BleacherCoaches.com

I would like to know the real reason why this occured? District 7 now has 4 teams going to states!

The only thing i can think of is the committee is WPIAL fans and are tired of seeing District 6 Runner-up teams beat the WPIAL champions! Which happened the last 3 years (maybe longer?).

Do you expect the PIAA to do anything other than make a decision that doesn't make sense to the avid sports fans? They don't care what makes sense or what is right. All they care about is the almighty dollar or whoever has the most power (private schools and WPIAL). We should be used to it by now.

Actually Districts 5, 8, and 9 are more overrepresented than the WPIALin the PIAA AA baseball tournament. District 5 gets one team out of five AA teams in and Regional 8/9 also gets one team out of five in. That's two teams from a total of 10 AA baseball schools in those 3 districts.

Compare 2 out of 10 to just 1 out of 17 for District 6. The WPIAL gets four teams out of 39, or about 1 out of ten, better than District 6, but still nowhere near as lenient as Districts 5 and 8/9.

And to further salt to the wound, District 3 has 17 AA baseball schools, just like District 6. And District 3 does get two teams in the PIAA's!

No matter what though, District 6 gets a raw deal. The 16 teams in the baseball Class AA PIAA tournament could have easily have been more equitably regionalized and/or divided up.

well what do you suggest for D5....send half a team....come on, give it a rest.

For football this year, they combined districts 5/6 for AA playoffs. Why not combine the two districts for baseball and take two teams? Honestly how often does D5 win a state playoff game in AA baseball. Everett and Bedford would both lose to at least 4 AA D6 teams (MU, Central, PO, BEA). This would give district 6 the have a chance at 2 teams but also gives district 5 to get a team in (or in rare circumstances 2).

Obviously I am not suggesting sending half a team; every district deserves a path to the state playoffs. I thought it was pretty clear that I suggested the teams could be better divided up between districts or better regionalized. It is not that hard to do.

One quick solution that is better than the current method would be to combine 8, 9, and 10 and give that region two spots, or a two out of 21 team chance. Then combine 5 and 6 and give that region two spots, or a two of 22 team chance. It took me about a minute and a half to figure that out.

It shouldn't be given a rest because this is an issue of basic fairness or equity. There were much better solutions available.

the PIAA will never do that, combine these districts. First of all it is a Money issue. They lose $$$$$ when they do that, and secondly they want to give as many districts as possible a chance to be represented. D5 is a small district just like other districts that only have 8-10 teams. However the biggest issue for the PIAA is that they have to justify their positions and their salary. $$$$$$$$$ is the biggest reason they would never combine. I have a slight understanding when it comes to the PIAA, I have been in it as an official for over 20 years.

If you took my suggestion as literally and permanently combining districts, then you misunderstood. I am talking about regions for playoffs that are determined for each two year cycle for a given sport.

The PIAA uses regions all the time right now. For example, for Class AA baseball that we are talking about, Districts 1 and 12 are a region right now and Districts 8 and 9 are a region right now.

I will concede that districts themselves may not like regions because it no longer gives them a "clean" district champion. But the PIAA has obviously overruled that concern many, many times. I haven't checked recently, but I think every team sport in the state, and maybe every class in a given sport, has regions in the playoffs. Certainly the vast majority do.

I understand what you are saying. And yes you are right about every class and sport having their regions.

Central wins AA title 6 to 5