What to do with standings this year? Your opinions needed!

[sevenof400]

Well now, with all of the fallout of the blended conferences starting to be somewhat defined in volleyball, the thought occurred to me how this will affect (or effect) basketball standings this year.   In other words, will standings be useful and if so, how should they be arranged? 

I was about to dig up the old 5A West, South, Central and East standings when I recalled that those formats are useless during the blended conference play. 

So before I get too far into this, I though I'd ask the FF audience for any ideas or thoughts on this.  How can schedules, standings and results be arranged (presented) so they are meaningful? 

[DEVIL DOG HOG]

First I have heard of this. how are the blended conference work and what do they look like.

[sevenof400]

First I have heard of this. how are the blended conference work and what do they look like.

http://members.ahsaa.org/public/userfiles/Nonathletics/Combined_Classification_Districts_2016-2018.pdf

That link points you to the combined (blended) conferences to be used for conference play. 

[DEVIL DOG HOG]

Thank you, sevenof400.

Doesn't help Morrilton much. Looks like more traveling.

[TNT_15]

How does this work? At the end will some teams go to 6a tourn or 5a ? How does Conference tournaments happen? I am very confused on how all this will shake out. Seems like AAA is causing unneeded confusion 

[mijally]

How does this work? At the end will some teams go to 6a tourn or 5a ? How does Conference tournaments happen? I am very confused on how all this will shake out. Seems like AAA is causing unneeded confusion

You play a group of 5a and 6a teams in your district. When you are done you get divided back into your normal 5a or 6a conference and the coaches seed you for the conference tournament.  The results of the tournament seed you for state. Is that right anyone?  That's the way I read it.

[sevenof400]

How does this work? At the end will some teams go to 6a tourn or 5a ? How does Conference tournaments happen? I am very confused on how all this will shake out. Seems like AAA is causing unneeded confusion

As I understand it, the blended conferences (AKA combined classification district) will play their entire conference season. 
At the end of the blended conference season, all teams will return to their respective classifications (and conferences).
Each conference will then have a conference tournament to identify their teams to advance to state playoffs (which will be contested as before 1A through 7A). 

Let me use the 5A/6A combined classification districts 1 & 2 to illustrate this process.

5A/6A Combined Classification District 1 includes the following schools:
Alma (5A) Clarksville (5A) Farmington (5A) Greenwood (6A) Harrison (5A) Russellville (6A) Siloam Springs (6A)

5A/6A Combined Classification District 2 includes the following schools:
Batesville (5A) Beebe (5A) Greenbrier (5A) Morrilton (5A) Mountain Home (6A) Searcy (6A) Vilonia (5A)

At the end of conference play in the combined classification districts, all schools are sent back to their conference. 

Alma, Clarksville, Farmington, Harrison, Greenbrier, Morrilton, Vilonia all return to the 5A West.
Greenwood, Russellville, Siloam Springs return to the 6A West
Mountain Home and Searcy return to the 6A East.
Batesville returns to the 5A East.
Beebe returns to the 5A Central. 

Each of these conferences will need to hold a conference tournament. 

The problem to be answered is how do you seed teams for conference play.  Let's look at the 5A West for a moment - how will you seed Alma, Clarksville, Farmington and Harrison against Morrilton, Greenbrier and Vilonia for conference seeding purposes?

The current solution is a coaches meeting in which the seeding will be determined. 
You can imagine the slew of problems that could emerge from such a meeting, but the even larger question is how do you compare teams that have NOT played each other for purposes of seeding?

Let's make the 5A West even more complicated and add Maumelle to the seeding question (who plays in combined classification district 4) - how can you seed Maumelle with the other 5A West teams when they may not have played half of the conference teams all year?

To (at least partially) address this, Maumelle does have (non combined classification district) games scheduled against Vilonia, Greenbrier, and Morrilton so there will at least be some head to head results on which to base seeding - but this will NOT be easy and I'm sure some results will be controversial.

[mijally]

There are so many situations and strategies for coaches this year. Since the W-L record is not relevant do you prioritize player development to prepare for the tournament or do you go for the best possible W-L record? 

[ZoneBuster]

Overall record and common opponent results will help with seeding if teams don't play head to head.

It's all about getting hot and winning in the end of the year. It should work out pretty smoothly. It's not like an 18-2 team is going to get slighted and get a 6 seed or something. The cream will rise to the top.

[Cajun Hog]

As I understand it, the blended conferences (AKA combined classification district) will play their entire conference season. 
At the end of the blended conference season, all teams will return to their respective classifications (and conferences).
Each conference will then have a conference tournament to identify their teams to advance to state playoffs (which will be contested as before 1A through 7A). 

Let me use the 5A/6A combined classification districts 1 & 2 to illustrate this process.

5A/6A Combined Classification District 1 includes the following schools:
Alma (5A) Clarksville (5A) Farmington (5A) Greenwood (6A) Harrison (5A) Russellville (6A) Siloam Springs (6A)

5A/6A Combined Classification District 2 includes the following schools:
Batesville (5A) Beebe (5A) Greenbrier (5A) Morrilton (5A) Mountain Home (6A) Searcy (6A) Vilonia (5A)

At the end of conference play in the combined classification districts, all schools are sent back to their conference. 

