We made mention in a podcast earlier in the week that we didn’t believe RPI was the best gauge to rank teams in the smaller classifications.  And that comment held true in Class 1A regional tournaments as five of the top eight teams in RPI failed to make the state tournament.  Meanwhile, five teams that started the day ranked 10th through 16th advanced with wins.
RPI standings were updated at 7:15pm and do not include all the regional finals as a few games didn’t finish until after 8:00pm.  As a result, the numbers could change before the official bracket is released on Sunday but we’ll use the qualifying teams and info that we have thus far to make projections on the pairings.  We may make some small changes to the pairings later tonight or early Sunday if the RPI numbers change drastically before being finalized.
The top two spots in the bracket are very easy.  DeBeque (22-0) should be the unanimous choice at number one with Sangre De Cristo (21-1) the same type of choice at number two.  The Dragons and T-Birds have the best overall records and have been the most consistent teams across the division all season.  DeBeque won the 2A dominated Western Slope chase while Sangre De Cristo went unbeaten against 1A competition with a lone loss to Rocky Ford in early January.
The rest of the bracket actually lays out nicely using RPI and we believe the committee will go that route because there are not many head-to-head results or common opponents to use as a comparison.  Merino beat Prairie twice and split with Haxtun and then Haxtun also has a win over Kit Carson but not much else should affect the bracket.
As a result, we believe the committee will use RPI exclusively.
 

  • #1 DeBeque (22-0) vs #8 Prairie (17-7)
  • #4 Haxtun (16-7) vs #5 Evangelical Christian (19-3)
  • #3 Walsh (18-5) vs #6 Merino (14-10)
  • #2 Sangre De Cristo (21-1) vs #7 Kit Carson (15-9)

 
We could see Evangelical Christian moving ahead of Haxtun based on overall record but that only changes the home team on the scoreboard in the 4-5 game.  Haxtun could easily stay at number four as well since they’ve played a more difficult schedule this year.  Kit Carson and Prairie could also be exchanged if the committee wants to keep two teams from the same region away from each other in round one.  Sangre De Cristo and Kit Carson both took part in Region 3 play this weekend but of course did not square off.
The bracket above is for prediction by Colorado Preps only and does not represent anything official.  CHSAA will release the official bracket on Sunday.  RPI numbers have not been finalized and could change before the pairings are announced as well.