Placing at state is no small consolation

A reader wondered the other day: What’s a consolation championship?

It was asked after said reader read about the recently completed state high school girls basketball tournaments.

Good question. We’ll try to explain ...

EVERYBODY LIKES to have a number associated with their result — first place, second place, ninth out of 30 teams, 16th out of 97 teams, and so on.

If you tell someone a team won the consolation championship, they probably would give you a puzzled look and wonder what the heck that meant.

Consolation?

The very word implies, well, being consoled about something.

For the record, none of the North Idaho teams brought home a consolation championship trophy. Maybe none of them needed consoling.

Well, maybe one or two did, if they went home without a victory.

Go online, and the definition of the word reads: “the comfort received by a person after a loss or disappointment.”

Here, we’re sorry for your loss or disappointment. Have a trophy!

Except the team that wins the consolation championship is usually pretty happy. That means, in the modified single-elimination tournaments Idaho uses in basketball and baseball, said team lost its first game, then won its next two to earn a trophy.

But the trophy says consolation champions, not what particular place they finished.

Another definition, found online:

“A person or thing providing comfort to a person who has suffered.”

Hmmm ...

A third definition, which is closer to what we’re talking about here:

“(In sports) a round or contest for tournament entrants who have been eliminated before the finals, often to determine third and fourth place.”

NOW WE’RE getting somewhere.

Except in Idaho’s case, there is a third-place game, played by the losers of the semifinal games.

But what place does the loser of the third-place game finish?

Some would say fourth, contending that once you lost your first-round game, the best you could finish is fifth.

Others would say the loser of the third-place game is fifth, and the consolation champion is fourth. They finished 2-1 in the tournament, while the loser of the third-place game went 1-2.

The consolation champ gets a trophy and the loser of the third-place game doesn’t. And if only one of the two teams gets a trophy, they certainly wouldn’t give it to the team that finished WORSE than the other team.

Would they?

Ask random high school administrators what place they would say their team finished if they won the consolation title, and some say fourth, others fifth.

The problem is, in baseball and basketball in Idaho, it’s not a true double-elimination tournament.

The state volleyball and softball tournaments are double-elimination, so everyone gets a numbered place — first, second, third, fourth, tied for fifth (won 1 and lost 2), tied for seventh (went 2 and out).

There is no consolation champion.

The only “consoling” is done after a team is eliminated from the tourney.

Or in the case of softball, when rain forces the tournament to be shortened to single-elimination — and even for games to be shortened.

At state wrestling, golf, cross country, track and field and tennis, point totals (or stroke totals in golf) determine placing.

BUT BACK to the question at hand: What is a consolation championship, and by extension, where did they finish at state?

For clarification, we posed the question to Ty Jones, executive director of the Idaho High School Activities Association.

His response:

“That is something that I believe has been around for many years. We would consider the consolation champ to be fourth place because they have two wins, compared to the loser of the third-place game who only has one. We don’t call it that because the loser of the third-place game could say that they were fourth, so we have a top three and then the backside consolation winner. When we deal with “top four” trophies, those are at events where points/lack thereof determine who wins.

“We technically have three types of bracketed tournaments, so we have three types of looking at awards,” he added. “Clear as mud.”

Well, now that we’ve got that settled ...

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.