Official 4A football playoff pairings will be released by CHSAA on Sunday but as always, we try to predict the bracket the day before. RPI standings have not been made official and we’re using those posted on the CHSAA website as of 2:15pm Saturday.
Seeding criteria involve conference championships, league standings and RPI for the most part. Head to head results is another factor and travel can become a discussion topic as well. League champions are guaranteed a home game and top eight seed if they finish in the top 16 of RPI. If not, they can be placed anywhere in the bracket. That aspect will not play a role in the bracket this year.
Concerning conference standings, a league champion must come off the board and placed in the bracket before the second-place team can be considered. Then the second-place team must be pulled into the bracket before the committee can look at the third-place squad and so on.
With all those factors involved, here is our projected bracket for Class 4A.
#1 Pine Creek vs #16 Golden
#8 Rampart vs #9 Monarch
#4 Pueblo West vs #13 Standley Lake
#5 Chatfield vs #12 Skyline
#3 Fruita Monument vs #14 Vista Ridge
#6 Pueblo South vs #11 Montrose
#7 Loveland vs #10 Ponderosa
#2 Windsor vs #15 Broomfield
The bracket pulls together rather nicely. RPI standings seem to be in order of conference standing so teams don’t need to be bumped up or down based on conference finish or head to head. Conference rematches are also avoided without altering the bracket.
The only thought that pops up involves Loveland and whether the committee might move them up since they’re unbeaten at 10-0. With the current RPI standings, five of the six teams ahead of them have one loss. Chatfield could be tossed out of that mix since their loss came against an out-of-state opponent. But we think the committee will stay with the RPI order.
