The IHSAA (Iowa High School Athletic Association) is seeding teams by strength, not going solely by record, and that takes longer so the state tournament pairings will be on a special IHSAA news release Wednesday at 1p.m. on their internet site, available to all. In the middle and lower classes the history is that the #1 seed, based sometimes on a record of defeating lower-caliber teams, gets blown out in the first or second round of the tourney by teams that have a poorer record, but played a tough schedule. The IHSAA is trying to make the seeding actually be meaningful. In Class 3A this year, the BC Moore computer ratings, based on a combination of record and strength of schedule, correctly predicted seven of the eight tournament qualifiers more than three weeks before they played the games.
IHSSN (Iowa High School Sports Network) is unrelated to the IHSAA, and now in fact is owned by a Chicago-based company, CSN, I believe, completely screwing over most Iowa fans who no longer are able to see their kids and teams play in the tourney unless they are among the lucky few who are CSN subscribers, or willing to take off work and travel to Des Moines to watch the games in person all week.
