OT: WPIAL Playoffs / Private Schools

[Pitt_Boss]

WPIAL playoff brackets released this weekend. Big surprise, 50% of the #1 seeds went to private schools. So silly that schools without recruiting boundaries compete against neighborhood schools that only get players from one small geographic area. Imagine if Mississippi State was only allowed to recruit the state of Mississippi but was placed in a conference with Ole Miss who was allowed to recruit the whole country. So...good for the private school all-star teams that will steal a few trophies this season.

Beyond that, I'll be following TJ, a #1 seed with a Pitt recruit on the team. Are there any other WPIAL schools that have Pitt players of interest? I guess I mean possible commits this year or future years as I believe the TJ kid is the only current Pitt WPIAL commit.

Also, the Quips got screwed by the WPIAL, shocking I know. They were under-seeded in to TJ's side of the bracket to make the hardest path possible for them to win another title. TJ is thrilled I'm sure, nobody wants to play the Quips in the playoffs.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

WPIAL playoff brackets released this weekend. Big surprise, 50% of the #1 seeds went to private schools. So silly that schools without recruiting boundaries compete against neighborhood schools that only get players from one small geographic area. Imagine if Mississippi State was only allowed to recruit the state of Mississippi but was placed in a conference with Ole Miss who was allowed to recruit the whole country. So...good for the private school all-star teams that will steal a few trophies this season.

Beyond that, I'll be following TJ, a #1 seed with a Pitt recruit on the team. Are there any other WPIAL schools that have Pitt players of interest? I guess I mean possible commits this year or future years as I believe the TJ kid is the only current Pitt WPIAL commit.

Also, the Quips got screwed by the WPIAL, shocking I know. They were under-seeded in to TJ's side of the bracket to make the hardest path possible for them to win another title. TJ is thrilled I'm sure, nobody wants to play the Quips in the playoffs.

Why was Aliquippa screwed? They lost to Montour, so they weren’t going to be seeded ahead of them and McKeesport has a good team. They should have beaten TJ and dominated Mars when I saw them. 2 of their losses were to 5A schools who are loaded and the other was against a team from Ohio in the opener.

 

[Burgh15]

Why was Aliquippa screwed? They lost to Montour, so they weren’t going to be seeded ahead of them and McKeesport has a good team. They should have beaten TJ and dominated Mars when I saw them. 2 of their losses were to 5A schools who are loaded and the other was against a team from Ohio in the opener.

From my understanding, the WPIAL didn't follow their own tiebreaker rules when it came to the seeding. Based on tiebreakers, the section went 1. Aliquippa, 2. West Allegheny, 3. Montour. Obviously they didn't stick with that when it came to the seeding, though they did for 3A.

I don't have a problem with Montour above Aliquippa, but West Allegheny at 8 below Trinity and Belle Vernon was bad. I probably would've seeded 4A:
1. TJ
2. Montour
3. Aliquippa
4. McKeesport
5. West Allegheny
6. Trinity
7. Mars
8. Belle Vernon

I'd rather see true seeds rather than avoiding section rematches. I'm sure TJ would as well getting West Allegheny and Aliquippa.

Interesting move in 5A with Pine Richland over USC at 1. I could see it both ways with USC arguably having the toughest schedule and winning them all with Pine Richland having the best win.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

From my understanding, the WPIAL didn't follow their own tiebreaker rules when it came to the seeding. Based on tiebreakers, the section went 1. Aliquippa, 2. West Allegheny, 3. Montour. Obviously they didn't stick with that when it came to the seeding, though they did for 3A.

I don't have a problem with Montour above Aliquippa, but West Allegheny at 8 below Trinity and Belle Vernon was bad. I probably would've seeded 4A:
1. TJ
2. Montour
3. Aliquippa
4. McKeesport
5. West Allegheny
6. Trinity
7. Mars
8. Belle Vernon

I'd rather see true seeds rather than avoiding section rematches. I'm sure TJ would as well getting West Allegheny and Aliquippa.