Alma, Clarksville, Farmington, Harrison, Greenbrier, Morrilton, Vilonia all return to the 5A West.
Greenwood, Russellville, Siloam Springs return to the 6A West
Mountain Home and Searcy return to the 6A East.
Batesville returns to the 5A East.
Beebe returns to the 5A Central. 

Each of these conferences will need to hold a conference tournament. 

The problem to be answered is how do you seed teams for conference play.  Let's look at the 5A West for a moment - how will you seed Alma, Clarksville, Farmington and Harrison against Morrilton, Greenbrier and Vilonia for conference seeding purposes?

The current solution is a coaches meeting in which the seeding will be determined. 
You can imagine the slew of problems that could emerge from such a meeting, but the even larger question is how do you compare teams that have NOT played each other for purposes of seeding?

Let's make the 5A West even more complicated and add Maumelle to the seeding question (who plays in combined classification district 4) - how can you seed Maumelle with the other 5A West teams when they may not have played half of the conference teams all year?

To (at least partially) address this, Maumelle does have (non combined classification district) games scheduled against Vilonia, Greenbrier, and Morrilton so there will at least be some head to head results on which to base seeding - but this will NOT be easy and I'm sure some results will be controversial.

Seven, Greenbriar, Vilonia & Morrilton will play Maumelle in non-conference game for dirstrict seeding. The 5A west will play district like a regional 1v4,2v3 from east/west.

[TNT_15]

As I understand it, the blended conferences (AKA combined classification district) will play their entire conference season. 
At the end of the blended conference season, all teams will return to their respective classifications (and conferences).
Each conference will then have a conference tournament to identify their teams to advance to state playoffs (which will be contested as before 1A through 7A). 

Let me use the 5A/6A combined classification districts 1 & 2 to illustrate this process.

5A/6A Combined Classification District 1 includes the following schools:
Alma (5A) Clarksville (5A) Farmington (5A) Greenwood (6A) Harrison (5A) Russellville (6A) Siloam Springs (6A)

5A/6A Combined Classification District 2 includes the following schools:
Batesville (5A) Beebe (5A) Greenbrier (5A) Morrilton (5A) Mountain Home (6A) Searcy (6A) Vilonia (5A)

At the end of conference play in the combined classification districts, all schools are sent back to their conference. 

Alma, Clarksville, Farmington, Harrison, Greenbrier, Morrilton, Vilonia all return to the 5A West.
Greenwood, Russellville, Siloam Springs return to the 6A West
Mountain Home and Searcy return to the 6A East.
Batesville returns to the 5A East.
Beebe returns to the 5A Central. 

Each of these conferences will need to hold a conference tournament. 

The problem to be answered is how do you seed teams for conference play.  Let's look at the 5A West for a moment - how will you seed Alma, Clarksville, Farmington and Harrison against Morrilton, Greenbrier and Vilonia for conference seeding purposes?

The current solution is a coaches meeting in which the seeding will be determined. 
You can imagine the slew of problems that could emerge from such a meeting, but the even larger question is how do you compare teams that have NOT played each other for purposes of seeding?

Let's make the 5A West even more complicated and add Maumelle to the seeding question (who plays in combined classification district 4) - how can you seed Maumelle with the other 5A West teams when they may not have played half of the conference teams all year?

To (at least partially) address this, Maumelle does have (non combined classification district) games scheduled against Vilonia, Greenbrier, and Morrilton so there will at least be some head to head results on which to base seeding - but this will NOT be easy and I'm sure some results will be controversial.
How can Beebe work going back to 5a central without playing any of 5a central teams on conf. This seems very flawed. Why did they change the process? Last year worked fine with conf round robin and top 4 go. If they wanted they could still do round robin then conf playoff

[ZoneBuster]

If coaches are truly worried about the process they can schedule everyone in non conference or play in tournaments with most teams. It'll work out, Missouri and other states have done it for years.

[Steve Perry 2.11]

are useless during the blended conference play. 

The only blended I like is scotch....

With that being said, I read through this entire thread and have come to only one conclusion...

This is the biggest cluster **** I've ever seen....

Could they not find another way to make the conference schedule harder?    What was the problem with the way the old 5A was aligned?

[sevenof400]

The only blended I like is scotch....

With that being said, I read through this entire thread and have come to only one conclusion...

This is the biggest cluster **** I've ever seen....

Could they not find another way to make the conference schedule harder?    What was the problem with the way the old 5A was aligned?

You'd think that was their goal when they started this effort. 
By far and away, the best solution was either to leave things alone or strongly suggest to Mountain Home that they divide their school and create two 4A schools (which would fit travel wise so much better....)

But back to the initial point, I am trying to think about how results and standings can be helpful this year.  Using the old method, the standings will have little worth. 

I'm still thinking this through - and I think I have one idea I'll work on soon - but if anyone has a thought or two on that, please offer them up here...

[DEVIL DOG HOG]

Seven, about the only thing you can do is post the blended standings. If you want to you can then post the regular conference standings.

[MDXPHD]

That 4 conference is brutal.

[P.F.G.]

This bread alone is why we need to just get rid of the 7A and have the top 32 in one conference.

[ZoneBuster]

This bread alone is why we need to just get rid of the 7A and have the top 32 in one conference.

That's a long conference season