The Public School Athletic League recently revamped the playoff structure for the boys and girls varsity ‘A’ basketball teams, announcing that it would seed the 32 best teams in the city, breaking them down into two 16-team brackets in a sort of
On the surface, this new system seems like a great thing, and for the most part, I think it is. But with so many new ideas, there is still tweaking to be done before all the kinks are worked out.
PSAL Boys Basketball Commissioner Mel Goldstein described to me at length exactly what the new system would be and the stipulations that apply. Goldstein said the new playoff system is “exactly the same thing” as the NCAA Tournament, but there are some subtle differences.
The NCAA seeds 64 teams in four different brackets, seeding No. 1 through No. 16, while the PSAL will simply seed 32 teams from No. 1 through No. 32 in two brackets. The NCAA seeds what it considers to be the best teams on certain criteria, including strength of schedule, conference record and other intangibles, as does the PSAL. But the PSAL will not seed the top 32 teams in a strict order, but will obey predetermined guidelines as it goes.
According to Goldstein, no team can be seeded above a team that finished higher in its own division, which certainly could have thrown a monkey wrench in the works at the league’s playoff seeding meeting, held Wednesday at its Long Island City offices.
For example, the Campus Magnet and Cardozoboys teams finished in a statistical dead heat for the Queens A II championship with identical 14-2 records. Magnet, however, handed Cardozo both of its league losses and therefore won the tie-breaker for the regular season championship, meaning the Bulldogs must be seeded above Cardozo in the citywide playoffs.
That sounds just fine and dandy. But when you take into account that Cardozo plays a very tough non-league schedule and has been the stronger team in recent years, it will difficult to keep them out of the top 10. Magnet, therefore, will benefit with a higher seed.
In the NCAA, such a rule does not apply. If St. John’s beats Connecticut twice and wins the Big East Tournament, there is still no guarantee they will be seeded higher than the Huskies come tournament time.
If there were no such rule in the PSAL, then Cardozo might well be seeded higher than Magnet in the playoffs.
But even with this problem, there are still many benefits to the new PSAL playoff system.
By seeding all 32 teams in this manner, a very strong division could very well have all its teams that make the playoffs in the top 10, while a weaker division may not have a team break the top 20, which is how it should be in my opinion.
If all the No. 1 seeds were predetermined to be the highest seed in the playoffs, the system just wouldn’t work. Hillcrest, despite its stellar season, winning the Queens A I title, should not be seeded above Cardozo or any other perennial PSAL powerhouse that did not win its division, yet played stronger opposition consistently.
The PSAL is also taking into account a team’s non-league games. If a team, like Grady, plays and beats strong Catholic league teams, like All Hallows or Bishop Loughlin, they will get a bump in the PSAL playoff seedings, which is how it should be.
Of course, there could very well be a glut of Brooklyn teams at the top of the seedings, but if those teams’ records merit such a ranking, then who is anyone to argue?
The new system also eliminated automatic home games for division winners. Only the top 16 seeds will be rewarded with home games, as it should be.
Another thing the new system gets rid of is the dreaded coin flip, which in years past was the tie-breaker for teams with identical records in a division, sentencing one team to a tougher first-round game purely by chance.
“The change was made to be fair to all the stronger schools in all the boroughs,” Goldstein said. “It’s very possible there could be three or four stronger teams in one division than in the rest of the city. That’s not to say that they don’t get upset. It’s just not done on a coin flip.”
The seedings were to be done out in the open, before the media, any coaches who saw fit to attend, officials from every single borough, and Board of Ed observers. By determining the seedings this way, the PSAL is sending a message that its new open-book philosophy is for real.
In the past year the PSAL has undergone what appears to be a complete overhaul, including a functioning website that requires the input of all coaches in all sports, and a more hands-on approach to the sports under its umbrella.
The new basketball playoff structure is a step in the right direction. And while not perfect, it is an improvement over the old system, which seeded only 16 teams a year ago and eight the year before that.
Next year there may be more changes, but if recent history is any indicator, those will only be changes for the better.
Reach Sports Editor Anthony Bosco by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 130.
