What if the State Tournament Was A Single 64-Team Bracket?
Now that all the district and substate competitions are over and the 2014 NSAA State Volleyball Championship brackets are finalized (you can view them ), it provides time for reflection.
Berk BrownOne of my all-time favorite movies is “Hoosiers” – the 1986 flick that is based on the actual events of the 1954 Milan High School boys basketball team that wound up winning the single-class state championship. In the movie, the team is called Hickory – but in real life it was Milan, a school with an enrollment of 161.
While Indiana has since moved away from a single-class tournament and now has four classes, I’ve always been one that enjoyed thinking about what Nebraska tournaments would look like in a one-class system.
How would have those great Columbus Scotus teams from the mid 90s to the mid 2000s have done? In a one-class state tournament, would O’Neill St. Mary’s be able to make a deep run this year? I realize it’s pathetic, but these are the things that I think about. And while I don’t advocate going that route and it isn’t a possibility of ever happening, I thought it would be fun to at least consider what it would look like.
What Milan did in 1954 would be something similar to a school the size of Minden winning a single-class championship in Nebraska. For those that care, it is also worth pointing out that the real-life Milan team hardly took the state by surprise in 1954. A year earlier they had actually made it all the way to the state semifinals before losing.
What I have below is what a potential single-class state volleyball tournament would look like in 2014. Here are the basic guidelines I tried to follow to put a selection process in place similar to what the NCAA uses in it’s selection of a 64-team bracket:
- There are 8 regional pods, designed to help minimize travel. While every effort is made to keep a team as close to home as possible, priority was given to making sure the top 16 teams in the state were given either a 1 or 2 seed. Therefore, some teams were sent on the road for the first three rounds to ensure proper seeding and balance.
- In the NCAA, winning your conference and/or tournament earns you an automatic bid. That really wouldn’t work in this situation, so to help make sure all regions and school sizes are represented, we used all 48 state qualifiers this year as automatic qualifiers. This gave us 48 automatic bids and allowed for 16 at-large berths.
- The regional “pod” tournaments would take place the same time as the state tournament, this Thursday-Saturday. The eight remaining teams would advance to the state tournament – with all matches played at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The quarterfinals being the Tuesday before Thanksgiving with the semifinals on the day after Thanksgiving and the championship that Saturday night. This may not be logistically possible, but hey, this is all make-believe anyway.
So, here is what I think a single-class, 64-team state volleyball tournament would look like for 2014 in Nebraska. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section – would love to hear what others think.
Western Region
Games Played at North Platte Community College
#1 North Platte vs. #8 Crawford
#4 Hastings St. Cecilia vs. #5 Chadron
#3 Ogallala vs. #6 Giltner
#2 Lincoln North Star vs. #7 Axtell
Mideast Region
Games Played at Wayne State College
#1 Elkhorn South vs. #8 Wynot
#4 Crofton vs. #5 Stanton
#3 O’Neill St. Mary’s vs. #6 Elgin-Pope John
#2 Papillion-LaVista South vs. #7 Emerson-Hubbard
North Central Region
Games Played at Heartland Events Center in Grand Island
#1 Millard West vs. #8 Southern Valley
#4 Grand Island Central Catholic vs. #5 Ord
#3 Lincoln East vs. #6 Stuart
#2 Gretna vs. #7 Mullen
South Central Region
Games Played at University of Nebraska-Kearney
#1 Millard South vs. #8 Brady
#4 Grand Island vs. #5 St. Paul
#3 Aurora vs. #6 Exeter-Milligan
#2 Kearney Catholic vs. #7 Ansley-Litchfield
Mid-South Region
Games Played at Nebraska Wesleyan University
#1 Lincoln Southeast vs. #8 Diller-Odell
#4 Wahoo vs. #5 Sutton
#3 Freeman vs. #6 Meridian
#2 Norris vs. #7 Lawrence-Nelson
Northeast Region
Games Played at Midland University
#1 Omaha Skutt vs. #8 Cedar Bluffs
#4 Columbus Scotus vs. #5 Guardian Angels CC
#3 Grand Island Northwest vs. #6 Centura
#2 Omaha Concordia vs. #7 Hampton
East Region
Games Played at Sapp Fieldhouse
#1 Papillion-LaVista vs. #8 Humphrey St. Francis
#4 Bellevue West vs. #5 Fremont
#3 Omaha Gross vs. #6 Millard North
#2 Lincoln Pius X vs. #7 Howells-Dodge
Southeast Region
Games Played at Ralston Arena
#1 Omaha Marian vs. #8 Ashland-Greenwood
#4 Omaha Westside vs. #5 Elmwood-Murdock
#3 Lincoln Southwest vs. #6 Omaha Mercy
#2 Elkhorn vs. #7 Bertrand
State Tournament
Games Played at Bob Devaney Sports Center
East Winner vs. South Central Winner
Northeast Winner vs. Western Winner
Southeast Winner vs. Mideast Winner
Mid South Winner vs. North Central Winner
Berk Brown of Nebraska Prep Volleyball has won 19 awards for his journalistic work during his career, including awards from both the Nebraska Press Association and Minnesota Newspaper Association. He has covered, coached and been involved in volleyball for the past 24 years and also wrote consistently for ESPN.com in the early 2000s. You can reach him at Berk@NebraskaPrepVolleyball.com.