With games complete on Saturday, new RPI standings have been posted for the six and eight-man football classifications. These standings have been announced as official and will be used to determine qualifiers and help place teams in the bracket.
League champions receive automatic bids with the rest of the field filled out by RPI standings. In six-man, the seeding process is simple as they’re directed to simply use RPI standings as the bracket. The top eight seeds will get home games and host the second nine although teams could be moved a bit for geographical purposes (travel).
In eight-man, league champions in the top 10 are guaranteed to play at home even if they are the lower seed unless they meet another conference winner. Then the lower seeded champion will be on the road. Otherwise, RPI, strength of schedule, common opponents, head to head results and conference standing will factor into placing teams in the bracket.
In eight-man, Sedgwick County and Rangely exchanged spots at numbers three and four. Simla also jumped two spots from 15th to 13th with Dayspring Christian and Merino both slipping one spot. Sanford is 16th and is again the hard luck team as they will be removed from the bracket in favor of Front Range Christian who gets into the bracket as league champion despite finishing 20th in RPI.
For six-man, Otis jumped one spot to fourth thanks to their win over Cheyenne Wells on Saturday. The Tigers lost two positions to ninth and now will have to play on the road in round one. Fleming replaced them at number seven; jumping two places to seventh and now the Wildcats will host a first round game. Genoa Hugo lost two places to 14th with Cotopaxi and Flagler/Hi Plains both moving up one.
EIGHT MAN
- West Grand
- Mancos
- Sedgwick County
- Rangely
- Hoehne
- Caliche
- Sargent
- Fowler
- Vail Christian
- Pikes Peak Christian
- Holly
- Akron
- Simla
- Dayspring Christian
- Merino
- Sanford
- Dove Creek
- Soroco
- Norwood
- Front Range Christian
- Custer County
- Springfield
- Calhan
- Plateau Valley
Using straight RPI along with conference finish, the bracket ends up in this fashion:
- #1 West Grand vs #16 Front Range Christian
- #8 Vail Christian vs #9 Pikes Peak Christian (PPC would host)
- #4 Rangely vs #13 Simla
- #5 Hoehne vs #12 Akron
- #3 Sedgwick County vs #14 Dayspring Christian
- #6 Caliche vs #11 Fowler
- #2 Mancos vs #15 Merino
- #7 Sargent vs #10 Holly
As we mentioned this morning, we could see Holly and Fowler being swapped for travel purposes but Holly topped Fowler head-to-head and also finished higher than the Grizzlies in the Ark Valley. Fowler has the advantage of three places in the overall RPI. Dayspring Christian and Simla could also be exchanged in spots 13 and 14 to avoid a conference matchup between Dayspring-Sedgwick County. Not sure if the committee will also send Merino to Mancos but we’re also not sure what the fix there would be. Front Range Christian could be an option to exchange positions.
We could also see the committee moving Hoehne up one and dropping Rangely to fifth. Hoehne is a league champion and the Panthers finished second to West Grand in the Northwest. We don’t see Rangely dropping below Caliche since they lost to West Grand by a smaller margin than the did the Buffs. Caliche also has two losses compared to just one for the Panthers.  Mancos will stay ahead of Sedgwick County since they have a win over Merino and Sedgwick County came up short to the Buffs last week.
The 8-9 matchup is interesting as Pikes Peak Christian would host as a league champion despite being the lower seed.
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SIX-MAN
- Stratton/Liberty
- Kit Carson
- Arickaree/Woodlin
- Otis
- Peetz
- Prairie
- Fleming
- Granada
- Cheyenne Wells
- Mountain Valley
- Idalia
- Cotopaxi
- Flagler/Hi Plains
- Genoa Hugo
- North Park
- Manzanola
- Walsh
- Briggsdale
- Deer Trail
- La Veta
- Edison
- Eads
- Weldon Valley
- Cheraw
If these numbers become final, your six-man playoff bracket could shape up in this order.
- #1 Stratton/Liberty vs #16 Manzanola
- #8 Granada vs #9 Cheyenne Wells
- #4 Otis vs #13 Flagler/Hi Plains
- #5 Peetz vs #12 Cotopaxi
- #3 Arickaree/Woodlin vs #14 Genoa Hugo
- #6 Prairie vs #11 Idalia
- #2 Kit Carson vs #15 North Park
- #7 Fleming vs #10 Mountain Valley
There are conference matchups between Granada-Cheyenne Wells and Otis-Flagler/Hi Plains in the pairings so Cheyenne Wells and Manzanola could be swapped to solve the issue with Cheyenne Wells. Flagler/Hi Plains could also be exchanged with North Park to avert the second pairing.
