Official 5A 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 Valor Christian vs #16 Fountain Fort Carson
#8 Cherry Creek vs #9 Lakewood
#4 Pomona vs #13 Chaparral
#5 Fairview vs #12 Arvada West
#3 Columbine vs #14 Poudre
#6 Regis vs #11 Mullen
#7 Grandview vs #10 Ralston Valley
#2 Eaglecrest vs #15 Highlands Ranch
A couple of thoughts here. We exchanged positions for Mullen (up one) and Arvada West (down one) to avoid a conference rematch between Mullen and Fairview. Going the other way with Chaparral would leave Mullen against Pomona and that’s another league matchup.
The other wildcard is Poudre and Highlands Ranch. Highlands Ranch is higher than RPI but Poudre won head-to-head and finished higher in conference play so seeding criteria indicates the Impalas should get the higher placement so that’s what we do.
