About the only thing in Class 1A football left undecided going into Saturday involved the Foothills champion as Platte Canyon had to beat Manual to sew up the crown. As we developed this story, the Huskies were leading 22-0 at halftime so we have penciled them in as league champs with the hopes of developing a 1A playoff bracket.
League champs get automatic berths again this year but those teams must finish in the top 10 of RPI to get a home game in round one. Platte Canyon again is the middle of this as the Huskies were 14th in RPI starting their game with Manual. They could move up a bit but with Manual sitting 30th, their strength of schedule will be hurt instead of boosted. As a result, we expect Platte Canyon to play on the road in round one.
The seeding process is similar to that of eight man where all league champions are placed on the board and then a top overall seed is selected.  Once a team is picked, the second-place club from the same conference as the #1 seed then joins the remaining league champs on the board. A second seed is then picked and the process continues until the last team is placed in the bracket. Teams of course can be moved to avoid conference rematches in round one and travel will be a topic of discussion once again.
Criteria for seeding includes RPI, common opponents, strength of schedule and head-to-head results. And based on the process, conference standings also play a major role.
If we go straight RPI and conference finish, then the bracket appears like this:
#1 Limon vs #16 Highland
#8 Meeker vs #9 Holyoke
#4 Colorado Springs Christian vs #13 Buena Vista
#5 Burlington vs #12 Wray
#3 Strasburg vs #14 Platte Canyon
#6 Florence vs #11 Paonia
#2 Peyton vs #15 Monte Vista
#7 Centauri vs #10 Crowley County
Two issues of course pop up right away as conference rematches are between Burlington-Wray and Colorado Springs Christian — Buena Vista. That would cause some movement right away.
But now let’s bring head to head into play as well. Buena Vista lost to both Platte Canyon and Monte Vista so look for the Demons to fall behind them in the seeding. There is also a discussion to be had involving Wray-Highland with head-to-head. The Eagles won the game on the field handily but had to forfeit the next week due to an inadvertent use of an ineligible player. It will be interesting to see how the committee handles that issue. Wray finished four spots higher than Highland in RPI and they’ve played a more difficult schedule (7th & 29th).
So we will put that game in Wray’s favor and develop this bracket:
#1 Limon vs #16 Highland
#8 Meeker vs #9 Holyoke
#4 Colorado Springs Christian vs #13 Wray
#5 Burlington vs #12 Platte Canyon
#3 Strasburg vs #14 Monte Vista
#6 Florence vs #11 Paonia
#2 Peyton vs #15 Buena Vista
#7 Centauri vs #10 Crowley County
We made the swap with Platte Canyon and Wray to avoid the Burlington-Wray rematch but that move will cause some additional travel — but not a major increase for any team involved.
Probably the biggest concern with the bracket is the unequal split of conference teams from North Central and Santa Fe. All four North Central qualifiers are in the top half of the bracket and the two entrants from the Santa Fe are in the bottom half and could meet as early as round two. Both qualifiers from the Southern Peaks are also in the same half of the bracket (lower)
To solve those issues, swaps could be had between Holyoke & Crowley County at numbers nine and ten and then Wray could be exchanged with Monte Vista. So here we come up with this bracket.
#1 Limon vs #16 Highland
#8 Meeker vs #9 Crowley County
#4 Colorado Springs Christian vs #13 Monte Vista
#5 Burlington vs #12 Platte Canyon
#3 Strasburg vs #14 Wray
#6 Florence vs #11 Paonia
#2 Peyton vs #15 Buena Vista
#7 Centauri vs #10 Holyoke
Travel would honestly be a mixed bag. Holyoke would be shipped to Centauri instead of Meeker but Crowley County would have a much longer trip to Meeker. Wray and Monte Vista would both have shorter trips however.
All in all, the 1A bracket is in great shape in seeds 1-11 but then quite a bit of movement could be found in the lowest five seeds based on geography and head-to-head results.
