Hello everyone,
I approached several people - coaches and non-coaches alike - for feedback on whether or not the game guarantee of five games was a good idea. The bracketing would have been four preliminary pools of six teams (4x6), with the winners of each bracket playing off in a round robin to determine the overall champion. The majority opinion was that five games was rather low, with others also expressing that there's no reason not to have guaranteed afternoon play for all teams.
So with that in mind, I figured I would open the floor up for general discussion as to what would be the preferred bracketing. There are 10 packets in this set. I have two options in mind, with a third one I'm throwing out there as a possibility, but that doesn't mean they have to be the only options. Please bear in mind that one objective of this tournament is to qualify as many schools into bids for OAC regional play next May. Just as a reminder: A bracket of six (or more) schools a qualifying bracket makes. A bracket of four teams, two from the same school, or anything that is less than six schools obviously does not make.
1) Four preliminary pools of six teams (4x6; round robin) -> six playoff brackets of four teams (6x4). This creates eight games guaranteed. The five preliminary games would be played before lunch, the remaining three games for playoff that are guaranteed for all are then played after lunch. The bracketing of the afternoon corresponds to morning finish, i.e. 1st places play 1st places, 2nd places play 2nd places etc. I don't see why records would need to carry over, in that case. Top two teams record wise go into a final for the title. If the #1 seed and winner of the top playoff bracket wins round 9, then the tournament is over. If they lose round 9, then round 10 decides the winner of the tournament.
2) Three pools of eight teams (3x8; round robin). That creates seven games guaranteed. Four of the seven games are played before lunch, the remaining three are played after lunch. This is basically a copy-cat of the format for St. Charles' OAC tournament. Basically, there are three winners to the tournament.
2a) Three pools of eight teams (3x8; round robin). That creates seven games guaranteed. Four of the seven games are played before lunch, the remaining three are played after lunch. The only difference here would be the top four teams (three bracket winners, one wild card) play-off in a single-elimination format similar to the divisional series and subsequent conference series format of Major League Baseball, except there is no "best of" series. Win to stay in, basically. In other words, in round eight #1(the bracket winner with the highest PPG) plays #4 (the wild card) while #2(the bracket winner with the second highest PPG) plays #3 (the bracket winner with the lowest PPG of the three winners.) The winner of 1v4 plays the winner of 2v3 for the title/Gold Medal. If both teams that lost in round eight would like to, there can be a simultaneous third place/Bronze Medal game. The wild card team will be whoever has the highest PPG of the second-place finishers in preliminary play.
Tell me what you think. - TM