Interesting move in 5A with Pine Richland over USC at 1. I could see it both ways with USC arguably having the toughest schedule and winning them all with Pine Richland having the best win.

I would have been fine with Quips at #3 or #4, but they aren’t as good as they have been. The biggest difference being the line.

PR beating CC carries a lot of weight. 5A is loaded.

 

[Pitt_Boss]

Quips aren’t as good as they have been, but still no one will be excited to draw them. They’d be pretty good in 2A where they belong.

I do like spreading out teams from the same conferences to avoid (early) rematches though. They don’t play enough games overall nor enough inter-conference games to get reliable data on team and conference strengths. Sometimes 3 of the top 6-7 teams in a classification are all from the same conference. A strong 2nd place team shouldn’t meet their conference 1st place team until the finals, they may be the two best team in the whole classification so the seeding has to allow this to be proven

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

From my understanding, the WPIAL didn't follow their own tiebreaker rules when it came to the seeding. Based on tiebreakers, the section went 1. Aliquippa, 2. West Allegheny, 3. Montour. Obviously they didn't stick with that when it came to the seeding, though they did for 3A.

I don't have a problem with Montour above Aliquippa, but West Allegheny at 8 below Trinity and Belle Vernon was bad. I probably would've seeded 4A:
1. TJ
2. Montour
3. Aliquippa
4. McKeesport
5. West Allegheny
6. Trinity
7. Mars
8. Belle Vernon

I'd rather see true seeds rather than avoiding section rematches. I'm sure TJ would as well getting West Allegheny and Aliquippa.

Interesting move in 5A with Pine Richland over USC at 1. I could see it both ways with USC arguably having the toughest schedule and winning them all with Pine Richland having the best win.

4A seems pretty easy to seed. This shouldn't be hard.

1. TJ undefeated

2. Montour - only loss to WA, beat Aliquippa, easy OOC schedule though

3. Aliquippa - only losses to Montour and 5A PH. Beat WA

4. WA - beat Montour, only losses to Aliquippa and 2 5A schools Moon and Montour

5. McKeesport - 3 "good" losses in TJ and 2 5A Peters and USC plus they lost a 4th in Week 0 to an OH team but I will give them the benefit of the doubt and not count it. I think McKeesport may have to get a Top 4 seed as a section winner so swap them and WA. No biggie.

6. Trinity

7. Mars - both Mars and Trinity lost only to good 4A teams or 5A teams. Maybe could even switch these 2. Didnt look close enough.

8. BVA. This is a no-brainer. I guess beating 3A Central Valley was a nice win but they only won 3 other games. Putting them 2 spots ahead of WA is crazy.

Looks like 1A, 2A, 3A, and 5A get to play at Acrisure this year while 4A and 6A are relegated to Westmoreland County since they have to play the week before because their champions only advance to the state quarterfinals. I say this all the time but why not wait to see who is in the game and then announce the venue? Attendance for these games are low. Why not play a TJ vs Montour final at like Upper St. Clair? How about an NA vs CC final at Lebo? Makes more sense than making these teams travel an hour to the hinterlands.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Makes more sense than making these teams travel an hour to the hinterlands.

On a normal Saturday it wouldn't take any of those schools an hour to travel to Norwin.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

On a normal Saturday it wouldn't take any of those schools an hour to travel to Norwin.

Your opinion doesn't count because you serve on the Norwin Chamber of Commerce. We need to move these games out of Westmoreland County. I heard parking was a nightmare last year and wasnt that the whole reason for playing there?

 

[Pitt_Boss]

Both CMU and Duquesne have nice football fields centrally located in the city. Either could host the other championship games instead of a high school.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Both CMU and Duquesne have nice football fields centrally located in the city. Either could host the other championship games instead of a high school.

Duquesne is smaller than most HS fields so no way. CMU is probably big enough but parking would be a problem. Its too bad RMU doesn't have a decent-sized stadium.

 

[mlvnsmly]

Duquesne is smaller than most HS fields so no way. CMU is probably big enough but parking would be a problem. Its too bad RMU doesn't have a decent-sized stadium.

