NCS Post-season criteria for Section playoffs & CIF NorCal/State

[cptmycpa]

CIF-North Coast Section

CIF-North Coast Section

www.cifncs.org

The brackets for the 2023 NCS Boys’ and Girls' Basketball Championships will be as follows: Open Division: 6 teams, Division 1 – 6: up to 16 teams.

OPEN DIVISION TWO-GAME GUARANTEE The NCS Board of Managers adopted a two-game guarantee for Open Division participants. The matchups are described below.
Open Division: #1 & #2 seeds will receive a "bye" in the 1st round. So seeds #3 vs. #6 and seeds #4 vs. #5 play in 1st round of open division. In 2nd round, #1 seed plays the loser of #4/5, and #2 seed plays the loser of #3/6.

MINIMUM QUALIFYING RECORD 16.304H Minimum Qualifying Record To be accepted as a participant in the NCS Boys and Girls Basketball Championships, a team shall have compiled a .500 overall record, or a .500 record against teams in its own division or a .500 record in its own league. Exception: league champions gain automatic entry, provided the team submits and application by the deadline.

DESIGNATED LEAGUE CHAMPION The team designated as the league winner receives the automatic berth in the section championships.

AT-LARGE AND SEEDING SELECTION CRITERIA The criteria for selection of at-large teams for NCS Championship Series in all appropriate sports shall be a balance between:
1) Record overall a. League/Place co-champion b. League Playoff b. Non-league (pre-season/tournament/other)
2) Strength of Schedule a. Record against teams in the same division b. Record against teams in a higher division c. Head-to-head against teams which have qualified or are being considered d. Record against common opponents
3) Coach’s Rankings

AT-LARGE TEAMS After each league champion has been placed in its respective division's bracket, any remaining berths in the divisions shall be filled with at-large teams selected from schools that are classified in the respective division.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA QUALIFICATION
QUALIFYING FOR NOR-CAL AND CIF CHAMPIONSHIPS
NCS championship division teams will be the NCS representatives to the Northern California, CIF Championships. All six (6) teams competing in the NCS Open Division, the final two (2) teams competing in NCS Divisions 1-3, and the final four (4) teams competing in NCS Divisions 4-6 will receive automatic berths in the appropriate division.

The NCS is currently allotted 25 entries, including any teams selected to the Open Division and Division 6. The 25th entry will be assigned to the highest seeded semifinal losing team in Divisions 1-3 only.

 

[Norcal_Fan]

given past experiences, there is little rhyme or reason to seedings beyond the top 4 seeds. Teams getting top 8 seeds with great W-L records but terrible strength of schedule. Look at the current rankings for D1

Alameda 8-1 with a -2.5 strength of schedule. The only team in D1 with a negative strength of schedule
Head Royce is OVERALL 11th with a 4.2 strength of schedule 8-0, over Moreau with a 15 strength of schedule an 7-4. When seedings come out, it seems like the committee looks little at the whole body of work (outside of common opponent and h2h) when determining the seedings. I would LOVE to see them really look at SOS when determining these factors.

 

[becoolpt55]

???? In 2nd round, #1 seed plays the loser of #4/5, and #2 seed plays the loser of #3/6.?????

 

[cptmycpa]

???? In 2nd round, #1 seed plays the loser of #4/5, and #2 seed plays the loser of #3/6.?????

Because the NCS Board of Managers created the "Two Game Guarantee" for the NCS Open Division. I don't think any other Section in the country has this rule.

 

[becoolpt55]

So why don’t the teams in the 4 vs 5
And 3 vs 6 just tank the games and
Advance to the semis????

 

[cptmycpa]

So why don’t the teams in the 4 vs 5
And 3 vs 6 just tank the games and
Advance to the semis???

Wrong! It's not semi's--that's single elimination. There is a two game guarantee, so it seems more like round robin.

 

[LBJ6]

That doesn’t sound right at all.
3 plays 6
4 plays 5
Winners play 1 and 2
Losers of the 3 and 6 and 4 and 5 game play each other. Losers of the semis play each other. There’s your 2 game guarantee and the winners of the semis get 3. Same set up as last year. Unless this is an updated bracket?

 

[northbaybbguru]

LBJ has it correct.

3 v 6
4 v 5

2 losers play each other for 5th place.

2 winners play 1 & 2 seed

(3v6 winner) plays 2 seed
(4v5 winner) plays 1 seed
2 losers play for 3rd place
2 winners play for NCS OPEN championship

 

[cptmycpa]

That doesn’t sound right at all.
3 plays 6
4 plays 5
Winners play 1 and 2
Losers of the 3 and 6 and 4 and 5 game play each other. Losers of the semis play each other. There’s your 2 game guarantee and the winners of the semis get 3. Same set up as last year. Unless this is an updated bracket?

Thank you for explaining. The policy was confusing and unclear and did not go into enough detail. That makes sense now.

 

[bb-hoops]

Couldn't agree more with Norcal_Fan. It's ridiculous to reward a team that has a good record and their strength of schedule is awful. That's exactly why there are blow out games in section playoffs. As you know, teams make their own non-league schedule and can multiplate it however they want, excluding their league. In must cases teams play more non-league games versus league games. Committee SOS should carry more weight, a matter of fact the criteria should be reconstructed. #1 - SOS, #2 - Coaches ranking, #3 - Record. Why is a league record or champion have any impact on how good a team may or may not be and for some reason it's #1 in the current criteria.

 

[observer22]

Why is a league record or champion have any impact on how good a team may or may not be and for some reason it's #1 in the current criteria.

Back in the day, only league champions advanced to the playoffs at all. Similar to how Major League Baseball was until they finally broke down and decided to add a wild card team after the Giants won 102 games and didn’t make the playoffs.

Once wild cards were added, they made sure to give preference to league champions, and the wild card (at large) teams were just happy to be invited to the party.

Fast forward and we now have so many divisions that most average teams make the playoffs. I think it’s still a good thing to honor league champions. But nowadays it’s pretty common to see 2nd or 3rd place teams win section or state titles.

 

[myko98]

The two things I don't like the most is that

1. only the top 2 teams in division 1-3 get into NorCal. It should be 4.
2. even if you win your section, you could be playing in an away game, in your first match of NorCal.

 

[northbaybbguru]

The two things I don't like the most is that

1. only the top 2 teams in division 1-3 get into NorCal. It should be 4.
2. even if you win your section, you could be playing in an away game, in your first match of NorCal.

The NCS is only allowed 25 spots in the Norcals. With the advent of the NCS Open...these 6 Open teams are AUTOMATICALLY given norcal berths. That leaves 19 spots for everyone else. Since D4 and lower are NOT ELIGIBLE FOR THE NCS OPEN the Open teams are chosen from D1-3.

So here's the breakdown of the 25 spots...

6 Open
2 D1
2 D2
2 D3
4 D4
4 D5
4 D6

1 at-large to be taken from the highest seeded team to lose before the finals in D1-3.


In order for the OPEN to be passed they had to put in the bylaws that no D4 or lower team would be eligible for the NCS Open. That's how they got all the small schools to vote for it.