1AA and 8AA

[Eagles93]

Football does not seed 1-32 and have #1 vs #32, etc. They have four sections of eight teams so the brackets are somewhat pre-determined. The football method is definitely better in terms of attempting to get the "best" eight teams to the state tournament, but not perfect.

That's better than how it's done for hockey. But hockey has a good chunk of the AA teams spread out around the state (31 of the 32 teams in 6A football are metro teams). So travel logistics, understandably, prevents the "dream" scenario of having the #1 seed in state play #64, etc. in round one. Hockey could still borrow from the football format and effectively have fewer sections or cross-sectional play to determine the eight that go to the X. They could pseudo-combine sections 1AA/2AA, 3AA/4AA, 5AA/6AA, and 7AA/8AA and still drastically cut down on travel.

Spit-balling as an example, for 1AA and 2AA:

Round 1:
1AA #1 vs 1AA #8
1AA #2 vs 1AA #7
1AA #3 vs 1AA #6
1AA #4 vs 1AA #5
2AA #1 vs 2AA #8
2AA #2 vs 2AA #7
2AA #3 vs 2AA #6
2AA #4 vs 2AA #5

Round 2:
Gm1: 1AA #1/8 vs 2AA #4/5
Gm2: 1AA #2/7 vs 2AA #3/6
Gm3: 2AA #1/8 vs 1AA #4/5
Gm4: 2AA #2/7 vs 1AA #3/6

Round 3:
Gm1 vs GM4 - winner goes to state
Gm2 vs Gm3 - winner goes to state

Using this format and Karl's latest section seedings/rankings, assuming no upsets, here could be the matchups to determine who goes to state:

1AA/2AA
Minnetonka vs Holy Family
Chanhassen vs Shakopee

3AA/4AA
Rosemount vs St Thomas
Hill-Murray vs Eastview
(ST ranked higher than Eastview, but has lower seed per Karl, so ST "upsets" WBL in Round 2)

5AA/6AA
Maple Grove vs BSM
Wayzata vs Edina

7AA/8AA
Andover vs Moorhead/Duluth Denfeld
Grand Rapids vs Rock Ridge

[SpreadOut!]

Football does not seed 1-32 and have #1 vs #32, etc. They have four sections of eight teams so the brackets are somewhat pre-determined. The football method is definitely better in terms of attempting to get the "best" eight teams to the state tournament, but not perfect.

That's better than how it's done for hockey. But hockey has a good chunk of the AA teams spread out around the state (31 of the 32 teams in 6A football are metro teams). So travel logistics, understandably, prevents the "dream" scenario of having the #1 seed in state play #64, etc. in round one. Hockey could still borrow from the football format and effectively have fewer sections or cross-sectional play to determine the eight that go to the X. They could pseudo-combine sections 1AA/2AA, 3AA/4AA, 5AA/6AA, and 7AA/8AA and still drastically cut down on travel.

Spit-balling as an example, for 1AA and 2AA:

Round 1:
1AA #1 vs 1AA #8
1AA #2 vs 1AA #7
1AA #3 vs 1AA #6
1AA #4 vs 1AA #5
2AA #1 vs 2AA #8
2AA #2 vs 2AA #7
2AA #3 vs 2AA #6
2AA #4 vs 2AA #5

Round 2:
Gm1: 1AA #1/8 vs 2AA #4/5
Gm2: 1AA #2/7 vs 2AA #3/6
Gm3: 2AA #1/8 vs 1AA #4/5
Gm4: 2AA #2/7 vs 1AA #3/6

Round 3:
Gm1 vs GM4 - winner goes to state
Gm2 vs Gm3 - winner goes to state

Using this format and Karl's latest section seedings/rankings, assuming no upsets, here could be the matchups to determine who goes to state:

1AA/2AA
Minnetonka vs Holy Family
Chanhassen vs Shakopee

3AA/4AA
Rosemount vs St Thomas
Hill-Murray vs Eastview
(ST ranked higher than Eastview, but has lower seed per Karl, so ST "upsets" WBL in Round 2)

