Bobnostications – seeding thoughts

It’s the most wonderful time of year! Playoff brackets are out for the girls and the seeding “meeting” is Sunday for the boys.

This is the first year the WIAA is going with electronic seeding so no more contentious meetings with coaches jockeying for position… nope… it’s all about the math this year!

Here are the considerations that go into the algorithm:

Own team winning percentage;
Opponents’ winning percentage;
Opponents’ Opponent’s winning percentage;
Defeated Opponents’ winning percentage;
Defeated Opponents’ Opponent’s winning percentage;
Own winning percentage vs. teams in regional/sectional grouping.

Got it? Good… now explain it to me 🙂

The above points aren’t weighted the same, either. The WIAA hasn’t divulged the weight of each criterion, but it seems you can bet that the list is in about the right priority in terms of weight.

It seems it’s basically looking at your team’s record, your strength of schedule, and your opponent’s strength of schedule.


I am live streaming the Shell Lake @ Grantsburg games tonight and I thought I’d have some fun and try to pick the boys brackets that involve those two teams, and luckily, they’re both in the same section. I thought I’d share what I am thinking going into tonight’s games.

It’s an interesting one because there’s no runaway #1 seed. In fact, there are four teams tied with the best record of 15-6 and one half a game behind with a 14-6 record.

Grantsburg 15-6
Cameron 15-6
Unity 15-6
Chequamegon 15-6
Ladysmith 14-6

In my machinations I predicted that Grantsburg, Chequamegon, and Ladysmith would all win their games and that Unity (@ Clear Lake 19-2) and Cameron (@ Northwestern 18-3) would lose, thus giving this section two teams with 16 wins and three with 15.

Now, that doesn’t guarantee that a 15 win team couldn’t get a top-two seed, but I’m betting on both 16 win teams to do that.

The section has 13 teams, which means three teams will receive a first-round bye.

I am maybe letting my homer show a little with putting Grantsburg as the number one seed, but I’d say they have a decent chance. Now if Unity beats Clear Lake tonight, I think Unity claims it.

Ok… I’ve included the graphic that sums it up. I’m excited to see if I was even close after the official brackets come out on Sunday!

Click on the image for full screen