Mistake In MaxPrep’s Volleyball Seedings Causes Issues In Arizona

Ahwatukee Foothills News (Ariz.), Jason P. Skoda

http://www.ahwatukee.com/opinion/blogs/ahwatukee_sports/article_882df77a-1ee4-11e2-8a0c-001a4bcf887a.html

Girls volleyball coaches and athletic directors received an unwanted email from the Arizona Interscholastic Association and MaxPreps on Thursday morning.

Within the email was the admission that the MaxPrep.com-driven seedings were incorrect because invitational results were accidentally included in the algorithm.

According to the email, the change will negatively affect the seed of 6 percent of volleyball teams.

One of those is Mountain Pointe as the Pride travels to Desert Vista on Thursday evening. Once the mistake was discovered, the Pride went from No. 11 to No. 15 so it completely changes the nature of the Dig Pink match.

If they were still No. 11, the Pride could enjoy the match instead of worrying about their postseason future. It makes tonight’s match essentially a must win. A loss to the Thunder and the Pride is in jeopardy of having their season end.

The Thunder went from No. 9 to No. 11 to make securing a top-eight seed – and a home match in the first round – more difficult.

“While we would prefer that mistakes never happen, especially when it affects our member players, we appreciate the effort of MaxPreps to ensure accuracy and its transparency in resolving the error as soon as

it was discovered” AIA Executive Director Dr. Harold Slemmer said in the email to the coaches. “We are confident that with its experience, expertise and integrity, MaxPreps will continue to do everything in

their power to ensure accuracy for our member schools and their players.”

This bit of news comes on the heels of the fact that most of the football coaches are causing a stink with their seedings.

According to AZCentral, several football coaches e-mailed Mike Wilkes, MaxPreps Business Development Director, this week to get better clarification of the process.

All of this stems from the fact that a local math guy discovered a flaw in the AIA’s own power points system last year.

As a result, the AIA decided to go with MaxPrep’s formula. For the most part the seedings in all sports have passed the eye test but most coaches are control freaks and do not like unknown variables.

Since the MaxPrep’s formula isn’t spelled out like the previous power rankings were many of the coaches are still distrustful.

The news today that a mistake, as correctable as it is, only deepens the distrust.