With district tournaments still being played today and tomorrow, it’s probably not the best time to project the 2A boys’ regional tournament brackets but we’ll give it a go. Based on play thus far, we do know 28 of the 32 qualifiers with the remaining four determined over the next two days.
To project the entire 32-team bracket, we had to make a few assumptions. District champions are the first order of business as those eight teams will host regional events next week. For our purposes today, we simply take the top seed in each district bracket and then place them 1-8 based on RPI standings before games open on February 28th.
The second assumption involves the final four regional qualifiers. Semifinals for District 3 are today and winners of each pick up guaranteed spots so we push the top two seeds, Mancos and Ignacio through as qualifiers. And for the third regional berth, we take the higher seed of Telluride and Ridgway so the Miners go in as the third seed.
The final regional berth comes down to a fifth-place matchup in the Western Slope and that game is set for tomorrow between Paonia and West Grand. Again, we take the higher seed in Paonia as they’re #4 in the bracket.
Now the bracket comes together with the top eight seeds being placed in spots one through eight. Several of these teams are not locks to win district titles as they will get pushed by the likes of Limon, Sedgwick County, Ignacio, Sanford, Meeker and Peyton. An upset by one of those lower seeds will change the bracket dramatically.
- Highland
- Yuma
- Denver Christian
- Mancos
- Fowler
- Crested Butte
- Vail Christian
- Dolores Huerta Prep
Now we lay out the entire bracket. Limon is the top team in the RPI as of the 28th but would go into the bracket as the #9 seed unless they beat Denver Christian in the District 4 championship game. Sanford (#5) and Sedgwick County (#7) are two other teams in the top eight of RPI that would be on the road unless they upset top seeds Crested Butte and Yuma in their district tournaments. Semifinals in both District 1 and 2 are set for today so neither club has reached the final just yet.
REGION ONE
| #1 | Highland |
| #32 | Del Norte |
| #16 | Peyton |
| #17 | Dawson |
REGION TWO
| #2 | Yuma |
| #31 | Calhan |
| #15 | Heritage Christian |
| #18 | Center |
REGION THREE
| #3 | Denver Christian |
| #30 | Telluride |
| #14 | Holly |
| #19 | Dayspring Christian |
REGION FOUR
| #4 | Mancos |
| #29 | Paonia |
| #13 | Ignacio |
| #20 | Burlington |
REGION FIVE
| #5 | Fowler |
| #28 | Vail Mountain |
| #12 | Wray |
| #21 | Crowley County |
REGION SIX
| #6 | Crested Butte |
| #27 | Hoehne |
| #11 | Sedgwick County |
| #22 | Clear Creek |
REGION SEVEN
| #7 | Vail Christian |
| #26 | Holyoke |
| #10 | Sanford |
| #23 | Thomas MacLaren |
REGION EIGHT
| #8 | Dolores Huerta Prep |
| #25 | Meeker |
| #9 | Limon |
| #24 | Plateau Valley |
The bracket actually lays out nicely as there is not a single conference/district conflict in the first round. Some travel could come into play but moving teams up or down just one spot won’t solve the issues so the committee could just move forward with this scenario.
We’ll put together at least one more set of projections before the official pairings are released on Sunday.
