MIAA tournament seeding is heavily biased in favor of conferences like the Bay State conference teams. It can't be a coincidence that the formula works in their favor, the MIAA could easily have used a better approach.
And yes, it matters. Not the ranking, but the tournament seeding, that gives the Bay State teams a better chance to make the quarterfinals.
tl:dr: The max goal differential of three is a choice to build in a bias against teams that play in a mixed conference with more and less competitive teams. And a GD of 3 favors conferences and teams with more similar competition, that would typically have games within that max GD (looking at you, Bay State).
The MIAA formula is an average of a result for all games played, using the goal differential with a maximum of 3 + the opponent's rating.
Most conferences or leagues have a mix of teams. Some have a low or negative rating. Just playing low rated teams at all - no matter what the game result - will usually lower the ratings of the other team. Because that game can at best result in a 2 - 3 point result to average into the rating. For example, if playing a team rated 0, using a max GD of 3, you can only at best get a 3. When playing negatively rated teams, the most the result can be is even less. But if those teams are in your conference, you have to play them - often more than once.
Some clown will come along and say, they have to use something simple. There are simple alternatives that would bias the seeding less. One approach would be to use a max GD of 4 or 5, that better allows for the reality of the result when playing low rated teams.
Then another doofus will come along and say "it's 3 goals because sportsmanship." But no one is stopping at 3 goals because of sportsmanship, everyone just wants to keep playing a real game vs a pass around to kill time. At 6 or so, that's more like it. If the losing team and their parents are themselves showing sportsmanship.
Current Bay State MIAA rankings are listed below. So note how for teams in Carey, the worst team you have to play twice is Framingham, with the possibility of a 6.39 result (3.39 + 3 GD) or even a 3.39 result for just a tie, to average into the tournament seeding. Or in Herget, playing Milton has a 2.73 result for a tie, or up to a 5.73 result. Now compare that to the range of teams in other conferences in the state.
Carey
1 Natick
2 Wellesley
3 Brookline
10 Newton North
16 Framingham - 3.39 rating currently
Herget
5 Needham
9 Weymouth
13 Braintree
8 D2 Walpole
13 D2 Milton - 2.73 rating currently
These teams are good teams. But the rankings are also the result of how the MIAA formula fails to reflect the realities of different conferences, and introduces a bias in favor of conferences that have less of a range of team competitiveness.
Some examples, look at how narrow the GD is:
Needham https://www.arbiterlive.com/Teams/Schedule/5645725
Brookline https://www.arbiterlive.com/Teams/Schedule/5645678
Wellesley https://www.arbiterlive.com/Teams/Schedule/5645731
And yes, it matters. Not the ranking, but the tournament seeding, that gives the Bay State teams a better chance to make the quarterfinals.
tl:dr: The max goal differential of three is a choice to build in a bias against teams that play in a mixed conference with more and less competitive teams. And a GD of 3 favors conferences and teams with more similar competition, that would typically have games within that max GD (looking at you, Bay State).
The MIAA formula is an average of a result for all games played, using the goal differential with a maximum of 3 + the opponent's rating.
Most conferences or leagues have a mix of teams. Some have a low or negative rating. Just playing low rated teams at all - no matter what the game result - will usually lower the ratings of the other team. Because that game can at best result in a 2 - 3 point result to average into the rating. For example, if playing a team rated 0, using a max GD of 3, you can only at best get a 3. When playing negatively rated teams, the most the result can be is even less. But if those teams are in your conference, you have to play them - often more than once.
Some clown will come along and say, they have to use something simple. There are simple alternatives that would bias the seeding less. One approach would be to use a max GD of 4 or 5, that better allows for the reality of the result when playing low rated teams.
Then another doofus will come along and say "it's 3 goals because sportsmanship." But no one is stopping at 3 goals because of sportsmanship, everyone just wants to keep playing a real game vs a pass around to kill time. At 6 or so, that's more like it. If the losing team and their parents are themselves showing sportsmanship.
Current Bay State MIAA rankings are listed below. So note how for teams in Carey, the worst team you have to play twice is Framingham, with the possibility of a 6.39 result (3.39 + 3 GD) or even a 3.39 result for just a tie, to average into the tournament seeding. Or in Herget, playing Milton has a 2.73 result for a tie, or up to a 5.73 result. Now compare that to the range of teams in other conferences in the state.
Carey
1 Natick
2 Wellesley
3 Brookline
10 Newton North
16 Framingham - 3.39 rating currently
Herget
5 Needham
9 Weymouth
13 Braintree
8 D2 Walpole
13 D2 Milton - 2.73 rating currently
These teams are good teams. But the rankings are also the result of how the MIAA formula fails to reflect the realities of different conferences, and introduces a bias in favor of conferences that have less of a range of team competitiveness.
Some examples, look at how narrow the GD is:
Needham https://www.arbiterlive.com/Teams/Schedule/5645725
Brookline https://www.arbiterlive.com/Teams/Schedule/5645678
Wellesley https://www.arbiterlive.com/Teams/Schedule/5645731
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