So USC is good with like 140 parking spots, but CMU would never work with an 800+ spot garage attached to the stadium plus like 20 other lots and garages?

 

[pittdan77]

Why was Aliquippa screwed?

It's my understanding that they're always screwed. Weird flex by fans of a school that wins so much.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

Both CMU and Duquesne have nice football fields centrally located in the city. Either could host the other championship games instead of a high school.

high school fields hold more fans than both rooney field and whatever cmu calls their fields. both are garbage venues. rooney field i think puts up portable bleachers or at least they did..

having a championship game at one of those mickey mouse fields would be an insutl to the wpial.

 

[Gunga_Galunga]

Interesting move in 5A with Pine Richland over USC at 1. I could see it both ways with USC arguably having the toughest schedule and winning them all with Pine Richland having the best win.

PR lost to NA, and likely doesn't lose that game if their QB doesn't get hurt. They went on the road to play a school in Ohio, played Central and NA. Their Seneca Valley game was cancelled because of weather, but they would have rolled them.

USC played in the tougher 5A division, but I wouldn't say they had a tougher schedule. PR played the two best teams in western PA and North Hills is pretty good. USC played Peters and Bethel. Nobody else on their schedule is any better than Penn Hills.

 

[King Of All Message Boards]

It's my understanding that they're always screwed. Weird flex by fans of a school that wins so much.

Always screwed and everyone’s against them. Sounds familiar but I can’t quite put my finger on it….

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

PR lost to NA, and likely doesn't lose that game if their QB doesn't get hurt. They went on the road to play a school in Ohio, played Central and NA. Their Seneca Valley game was cancelled because of weather, but they would have rolled them.

USC played in the tougher 5A division, but I wouldn't say they had a tougher schedule. PR played the two best teams in western PA and North Hills is pretty good. USC played Peters and Bethel. Nobody else on their schedule is any better than Penn Hills.

no sure about Pine but Bethel, peters and USC are all really good and equal. bethel lost on last play to both USC and peters.

If i had to guess, USC and Pine but man would i love to see a bethel vs usc rematch for the championship.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

It's my understanding that they're always screwed. Weird flex by fans of a school that wins so much.

yeah, on one of these wpial football facebook and twitter pages, 99% of the posts are just aliquippa parents crying about being screwed over. every day, over and over and over. The whole season..

that fanbase just cries over everything.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

yeah, on one of these wpial football facebook and twitter pages, 99% of the posts are just aliquippa parents crying about being screwed over. every day, over and over and over. The whole season..

that fanbase just cries over everything.

Well, they WERE screwed out of the 3 seed. There was no question that they should have been seeded higher than McKeesport. You cant look at both resumes and then say, yea, McKeesport deserves to be seeded higher.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

Both CMU and Duquesne have nice football fields centrally located in the city. Either could host the other championship games instead of a high school.

Drawbacks to CMU - They only have bleachers on one side of the field, you have to estimate where the hash marks are because they aren’t marked for HS, people have to pay to park in the garages, and the field might be used already.

 

[pittdan77]

Well, they WERE screwed out of the 3 seed. There was no question that they should have been seeded higher than McKeesport. You cant look at both resumes and then say, yea, McKeesport deserves to be seeded higher.

Can you claim to be the greatest thing to happen to football since the invention of grass and simultaneously be a victim because of how you are seeded?

 

[Gunga_Galunga]

no sure about Pine but Bethel, peters and USC are all really good and equal. bethel lost on last play to both USC and peters.

If i had to guess, USC and Pine but man would i love to see a bethel vs usc rematch for the championship.

Crazy how stacked 5A is. PR is likely going to play North Hills after their bye who ended up the 8th seed.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Can you claim to be the greatest thing to happen to football since the invention of grass and simultaneously be a victim because of how you are seeded?

Yea I guess. They are a historic program and they were underseeded. I dont think it was done on purpose or anything. The folks that run the WPIAL or just really unintelligent people.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Your opinion doesn't count

It's funny that you don't understand the difference between opinion and fact.

It does, however, explain a lot.