2025 EIWAs

[Asa Packer]

No; I have no idea of location. And not going to even ask.
My question is regarding brackets. How does one set up brackets for 11 team tournament. Round of 16 with byes? How are byes determined? Round of 8 with pigtails? Based on seeding?
Remember the days of EIWAs past when byes were important to team scoring? Some drama may be returning.
Gimp likely knows the answer to this, but others feel free to answer/speculate.

[Justafan]

Although you didn't ask..it's Lehigh hosting.

What exactly is the difference between a 16 team bracket with 5 byes and an 8 team bracket with 3 pigtails?

[gimpeltf]

The coaches will have to decide on the distribution of byes/pigtails again. I brought it up to some of them. If they insist on seeding everyone then top 5 seeds get the byes. Otherwise if only seed 8 max it can be done randomly.

[HFO]

The coaches will have to decide on the distribution of byes/pigtails again. I brought it up to some of them. If they insist on seeding everyone then top 5 seeds get the byes. Otherwise if only seed 8 max it can be done randomly.

Rather pigtails to get into Championships bracket.

[gimpeltf]

The coaches will have to decide on the distribution of byes/pigtails again. I brought it up to some of them. If they insist on seeding everyone then top 5 seeds get the byes. Otherwise if only seed 8 max it can be done randomly.

Rather pigtails to get into Championships bracket.

Huh?

[Justafan]

Gimp,

I think HFO is endorsing seeding all 11 wrestlers (or at least the top 8) and having #8, #9, #10, #11 wrestle in the pigtails to get to the QF round rather than randomly assigning the extra bout.

Just a hunch.

[gimpeltf]

Gimp,

I think HFO is endorsing seeding all 11 wrestlers (or at least the top 8) and having #8, #9, #10, #11 wrestle in the pigtails to get to the QF round rather than randomly assigning the extra bout.

Just a hunch.

The issue is with team scores- the ability to score bonus points early. Non-random takes that away from the higher seeds.
I expect first place won't be highly contested all that much for a while, at least. But 2nd, 3rd, etc will be.
The question is will the coaches value the team aspect more than the individual aspect as regards the lower ranked kids. They'll get a chance to place either way and would be guaranteed higher RPI by wrestling top kids sometimes.

[Justafan]

I hear what you are saying but, my honest opinion is that seeds 8-11 will be primarily filled with LIU, Sacred Heart, F&M and Brown wrestlers, none of which will be impacting the top 5 anytime soon, and it gives them a fighting chance to at least score points early.

Assigning pigtails randomly on the other hand will have bigger probability on impacting team results if one team is randomly assigned a disproportionate share of additional bouts.

Just my opinion.

[gimpeltf]

Assigning pigtails randomly on the other hand will have bigger probability on impacting team results if one team is randomly assigned a disproportionate share of additional bouts.

That's exactly the issue at hand. Before we jumped to 16/17 we had a formula we used to see how out of whack things were that way.

[HFO]

Assigning pigtails randomly on the other hand will have bigger probability on impacting team results if one team is randomly assigned a disproportionate share of additional bouts.

That's exactly the issue at hand. Before we jumped to 16/17 we had a formula we used to see how out of whack things were that way.

Others have stated it better. I cannot stand random pigtails. Rank everyone and wrestle whatever type of bracket that needs to be created.