should be a good grudge match but not sure it matters much as they see each other later in playoffs. Scars owns mental edge, not sure how Mamo shakes that, maybe being away as underdog is better for them? Don't see how N Rockland can beat either one of them.
B- Yorktown seems to have the juice for this group but the brutal schedule shows they can lose. Greeley is a year ahead of schedule and will be a tough out. Hard to deny Pac when that team takes the field. Somers just can't hang with the top teams. Playoff seedings will be unusual and some early rounds will have top teams going at it.
C- Rye up there, then JJCR. Pelham seems like they shouldn't be in the mix but each year they come though in playoffs. Lack of FOGO for Rye matters with these teams. Rest of C teams just too thin to do damage to top teams.
D- Pleasantville has been so good. Can Bronxville, Briarcliff or even Haldane beat them? Yes. Maybe. But a lot has to go wrong for Pville. Interesting is how Bville and Bcliff played such tough schedules, so they'll be low in the brackets as teams like Blind Brook and Rye Neck grab higher seeds. So Round 1 could see top teams playing each other.
B and D are good examples of the inherent issue with the way rankings are currently done. And I say this without an alternative that I’d find better (yet). The way it is rewards teams for playing either: a) a weaker in-section schedule (Greeley, North Rockland) or b) a strong non-section 1 schedule (Yorktown, Pleasentville, JJCR, Scarsdale) which I’d prefer teams play.
We see too many early round matchups between what arguably are the two best teams because someone else in the class loaded up with a soft schedule and gamed the seed.
I’d have to crunch the numbers to include a strength of schedule component for the seedlings. The data is there we have Opponents win %. I’d have to do some further digging to get opponents-opponents win % to crunch the SOS for each team. But you look at D, and briarcliff and bronxvilles SOS would dwarf anyone else’s besides Pleasentville. B, Yorktown, Mahopac and Somers SOS would probably be too three easily.
There shouldn’t be an incentive for loading up a weaker schedule to get the higher seed.
The problem with factoring SOS is you arrive at the same result - the math doesn't know the difference between a 7-9 team with a loaded scheduled vs a 7-9 team with a cupcake schedule.
The system is fine as is - best team will always make it through. The only marquee game is the section final, and you can't you fake your way into there. Its much more important to ensure that all teams can manufacture a 16 game schedule that makes for fun and competitive games for all teams.
Also, keep in mind that the traditional powers don't often want to play the "others". So, it's not necessarily true that teams are purposely playing a soft schedule. It's sometimes true that the big teams are not returning calls.
Sorry, but looking at the current brackets, that's exactly what is happening. Mamo and Scarsdale are head and shoulders the 2 best teams in A and that's going to be a semi final game. Compare their schedules with North Rockland schedule and it's not even close
Same in B - Mahopac and Yorktown are headed for a Semi Game - is there any real arguement they aren't the two best teams right now in B? Again, look at their schedules vs. Greeley's
C - JJCR and Rye are the top two, if they make it through to the finals, they will see each other - compare those schedules to others in section 1 Alot more balanced.
D - P'ville, Briarcliff and Bronxville all challenged themselves this year. yet 2 of them are middle of the pack. Someone else mentioned: are the 3-4 teams seeded ahead of them really better than them? I don't think so
You may be complaining, but I don't think the teams care. For instance, if it was important for Scarsdale and Mamaroneck to ensure a top 2 seed, they would have scheduled as such. They prioritize playing peer teams over maximizing seeding.
The bonus point system is a way of trying to factor in SOS, but it is flawed. For instance, if you play all of Bronxville, BH, LP and Somers you get a total of zero bonus points. Yet all 4 of these teams are strong, and better than many teams against whom you would get bonus points. The bottom line is that there is no good way to factor in SOS, at least with the landscape that exists in Section 1 boys lacrosse.
The same seeding system is used in other sports. But it works better in these other sports because strong teams are more evenly distributed amongst the entire section, and tend to vary more year to year. This leads to more uniformity in quality of schedule. In lacrosse, the top teams tend to stay the same every year, and are concentrated in Westchester. This creates a more or less informal Westchester-based power league.
At the end of the day, the top Westchester programs are never going to agree to both travel more (regarding their section 1 games), and play worse schedules. Especially when they are constantly trying to keep talent out of the prep schools. If this means awkward seedings some of the time, so be it. The only way to maybe have perfect seedings is to have a committee meet and draw it up, kind of like the NCAA basketball tournament. But this will create a whole new set of complaints, and seems like a bad look for HS sports. And also stated elsewhere in this thread, the current seeding system can benefit a team that has a power schedule when they have a bit of a down year, get a lower seed, but then draw one (or maybe more than one) paper tiger in the playoffs.
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