After what seems like years of begging and pleading from the lower classifications in the state of Kansas the postseason volleyball format for both Class 1A and 2A will change next season, with a new system that will clearly benefit schools in the Twin Valley League.
The Kansas State High School Activities Association, announced the implementation of a new format that creates a new seeding system for regionals and substates to determine state tournament team instead of the current format that had substate tournaments based on location.
That sounds like a bunch of jargon so let me put it in layman's terms. Two TVL teams that have a combined 2 losses won't knock one or the other out in sub-state while a team from the West (for example) with 6 losses takes the trip to state and gets beat out in 2 sets.
The new format starts with a seeding process that uses four regions in Kansas, with up to 16 teams in each regional tournament divided equally by location. Then, two groups in each regional will be created and teams will be seeded based on their record as of a particular date. The groups would be as follows: • Group A – 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16
• Group B – 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15 then it would be played like the average tournament, 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15 so on and so forth with each higher seed hosting the matchup.
In each regional, there would be four groups:
• Group A – Quad One: 1, 8, 9, 16
• Group A – Quad Two: 4, 5, 12, 13
• Group B – Quad One: 2, 7, 10, 15
• Group B – Quad Two: 3, 6, 11, 14
The top two teams from each of the four groups will advance to substate. The top two teams will be determined using the same criteria as state pool play requirements.
In the substate round, which is the Saturday of that first postseason week, two four-team brackets in each regional will be played with the winners of each bracket advancing to the state volleyball tournament.
This seems like a logical advancement and would provide the best teams the opportunity at state thus providing a better state tournament. Now, I know it's easy to say this is the best idea as a fan that would benefit from this tremendously because of the talent of the TVL and I know there is something to be said about surprise teams making it through in these tournaments. But in reality, wouldn't you rather see the best teams battling for a state champion?
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