The official brackets for the playoffs were released today by the WHSAA. No surprises; every game was matched up as projected. Game times have started to filter in oh-so-slightly; look for all the game times to be posted by Monday or Tuesday.
(Click here for the 4A bracket, here for the 3A bracket, here for the 2A bracket, here for the 1A 11-man bracket and here for the 1A six-man bracket.)
Now that we know the matchups for sure, here’s a brief overview:
In 3A, 2A and 1A 11-man, we get to see something the playoffs can tout as an equalizer: the unfamiliarity factor. In fact, in the first round of this year’s playoffs, we get five matchups of schools who have never played against each other before (Wheatland-Cody; Big Piney-Big Horn; Burns-Lovell; Burlington-Lusk; Rocky Mountain-Southeast). Also, Lingle and Dubois have only met once before, that being the 1990 1A 9-man championship game. That unfamiliarity generally makes for more unpredictable play and tighter games.
Conversely, because of the round-robin schedules used in 4A and 1A six-man, those brackets are all rematches from the regular season. In both brackets, the team that won the regular-season meeting is hosting the other team in the first round.
The 1A six-man bracket looks unique this year in that it appears as though the WHSAA went back to geographical convenience scheduling for the first round of the playoffs (remember that?). Those first-round matchups are about as geographically convenient as you can get: Meeteetse-Ten Sleep, Midwest-Kaycee, Farson-Snake River and Guernsey-Hanna. The semis won’t be that convenient, though — that’s a guarantee.
Anyway, more thoughts on the playoffs as the week progresses. Feel free to start the chat now, if you choose…
–patrick
Patrick really enjoy the site….wow Lyman from 1st to 3rd…..
yep….1st to 3rd….from hosting Burns to traveling to Thermop that smoked us earlier this season. Not exactly the scenerio Lyman was hoping for.
Thanks coach. Yep, that loss was tough on Lyman, but what I think was even tougher was the tiebreaker. Technically, the Eagles tied for the conference championship, but the tiebreaker dictates that someone has to be the odd team out and this time around that’s Lyman. The thing is that I think Lyman is quite a bit better now than the first time they played Thermopolis and I think it will be a better game the second time around. Thermop has the right to be confident but I don’t think any of the Bobcats expect to just walk away with this one.
–patrick