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WIAA makes several changes to high school playoff seeding system

Gonzaga Prep's Sam Lockett salutes the fans after they defeated Federal Way 54-52 in the Championship game of the 4A Boys State Basketball Tournament Saturday, March 3, 2018, at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Wash. (Patrick Hagerty / For The Spokesman-Review)
By Dave Nichols daven@spokesman.com(509) 459-5441

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) executive board voted on several changes to take place for next season’s high school sports seasons, according to the Seattle Times.

The board approved a plan to create committees to seed the 2018 state football field.

The committee won’t determine which schools qualify for state, but will seed the 16 teams after playing in the preliminary playoff round.

There will be three committees: one each for 4A and 3A, 2A/1A and 2B/1B.

The board also considered a proposal to implement Rating Percentage Index (RPI) in seeding state tournaments for all sports, but after studying how RPI would have seeded last year’s tournaments, the association declined.

The method for RPI seeding for basketball, which has been in use for the past two seasons, was tweaked by the committee.

Previously, RPI was calculated on a 25/50/25 formula, attributing 25 percent based upon win/loss percentage, 50 percent to opponent’s win/loss percentage and 25 percent to opponent’s opponents’ win/loss percentage.

The breakdown for the upcoming season will be 40/40/20, placing more emphasis on a team’s own winning percentage and that of its direct opponents.

The committee also decided not to use RPI for volleyball or soccer next season but could revisit the proposal in the future. WIAA is still considering RPI for baseball and softball.