Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | D | Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)

Later seeding meeting would improve playoffs.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Patricia Babcock McGraw Daily Herald Sports Writer

It's already been well established that, in many sports, the importance of the seeding process for IHSA tournament games just ain't what it used to be.

In the old days, coaches would seed an entire sectional and then the teams at the top would be matched up in inverse order against those at the bottom, according to seed. End of story.

But now that the IHSA has the power to factor geography into the way it places teams into regionals, many first-round games don't necessarily reflect traditional seeding matchups. And that has many baseball coaches wondering why they even bother to seed their sectionals anymore.

Of course, the answer is that the IHSA is still bound to place the coaches' top four seeds into different regionals. And the rest of the seeds are supposed to serve as a guide for the IHSA's regional placement of the remaining teams.

So yes, the coaches' seeds still carry a little bit of weight. However, with a slight adjustment to the postseason calendar, they could carry much more.

It's confounding why the IHSA continues to force coaches to seed their sectionals so far in advance of the tournament.

"I've never understood it," Mundelein coach Todd Parola said. "They make us seed way too early."

Sports like basketball and baseball hold their seeding meetings three weeks before the tournament. Some outdoor sports - because of rainouts, darkness or poor field...