Shortly after the conclusion of the state volleyball tournament, CHSAA announced a couple of changes that will impact the Class 1A division in future years.  Suggested changes involve the elimination of district tournaments and the use of additional data to seed teams for the post-season.
Instead of conducting district tournaments, the new format would call for the top 24 teams in the final RPI standings to earn a berth to regional tournaments.  Although just 24 teams would qualify instead of 32, this system follows closely the formats used in Classes 2A through 5A.
Once the qualifiers are determined, then the seeding committee could also use rankings produced by MaxPreps and the CHSAA coaches’ poll to place teams in the regional bracket.  This setup again follows what’s done in other sports such as football where it seems to be working out extremely well in it’s initial season.
We don’t have the additional data from MaxPreps and the Coaches Poll, but thanks to several readers who sent us RPI information, we can lay out a sample bracket on how the post-season could have started this season instead of working through the normal district process.  It’s presented below.
The top eight seeds in the final RPI standings would serve as regional hosts with the remaining teams placed in the bracket by overall seed.  Options to move teams for travel and to avoid two teams from the same conference in the same regional are still in place.
 
REGION A

  • #1 Kit Carson
  • #16 Cotopaxi
  • #24 Pikes Peak Christian

REGION B

  • #2 Merino
  • #15 Stratton/Liberty
  • #23 Kim Branson

REGION C

  • #3 Genoa Hugo
  • #14 Wiley
  • #22 Walsh

REGION D

  • #4 Fleming
  • #13 Sangre De Cristo
  • #21 Front Range Baptist

REGION E

  • #5 La Veta
  • #12 Prairie
  • #20 Haxtun

REGION F

  • #6 Briggsdale
  • #11 Dove Creek
  • #19 Weldon Valley

REGION G

  • #7 Springfield
  • #10 Otis
  • #18 Belleview Christian

REGION H

  • #8 Mile High Academy
  • #9 South Baca
  • #17 Flagler/Hi Plains

 
For this sample bracket, we use true seeding based solely on RPI.  We originally stated there could be some movement in the pairings but we were not correct in our first release of the story.
UPDATE:  After hearing from a few coaches, there are additional seeding notes that were not included in the official CHSAA release about the new format.  As we mentioned, teams can be moved for geography and avoiding conference rematches in regionals.  But there are exceptions.  Only teams seeded 16-24 can be moved for travel purposes so under the pairings listed above, Dove Creek would indeed head to Briggsdale and Sangre De Cristo would visit Fleming since the Bulldogs and T-Birds are in the top 15 of the bracket.  In addition, moving teams because of conference conflict is only a factor if they are the top two seeds in the bracket.  So Briggsdale-Weldon Valley would remain in place since they are the #1 and #3 seeds in that bracket.  The same scenario pops up with Wiley and Walsh as they are the #2 and #3 seed in those pairings.
 
Please note that all state tournament qualifiers for this year would have been included in the direct-to-regionals format.  Seven of the eight projected regional hosts also reached the state tournament with Mile High Academy the lone exception.
Another reminder is that the wildcard format would remain in place.  Eight regional champs would earn automatic berths to the state tournament with four more wildcards selected based on RPI standings.