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High and Low Points: Use of Power Points Has Improved Team Selection and Scheduling in Prep State Tournaments but Has Also Caused a Number of New Concerns

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 March 2006, 15:00 CST

By Brad Falduto, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Mar. 14--The process of selecting and bracketing prep teams for Arizona's state tournaments hasn't always made sense.

Allowing weaker regions to qualify the same number of teams as stronger regions has fostered resentment, while pairing weaker schools in the tournaments' early rounds often has prevented the best teams from competing in the semifinals and championship games.

These were some of the problems Mesa district athletic director Steve Hogen had in mind when he proposed using a power points system to determine qualifiers and their seedings for all state tournaments.

The system, used for years by the state's biggest schools in football, was recently adopted by all team sports for the state's two largest conferences, 5A and 4A.

Yet, while its implementation has addressed many prior concerns, it has created a host of new concerns -- as well as plenty of confusion.

They include concerns ranging from smaller schools fearing they no longer will be able to convince 4A and 5A schools to play them, to a lack of understanding of how the system works.

THE SYSTEM

Teams receive power points in two ways. They get points for a victory. They also get points for every victory by their opponents, except victories over schools smaller than 4A or non-Arizona schools.

That point total then is divided by the number of games a team has played, resulting in a score used to rank teams in their respective conferences.

Just how the power points are used differs from 5A to 4A. In 5A, they are used not only to seed state tournaments, but also to pick all nonregion champion tourney qualifiers.

In 4A, they are used for seeding and picking only the final atlarge berth to a tourney. Instead, 4A guarantees three spots in the 16-team state tournaments to each of the five regions in both 4A-I and 4A-II.

That hurt coach Bob LaRue's Saguaro basketball team this season. The Sabercats finished 11th in the power point rankings but fifth in their region and didn't qualify for state.

"You can say we should have went," LaRue said, "but we didn't deserve to go."

Prior to power points, pairings for a state tournament were determined by a random draw before the start of the season. As a result, two of the top teams in the state could meet early in a tournament.

"It was all pre-slotted and it was purely the luck of the draw," Hogen said. "I just didn't think that was right."

By utilizing power points, teams are seeded in state tournaments by their respective power-point scores, ensuring that the stronger teams will not meet early.

Hogen played an active role in pushing the current system. Prior to its adoption, he spent countless hours creating a facsimile to illustrate what a particular state tournament bracket would look like if the system were in place. More often than not, he said, the higher-seeded teams wouldn't meet until the semifinals or the finals.

The recently concluded state basketball and soccer tournaments illustrate the success of the system. There were four boys (5A-I, 5A-II, 4A-I, 4A-II) and four girls tournaments. Of those, five pitted the No. 1 seed vs. the No. 2 seed in the championship. In soccer, three tourneys had 1-2 title games and three others pitted top seeds against No. 3 seeds.

"I like the power points," LaRue said. "It is good to use it for seeding. It works."

THE PROBLEMS

While the power points system has created balanced state tournament brackets, it also has created plenty of confusion.

One problem is a fear that 4A and 5A schools are not scheduling schools from 3A and 2A because it will hurt them in power point rankings. Hogen calls that a myth, but others aren't so sure.

"It is already happening," said Fountain Hills athletic director Mike Briguglio, citing, as an example, the Mohave T-Bird Classic, a baseball tournament. In the past, the tourney had a mix of 25 4A and 3A schools. This year, the tourney was down to 13 teams -- only two of them from the 4A conference.

Cindy Riley, the athletic director at 2A Tucson Desert Christian, fears 4A and 5A schools may be in a no-win situation when it comes to playing the non-power points schools.

"They don't want to take the chance to lose to smaller schools," said Riley, noting a loss to a small school could result in no power points for that game the entire season. "I'm just afraid we're not going to be invited back to tournaments run by bigger schools."

Another problem with the system is that it is predicated on actually getting all of a conference's scores. Far too often, Hogen said, home teams that are supposed to report scores haven't.

As a result, the Arizona Interscholastic Association legislative council adopted a resolution two weeks ago saying that if a school repeatedly did not report scores, the school's entire sports program could be put on probation, meaning no participation in state tournaments, after a third failure to report.

Outsourcing also seems to have created confusion.

The won-loss data is forwarded to a California company, CalPreps, which computes the power points and rankings.

But AIA executive director Harold Slemmer said that Arizona coaches and athletic directors would feel better about the system if everything was done in Arizona, where there is easier accountability in the event of errors.

"They need to get it done in the state," LaRue said.

To that end, Slemmer said the association hopes to develop a computer program that would be geared specifically to Arizona.

THE FUTURE

Individual conferences choose whether to utilize a power points system and how teams qualify for their state tournaments. Member schools in each conference vote on such matters every two years.

Riley and Bob Fredericks, the athletic director at 2A Scottsdale Christian, said they simply don't know enough about power points to comment on them.

But Hogen said the system really isn't that complicated.

"People at first are skeptical," he said. "Once people see how it works, it makes 10 times more sense."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

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Source: The Tribune

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