THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: A better format, with possible room for discussion

So did MaxPreps know what it was doing when its rankings were used to seed the six state high school girls basketball tournaments that were played last weekend in the Boise area?

Let's look at the numbers:

The No. 1 seeds won three of the six tournaments (3A, 1A Division I and 1A Division II), No. 2 seeds won two of them (5A and 4A) and the lowest-seeded champion was a No. 3 seed in the 2A event.

All told, No. 1 seeds went 15-3 in the six tourneys, No. 2 seeds 13-5, No. 3 seeds 11-7, No. 4 seeds 10-8, No. 5 seeds 8-9, No. 6 seeds 6-11, No. 7 seeds 2-11, No. 8 seeds 1-12.

Top-seeded teams that went on to win titles were Sugar-Salem (3A), Lapwai (1A Division I) and Rockland (1A Division II).

The three No. 1 seeds that did not win their tourneys (Lake City in 5A, Blackfoot in 4A, Grangeville in 2A) all lost in the semifinals, and all came back to win their third-place games.

No. 2-seeded champions were Timberline (5A) and Burley (4A). Cole Valley Christian, the third seed, won in 2A, beating No. 4 Aberdeen.

Only one of the top-two seeds in the six tourneys failed to bring home a trophy (Melba, which lost to Grangeville in the 2A third-place game.

The lowest-seeded team to bring home a trophy was No. 7 Middleton, which won the consolation title in 4A. The Vikings were the only 7 seed in the six tourneys to win a game.

Bishop Kelly, which beat No. 5 Mountain Home in a consolation-round game, was the only No. 8 seed to win a game last weekend.

The lowest-seeded team to reach a championship game was No. 5 Boise, which lost by one point in the 5A title game.

The only tournament where the top four seeds all brought home trophies was 3A, where No. 1 Sugar-Salem beat No. 3 Teton in the title game. No. 2 Snake River won the third-place game, and No. 4 Weiser captured the consolation title.

Conclusion?

The higher the seed, the better the teams did.

That's not exactly breaking news, of course, since No. 1 opens with No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7, etc., and the top two teams are on opposite sides of the bracket.

But with the old way of bracketing the tournament, with upsets in the state-qualifying tournaments, there was a chance the top two teams could meet in the first round.

Also, in classifications with five district champions, two district champs were destined to meet in the opener — and sometimes, those were the two best teams.

This is the first of a two-year deal where the Idaho High School Activities Association uses the final regular-season MaxPreps rankings to seed the eight teams that qualify for each state tournament.

There's already been some internet grumbling over potential seeds to next week's state boys tournaments.

In Idaho, the MaxPreps rankings are final. In Washington, an RPI ranking system is used, but each tournament has a committee of human beings that use the RPI as a guide, but can seed the teams however they choose to.

Maybe that's something Idaho considers in a couple of years — either using a committee, or using media and/or coaches polls in addition to the MaxPreps rankings.

But at least at this point, the new way of seeding state tournaments appears to be an improvement over the old way.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.