MIAA tournament seeding is biased in favor of teams in the Bay State conference

[Guest]

what are you talking about, now that DA is dead there's no rules preventing the girls from playing for their local HS team

Notice I referred to Alex on the boys HS site. Talking about boys. Not familiar with girls.

[AlexFilides]

How many of you remember when it was always either East Boston, Madison Park or Chelsea getting a top seed only to get demolished in the first round? Usually by a .500 Bay State team.

[Guest]

Proof from the Boston Globe:

"The Bay State Conference is seeded extremely well, with eight of the top 16 teams in Division 1 (No. 1 Natick, No. 2 Wellesley, No. 3 Brookline, No. 5 Needham, No. 9 Weymouth, No. 10 Newton North, No. 14 Braintree, and No. 16 Framingham)."

And we know why. No disrespect to the teams, but it's the MIAA formula.

[Guest]

On the girls side: 7 of 8 top seeds remain. The one from outside the top 8 is from - you guessed it - the Bay State Conference. 5 of the remaining 8 teams in the tourney are Bay State. They had to win challenging round of 16 games to get there (and in one case, it was Bay State vs Bay State).

The boys side has had a bunch of upsets and, yes, Weymouth losing was one of them. But two of the teams that won upsets were Needham and Newton North.

Keep trying, folks.

[Guest]

On the girls side: 7 of 8 top seeds remain. The one from outside the top 8 is from - you guessed it - the Bay State Conference. 5 of the remaining 8 teams in the tourney are Bay State. They had to win challenging round of 16 games to get there (and in one case, it was Bay State vs Bay State).

The boys side has had a bunch of upsets and, yes, Weymouth losing was one of them. But two of the teams that won upsets were Needham and Newton North.

Keep trying, folks.

Looks like seeding was done almost correctly. Top seeds have won all their games except one. The one top-seed loss is the team that was complaining most about the Bay State bias: Hopkinton.

[Guest]

Looks like seeding was done almost correctly. Top seeds have won all their games except one. The one top-seed loss is the team that was complaining most about the Bay State bias: Hopkinton.

Nope, the results prove the point that the seeding is off. Bay State teams get the benefit of low seeds and lower-seeded opponents, and can still barely beat them. Accurate seeds would mean some of these teams get beaten.

#2 Wellesley vs #15 Lincoln Sudbury - 2-1
#3 Brookline vs #14 Braintree - Brookline gives up 2 goals, and needs Double OT and all five PKs to eke out a 3-2 win
#5 Needham vs #12 Winchester - 2-1

Also, you misread the thread. Hopkinton was the example brought up by someone who replied to the OP, whose players aren't on that team.

[Guest]

Nope, the results prove the point that the seeding is off. Bay State teams get the benefit of low seeds and lower-seeded opponents, and can still barely beat them. Accurate seeds would mean some of these teams get beaten.

#2 Wellesley vs #15 Lincoln Sudbury - 2-1
#3 Brookline vs #14 Braintree - Brookline gives up 2 goals, and needs Double OT and all five PKs to eke out a 3-2 win
#5 Needham vs #12 Winchester - 2-1

Also, you misread the thread. Hopkinton was the example brought up by someone who replied to the OP, whose players aren't on that team.

This is one of the most bizarre arguments I've ever seen. The Brookline example is against another Bay State team! You don't mention Newton North winning as a lower seed or Natick crushing *yet another* Bay State team. It is ridiculous to argue that they got a favorable draw as a conference.

[Guest]

If your conference is so strong, why aren’t those teams advancing far in the tournament? Don’t blame your weakness on seeding. Sounds like a typical excuse. And which non-Bay State conference are you referring to?

[Guest]

If your conference is so strong, why aren’t those teams advancing far in the tournament? Don’t blame your weakness on seeding. Sounds like a typical excuse. And which non-Bay State conference are you referring to?

This seems like a bot question, but it might be human bot so ...

The advantage of getting a better seed is that you play weak teams and advance into the later rounds. It is (or should be) an easy ride into the next round.

Teams that get a lower seed play teams that are more similar. And the nature of soccer is that when teams are similar in strength, a lot of things can happen to have the game go either way. Penalties, mistakes, an inch or two in where the ball hits the hardware, etc.

A much better seeded team should beat a much worse seeded team decisively.

[Guest]

This seems like a bot question, but it might be human bot so ...

The advantage of getting a better seed is that you play weak teams and advance into the later rounds. It is (or should be) an easy ride into the next round.

Teams that get a lower seed play teams that are more similar. And the nature of soccer is that when teams are similar in strength, a lot of things can happen to have the game go either way. Penalties, mistakes, an inch or two in where the ball hits the hardware, etc.

A much better seeded team should beat a much worse seeded team decisively.

Every game except one has been won by the highest seed. Through 2 rounds. The only mistake in the seeding seems to be a non Bay State team at #7 who lost to a lower seeded Bay State team. Problem with these weak conferences is that they spend the whole season playing weak teams while the Bay State teams have to fight for those inches that you mention all season. A top team in a weak conference can give up all of those inches here and there and still win 7-0 most games. And they grow to think that the top seeded teams should win 7-0 against low seeded teams. A 2-0 game against a team that parks the bus is just as dominant and requires patience and tactics. It’s not just a matter of running past cones all game.

[Guest]

You can't be for real.

It's weak to keep pushing "win" as the measure when the goal differential data is right there for you but you ignore it. Especially the Brookline case, which was as near a tie as could be.

Also, look in the other divisions. There are plenty of high goal wins in the second round, by teams other than the #1 seeds which are exceptions (Natick, Masco, etc). That's what you would be seeing in D1 if the Bay State seeding wasn't whack.

[Guest]

I’m still not sure which conferences deserve higher seeding. Central and western teams are weak in general. Lowell was a fluke given that they didn’t play any good teams during the regular season. If you play in a weak conference, you get a lower seed even if you beat up the minions.

[Guest]

The only Central/West team that made it far was just thrashed by SJS. If any conference deserves to to be seeded higher, it seems like it should be the Catholic schools.

[Guest]

3 of top seeds are set for final four. 4th plays tomorrow. A win proves that the seeding was done correctly.

[Guest]

It won't rescue those forfeited games (of which seven were wins), and it won't make the MIAA more sympathetic. We would also remove the man whose experience makes him most qualified to fix the flaws in the system. That is, unless this mistake is part of a larger pattern of incompetence.