THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: The various pathways to state in Idaho

It’s interesting to see how the different districts/regions in Idaho run their state-qualifying tournaments in girls and boys basketball.

Up here, 5A Region 1 is a four-team tournament which has a championship game, where the winner advances to state, and the loser has to come back around to earn either a berth in a state play-in, or the region’s second berth to state.

In 5A District 3, which has almost enough schools (12) to hold its own state tournament, the top seed (Boise’s girls in this case) qualified for state by beating the No. 9 seed and the No. 4 seed. Rocky Mountain, the No. 3 seed, qualified for state by beating the No. 6 seed and upending the No. 2 seed.

Boise and Rocky will play Friday at ICCU Arena in Boise in the district championship game, largely for bragging rights. Under the old state tournament format, the winner generally got a better draw at state than the loser. Now, using MaxPreps rankings to seed the eight state tourney teams, they already know what their seed is — though I guess it could change slightly, based on the result of that and other state-qualifying games.

But maybe not.

Also, in 5A Region 1, the loser of the championship game has to come back (usually from an emotional loss) and win one or two more games to qualify for state. Two days later, the loser of the title game plays a team coming off a win. And more than once, the loser of the title game got picked off by the winner of the loser-out game two days earlier.

Instead of planning for state two days earlier, the loser of the title game is suddenly planning for spring sports.

Imagine if, say, the loser of the Boise/Rocky title game — certain to be an emotional contest played in front of a big crowd where the Idaho Steelheads play —  had to bounce back and win another game or two just to qualify for state. 

Also, while the 5A Region 1 tournament is true double-elimination, teams in the District 3 tourney are not necessarily eliminated with two losses. In a couple of cases, a team could lose twice and still wind up in a state play-in game.

At a glance, it seems like teams are rewarded for their regular season more in District 3, with an “easier” path to state, which is a way of making the regular season more  meaningful.

Not saying one way is better/more fair than the other; it might be the only way those districts/regions can settle things, based on how many or how few teams are in their tournament.

In 5A Region 1, you can win your first two games and go to state.

In 5A District 5-6, where there are also four teams, a team has to win a third game to qualify for state. The team that wins the game between the loser of the second game and the winner of the loser-out game gets to take on the team that has won its first two games. That winner goes to state, the loser to a state play-in.

IN 4A Region 1, which has consisted of three teams for nearly two decades, they have tried nearly everything short of rock-paper-scissors to determine its state qualifier.

They’ve tried a true double-elimination, which led to a lot of bus miles for Lakeland, Sandpoint and Moscow.

They tried a two-game tournament like they do in soccer — No. 3 seed vs. No. 2, winner vs. No. 1 for the berth to state, thanks for coming.

Now, No. 3 plays No. 2 in a loser-out game, and the winner plays the No. 1 seed in a best-of-3 series for the regional title and the lone berth to state. That’s not so good for the loser of the 3-2 game, but good for the teams that play for the regional title.

In 4A District 4, which has four teams, they run the true double-elimination tourney that 4A Region 1 used many years ago.

In 4A District 6, which has six teams, seeds 3-6 play in the first round, with the winners joining the top 2 seeds in the winners bracket. There, a team wins its next two games and it’s on to state — a benefit for the top two seeds.

The rest of them fight it out in the losers bracket for a shot at the loser of the district championship game, with that winner also going to state.

4A District 4, which also has six teams, does something similar.

So does 4A District 3, which has six teams. However, the loser of the district title game (also played on Friday night at ICCU Arena) has to come back Saturday afternoon and win another game to advance to state.

In 3A District 6, where all three teams (Teton, Sugar-Salem, South Fremont) are state-caliber teams, they run a true double-elimination — and the runner-up can get to state by winning a play-in game, whereas in 4A Region 1, the runner-up, however worthy they are, is out of luck.

In 2A District 4, where there are just two teams (Declo and Wendell), they do a best-of-3 series for the lone state berth.

2A DISTRICT 1-2 (the Central Idaho League) and 2A District 5 are both five-team tournaments, both with 4 vs. 5 loser-out games to start, both with 1.5 berths to state. But while it just takes two wins in the District 1-2 tourney to get to state, another layer is added, and another win needed, in the District 5 event.

And 2A District 6 is a five-team tournament, with another twist — it’s double-elimination for everybody, and the No. 1 seed gets a first-round bye, then plays the 4-5 winner.

What’s the best way to determine who goes to state?

Who really knows, based on these examples of so many different ways to run tournaments with a similar amount of teams.

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 X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.