We take our first look at projecting regional tournament pairings for 2A girls’ basketball.  As in the past, there are eight district tournaments and all but two send their top four teams into the regional tournament.  The exceptions are Districts 3 and 5 which send three and five teams into the next round.
District champions earn the right to host regional events.  Based on current standings and head-to-head results, the list below represents our picks for district champions.  They’re listed in order from District 1 through 8.  The most difficult choice was in District 6 between Rocky Ford and Rye as both are unbeaten.  We went with Rocky Ford since they’ve played a stronger schedule according to RPI.
District Champions

  1. Del Norte
  2. Holyoke
  3. Ignacio
  4. Limon
  5. Meeker
  6. Rocky Ford
  7. Heritage Christian
  8. Simla

Once the district champs are determined, they’re then placed in the regional bracket based on RPI standings.  Using the numbers from Wednesday February 5th, the champions would be seeded in this order.
RPI Standings

  1. Heritage Christian
  2. Limon
  3. Holyoke
  4. Del Norte
  5. Rocky Ford
  6. Simla
  7. Meeker
  8. Ignacio

Then the next step is to determine which clubs will also qualify from the district round.  Again Districts 3 and 5 send three and five teams into regionals while all remaining districts send their top four.  Our selections look like this.
Other Qualifiers

  • District 1: Sanford, Center, Sargent
  • District 2: Wray, Sedgwick County, Yuma
  • District 3: Telluride, Ridgway
  • District 4: Denver Christian, Lotus, Byers
  • District 5: Hotchkiss, Soroco, Rangely, Hayden
  • District 6: Rye, Hoehne, Swink, Holly
  • District 7: Dawson, Gilpin County, Lyons
  • District 8: Colorado Springs School, Peyton, Calhan

Once again the qualifiers are then placed in order by RPI standings in spots 9-32.  Some clubs on the bottom end of the seed order (25-32) could be moved for geography purposes.  And teams could be moved up or down to avoid a district pairing in the first round.  The seed order for the remaining qualifiers shapes up in this order.
 
Remaining Qualifiers

  1. Colorado Springs School
  2. Peyton
  3. Sanford
  4. Wray
  5. Rye
  6. Dawson
  7. Hotchkiss
  8. Rangely
  9. Soroco
  10. Sedgwick County
  11. Denver Christian
  12. Swink
  13. Hayden
  14. Calhan
  15. Lotus
  16. Yuma
  17. Holly
  18. Sargent
  19. Gilpin County
  20. Byers
  21. Center
  22. Hoehne
  23. Telluride
  24. Ridgway

 
And with the seeds in order from 1 through 32, we can now lay out the bracket.  We leave teams in order based on seed with a quick note on which teams could be moved.
 
REGION ONE

#1 Heritage Christian
#32 Ridgway (maybe move)
#16 Rangely
#17 Soroco (would move)

REGION TWO

#2 Limon
#31 Telluride
#15 Hotchkiss
#18 Sedgwick County

REGION THREE

#3 Holyoke
#30 Hoehne
#14 Dawson
#19 Denver Christian (move)

REGION FOUR

#4 Del Norte
#29 Center (move)
#13 Rye
#20 Swink (move)

REGION FIVE

#5 Rocky Ford
#28 Byers
#12 Wray
#21 Hayden (travel)

REGION SIX

#6 Simla
#27 Gilpin County
#11 Sanford
#22 Calhan

REGION SEVEN

#7 Meeker
#26 Sargent
#10 Peyton
#23 Lotus

REGION EIGHT

#8 Ignacio
#25 Holly
#9 Colorado Springs School
#24 Yuma (move)

 
There are several issues with this bracket as you have district conflicts in the first round between Rangely-Soroco in Region 1 and Del Norte-Center and Rye-Swink in Region 4.  Travel concerns would be centered on Ridgway, Hayden and Yuma.  Many of the scenarios of course would change in the final bracket as district qualifiers could easily be different and RPI standings will change quite a bit before the end of the season.