WHY THE BRACKETS ARE CORRECT!!!

[Tigerific]

I miss the old 8 team regions. It also makes the sports easier to schedule for the AD. You would have to move the line back to 48 unless you went to 56 teams in 4a and have 7 regions of 8 teams. I'm all for that.

[Rebel-Fan-74]

If you not going to reward region finish then why have regions? They mean nothing so you might as well just let scheduling be a free for all and seed totally by points. The problem you run into with that is way too many tiebreakers. Need to go back to 8 team regions like the old days. It eliminates some scheduling problems because you guaranteed 7 4a teams and 4 spots for rivalries.

I don't have a problem with rewarding region finish, let me clarify...

My problem lies with having 8 team regions and 5 team regions. If I'm in a 5 team region, I have much more flexibility in scheduling. If I am forced to play 7 teams (of which 5 are going to be playoff contenders) I have a much tougher time securing a playoff berth that someone who only had to win two games.

I know geography plays a part in this, but move to balanced regions is an issue that needs to be addressed. Maybe, you allow teams that are +/- 5 spots more freedom to move up or down in classification. Football Only Regions would be another idea. Recently some teams were in one region for football but another region for other sports to cut down on travel for the other sports. Another idea, 7 regions with 8 teams could work. The only reason there was always 8 was for easy bracketing but that is not an issue when you use seeding.

I would still want to see automatic qualifiers based on Region Finish {maybe 1, 2 and 3 only), but seeding only Region Champs, then everyone else in one sweep.

[Tigerific]

You could go back to 48 teams per class and have 6 regions.

[Tigerific]

We should all play with mock regions and see how it could work. I realize the enrollment numbers will change next year but it will give a snap shot of what it could look like. The biggest problem is going to be the pee dee, horry county, and the charleston area. Probably will have some low country teams in a region with the florence schools or horry county.

[Dave Pickren]

They should have gone to 64 teams. 8 region of 8 and take the top 32 to the playoffs.

Top 4 in each region make it and then divide between Division 1 and 2. If you finish 5th in the region you probably have at least 4 losses and are not going to win a title anyway.

There should be a blind draw before the season to match all 8 regions.
1st place in Region 1 vs. 4th place in Region 5
2nd place in Region 1 vs. 3rd place in Region 4.....etc.

[Rebel-Fan-74]

There should be a blind draw before the season to match all 8 regions.
1st place in Region 1 vs. 4th place in Region 5
2nd place in Region 1 vs. 3rd place in Region 4.....etc.

If you split them into divisions, the Region 1 first place could be in Division One and the 4th is Region 5 could be in Division Two....

If you split them, you have to seed them some how, some way...

[Dave Pickren]

Texas does it within the region.
The largest 2 teams go to Division 1, the other 2 go to Division 2. They have used this format for about 10 years.

North Carolina does a complicated point system and uses EAST WEST to lessen travel.

[Tigerific]

Going to 64 teams is a good idea but I would think the 3a teams that have to move up would not like it. Surprised there wasn't much resistance in going to 52 a couple of years ago. Forgot to add that the more teams you add in the group the easier regions work geographically. I know it would really help Horry County and the Pee Dee area. St James should be going up next realignment anyway but going to 64 would include North Myrtle Beach which would give an 8 team region like this

Conway
Carolina Forest
Socastee
St James
North Myrtle Beach
Myrtle Beach
South Florence
West Florence

[bbrown1240]

There should be a blind draw before the season to match all 8 regions.
1st place in Region 1 vs. 4th place in Region 5
2nd place in Region 1 vs. 3rd place in Region 4.....etc.

If you split them into divisions, the Region 1 first place could be in Division One and the 4th is Region 5 could be in Division Two....

If you split them, you have to seed them some how, some way...

So lets nix the divisions and let there be 1 4A champion. Also if its done this way, I would consider going back to upper state vs lower state.