The past couple of years, state tournament brackets were based almost entirely on RPI standings and those numbers will again play a role this year but the committee has some freedom to move teams up or down.  Criteria in addition to RPI standings are head to head results, previous district matchups and common opponents.  With all that in mind and before the RPI standings are updated, we take a look at the potential 1A girls basketball state bracket.
Official pairings are released tomorrow and the RPI numbers will be updated and finalized before then. Our projections are again based on RPI standings from 1:15pm Saturday afternoon and without all regional tournament games included.  We may make some alterations later tonight or Sunday morning if RPI standings change drastically but this is our first look at the bracket.
We believe the top three seeds are very easy to determine as Kit Carson and South Baca are both unbeaten with Sangre De Cristo also unbeaten against 1A teams.  In the RPI standings, the teams are 1-2-3 there so we believe that’s the order.  Kit Carson has to be the number one seed as they’ve been dominant throughout the season again.  South Baca should be the #2 with Sangre De Cristo sitting at number three due to losses to Del Norte and Swink.  The T-Birds are unbeaten against 1A schools and that could play a role in the discussion as well.
The fourth spot is where it gets most interesting.  Briggsdale most likely will have the highest RPI of the remaining teams as the Falcons could end up ahead of Fleming, DeBeque and Haxtun in a very tight race.  Head to head results and common opponents though will come into play.
Briggsdale has two losses but both are against Fleming.  They’ve also beaten the Wildcats once.  Haxtun also has a win over Fleming and Briggsdale has a win over DeBeque from very early in the season.
Using the stair-step process of Team A beat Team B and Team B then beat Team C, we believe Haxtun has a very good argument for the fourth spot.  Then we would place Fleming at number five with Briggsdale sixth and DeBeque seventh.  Elbert is 15th in the RPI for this story so we believe the Bulldogs will end up as the eighth seed.
So, our bracket for the 1A girls’ state tournament shapes up in this order.

  • #1 Kit Carson (22-0) vs #8 Elbert (18-3)
  • #4 Haxtun (18-5) vs #5 Fleming (19-3)
  • #3 Sangre De Cristo (21-2) vs #6 Briggsdale (20-2)
  • #2 South Baca (19-0) vs #7 DeBeque (18-3)

 
First round games are set for Thursday at CSU-Pueblo with the semifinals and championship following the next two days.