High school state basketball tournaments will expand to 12 teams beginning this season, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association announced on Monday.
The change continues the regional playoff format, but means only four teams will be eliminated during round-of-16 games at regional sites. For the first time, the tournament will use a rating system to seed teams that qualify for the regional round-of-16.
Four games involving seeds 1-8 will determine byes into the quarterfinal round of the state tournament. Losers of those games will still advance to the state tournament site.
Four regional games involving seeds 9-16 will be elimination games with the winners advancing to the state tournament site. The first day of the state tournament — a Wednesday — will feature single-elimination games. Those winners will advance to face the four teams that earned byes in the quarterfinal found. Quarterfinal losers will drop into a fourth-place bracket. Trophies will be awarded to the top six teams in each tournament.
Several local coaches called this a step in the right direction.
“Anything that gets us closer to getting back to 16 teams at the (Tacoma) Dome is a good thing,” Prairie boys basketball coach Kyle Brooks said.
“It’s definitely a lot better than what we had,” Woodland girls basketball coach Glen Flanagan said, noting that he had two good teams lose in the regional round and not get the chance to play in the Yakima SunDome.
“When you can get 500 more kids to the state tournament then you’ve done a good thing,” Flanagan said.
Both Flanagan and Brooks favor the use of a Ratings Percentage Index to seed teams.
Flanagan’s Beavers lost both times they played at regional state playoff sites. In 2014, his unbeaten team lost by three points to a one-loss Blaine team. Flanagan believes an RPI system can prevent such matchups before teams reach the state tournament.
Brooks noted that Oregon has used a ranking system to seed state playoffs for team sports since the 2010-11 school year.
The regional rounds will be played Feb. 24-25, 2017. State tournaments will be played March 2-4. Class 4A and Class 3A boys and girls will play at the Tacoma Dome. Class 2A and Class 1A tournaments will be held at the SunDome in Yakima. Class 1B and 2B tournaments will be held at the Spokane Arena.
Districts will remain in control of the process of qualifying teams for the regional round-of-16.
In the 2010-11 school year, the WIAA shifted from a 16-team one-site state tournament to the regional format with eight teams advancing to the state tournament site.
The new format applies to all classifications and both genders.
According to a press release, the WIAA Executive Board approved the shift to 12 teams based on feedback from administrators, coaches and community members. In an online survey of coaches and administrators, 71-percent of those who responded were in favor of using an Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) to seed teams.