5AA/6AA
Maple Grove vs BSM
Wayzata vs Edina

7AA/8AA
Andover vs Moorhead/Duluth Denfeld
Grand Rapids vs Rock Ridge

Okay. Got it. I still think doing a straight up seed format completely throwing out geography is better. Or, simply add some more south metro teams (Rosemount, Prior Lake, Shakopee) to 1AA (where, projecting ahead based on youth results, will be the biggest problem) if you don’t want to blow everything up. There are several southern MN schools (Owatonna, Rochesters) that I’m guessing would jump at the chance to move down to A if they were given the same opportunity that, for example, Minneapolis is given for whatever reason to play A instead of AA—which the combined attendance of the Minneapolis schools should easily dictate.

[goldy313]

Good grief! You have to use geography as a starting point. You can’t have Rochester Mayo traveling to Roseau on a Tuesday for that all important #32 seed vs #33 seed game.

[SpreadOut!]

Good grief! You have to use geography as a starting point. You can’t have Rochester Mayo traveling to Roseau on a Tuesday for that all important #32 seed vs #33 seed game.

You’re very hung up on the “Rochester can’t travel to Roseau on a Tuesday” thing. Here’s the deal: Roseau’s days, unfortunately, in AA are numbered. They no longer compete at AA level in Bantam or Peewee. They lived down to A last year. Also, the Rochesters, unless they combine, have no business playing in AA anymore, and I assume they would jump the at chance to play A (if Minneapolis can play A, why can’t the Rochesters?). Does that fix it for you, or would you get hung up about Lakeville North traveling to Moorhead on a Tuesday?

[grindiangrad-80]

I don’t think it’s time to make huge changes yet. Like was posted earlier it’s always been cyclical. Tonka has some great things happening now and are a heck of a team. I doubt they will win most games in running time for 5 straight years though. I would say that the last team to dominate for a long period was Jefferson and that was quite a few years ago now.

I think the next dominant team is in the making and it could be any of several teams. Jmho.

[headsupsticksdown]

Moving the focus away from Tonka for a sec, what are folks’ thoughts about Moorhead? They’ve dominated at the youth level at nearly every age group for years now, so why hasn’t it translated at the HS level? Are those kids still coming up through the system or should Ammerman’s seat be getting hot? I’ve always been impressed with the way MHD kids play within the system moving the puck, skating hard and often selfless so clearly they are doing things right up there, but they’ve gotta be getting antsy up there by now…

[bardown27]

Moving the focus away from Tonka for a sec, what are folks’ thoughts about Moorhead? They’ve dominated at the youth level at nearly every age group for years now, so why hasn’t it translated at the HS level? Are those kids still coming up through the system or should Ammerman’s seat be getting hot? I’ve always been impressed with the way MHD kids play within the system moving the puck, skating hard and often selfless so clearly they are doing things right up there, but they’ve gotta be getting antsy up there by now…

Majority are, but if you look at the 21-22 roster, they lost Schiller, Bentz, and Gramer early to Jrs for the 22-23 season, long Lindberg from last year to this year to NTDP, and Laurilla never played for Moorhead HS after bantams, going right to the NTDP.

[SpreadOut!]

I don’t think it’s time to make huge changes yet. Like was posted earlier it’s always been cyclical. Tonka has some great things happening now and are a heck of a team. I doubt they will win most games in running time for 5 straight years though. I would say that the last team to dominate for a long period was Jefferson and that was quite a few years ago now.

I think the next dominant team is in the making and it could be any of several teams. Jmho.

But you are not acknowledging that Tonka’s team is built by recruiting kids from elsewhere. Do you think Tonka is gonna suddenly stop recruiting or that their recruiting will not be successful anymore after potentially winning back-to-back chips with teams built almost entirely—for sure with the top-end talent—on recruits from outside Tonka? Yes, strong teams built with homegrown talent can be cyclical. But that’s not what Tonka is doing, and they won’t stop their model—which is working—unless the hammer gets dropped on them.