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Lee’s 64-Team Bracket Alternative for 2019!

 
Okay, to remind everyone of the methodology: 64 teams, 16 per quadrant The same districts, 1-32, divided by Quadrant as currently configured The District winner gets the automatic bid By quadrant, the next highest ranked teams get invited (I used MaxPreps for this exercise and there are a few at the end I might not agree with but for this exercise it suffices) I would be open to making a few adjustments, so District members don’t play each other in the first round but for now we go by the numbers Within the Quadrants we seed 1-16 to start and would like to see District winners get the first-round home game if they play an at-large team Number next to the team is the MaxPreps ranking at the state level.  Three teams that fell into the top 32 at large are skipped over because IMG, Admiral Farragut and East Lake are currently Independents and not eligible for the FHSAA tournament. Okay, here we go!
 

The North Bracket:

  District Winners 1) Gulf Breeze (21) 2) Maclay (15) 3) Oak Hall (14) 4) Bolles (41) 5) Providence School (31) 6) Ponte Vedra (1) 7) St. Augustine (45) 8) Lake Mary (22)   The next highest 8 schools by MP rankings:   Creekside (9) Fleming Island (30) West Florida (49) Chiles (56) Bartram Trail (59) Lincoln (63) Nease (65) Buchholz (75)   Interesting to note that Nease makes it with a losing record due to their strength of schedule   The first round would look like:   #1 Ponte Vedra hosting #16 Buchholz #2 Creekside hosts #15 Nease #3 Oak Hall hosts #14 Lincoln #4 Maclay hosts #13 Bartram Trail #5 Gulf Breeze hosts #12 Chiles #6 Lake Mary hosts West Florida #7 Fleming Island travels to district winner #10 Bolles #8 Providence School and #9 St. Augustine meet where the FHSAA would slot them   Lots of fun matchups!  We could swap Nease and Lincoln to eliminate the issue of a first round district matchup.  

The Orlando/Tampa Bracket:

  District Winners 9) Winter Park (16) 10) Lake Highland Prep (13) 11) Windermere (35) 12) Bishop Moore (6) 13) All Saints Academy (52) 14) Newsome (38) 15) Steinbrenner (23) 16) Jesuit of Tampa (39)   The next highest 8 schools by MP rankings:   Berkeley Prep (24) Hagerty (25) Montverde Academy (26) Lake Brantley (28) Plant (34) Boone (40) First Academy (42) Mitchell (46)   The first round would look like:   #1 Bishop Moore hosts #16 All Saints Academy #2 Lake Highland hosts #15 Mitchell #3 Winter Park hosts #14 First Academy #4 Steinbrenner hosts #13 Boone #5 Berkeley Prep travels to #12 Jesuit of Tampa #6 Hagerty travels to #11 Newsome #7 Montverde Academy travels to district winner #10 Windermere #8 Lake Brantley plays #9 Plant based on the FHSAA slotting   Again, some fresh pairings and we could change Jesuit and Newsome to eliminate the first round district rematches.  

The Gulf Coast/Treasure Coast Bracket:

  District Winners 17) Cardinal Mooney (4) 18) Canterbury (18) 19) Gulf Coast (29) 20) Barron Collier (60) 21) Cocoa Beach (57) 22) Melbourne Central Catholic (37) 23) St. Edward’s (12) 24) Jupiter (3)   The next highest 8 schools by MP rankings:   Benjamin (20) Out-of-Door Academy (26) Riverview-Sarasota (33) Wiregrass Ranch (47) Fort Myers (62) Lakewood Ranch (64) Martin County (67) Viera (74)   The first round would look like:   #1 Jupiter hosts #16 Viera #2 Cardinal Mooney hosts #15 Martin County #3 St. Edward’s hosts #14 Lakewood Ranch #4 Canterbury hosts #13 Fort Myers #5 Benjamin travels to district winner #12 Barron Collier #6 Out-of-Door Academy travels to district winner #11 Cocoa Beach #7 Gulf Coast hosts #10 Wiregrass #8 Riverview-Sarasota travels to district winner #9 Melbourne Central Catholic   Continues the trend of new matchups and we could swap Fort Myers and Wiregrass to eliminate the district rematch.  

The Southeast Bracket:

  District Winners 25) Oxbridge (2) 26) Saint Andrew’s (5) 27) Pine Crest (10) 28) St. Thomas Aquinas (7) 29) Western (11) 30) Columbus (32) 31) Gulliver Prep (44) 32) Key West (107)   The next highest 8 schools by MP rankings:   American Heritage-Plantation (8) King’s Academy (17) Boca Raton (19) Calvary Christian (Ft. Laud) (36) Saint John Paul II (43) Stoneman Douglas (48) University (NSC) (53) Palm Beach Central (55)   The first round would look like:   #1 Oxbridge hosts #16 Key West #2 Saint Andrew’s hosts #15 Palm Beach Central #3 St. Thomas hosts #14 University #4 AH-Plantation versus #13 Stoneman Douglas based on the FHSAA slotting #5 Pine Crest hosts #12 Gulliver Prep #6 Western hosts #11 SJP II #7 King’s Academy vs #10 Calvary based on the FHSAA slotting #8 Boca Raton travels to district winner #9 Columbus   New playoff matchups.  Could swap University and Palm Beach Central to eliminate the District 28 rematch.   Now, who gets left out in this?   Highest rated on MaxPreps that didn’t make it: Oviedo (50) Lakeland (51) West Broward (56) Dwyer (58) Alonso (61) Belen Jesuit (68) Seminole (69) West Orange (70)   As you can see, Orlando/Tampa and the Southeast are represented there and it’s not surprising when you look at the MaxPreps ranking of the lowest at-large bids for the other two quadrants.  Some of those schools have nice wins but the cutoff gets made somewhere, and in my opinion better to have that discussion at 64-65, etc., than by eliminating three Top 10 programs in my final poll, as the current format does. Well, have fun debating this on the Facebook thread!!!  Keep it friendly though!  Maybe John Tavares would like to chip in with his thoughts; he has some time on his hands now . . . while the Isles move on to the second round . . . ????

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