Seeding meetings another victim of Internet age

As the calendar flips into February and soon into March, the words "brackets" and "seeds" become common words in a basketball fan's vocabulary.

I routinely check the Internet to see where the prognosticators have my alma mater Marquette in the NCAA Tournament field.

This season the IHSA is taking the usage of the Web a step further. Gone are the traditional seeding meetings where coaches caucus to rank their teams for the upcoming state playoffs. On a recommendation from the IHSA Athletic Administrators Advisory Committee, the IHSA has gone online with seedings.

In a nutshell schools fill out a Season Summary Form online. They then have 24 hours to review the forms and seed all teams in their sectional except their own, weighing the total record, head-to-head victories against teams in the sectional complex or geographic regionals, record against common opponents and team evaluation based on narrative provided by coaches.

IHSA Assistant Executive Director Beth Sauser said the idea has floated around for a couple years. Some sites already had online meetings faxed in.

Time and distance were both taken into account.

"Lots of times when they met face-to-face coaches had games that night," Sauser said, "and would send an assistant that was not as knowledgeable.

"Absolutely travel was brought into it. You're either fighting miles, fighting traffic or fighting the weather going to those meetings."

At quick review the change seems logical. Sauser said it will continue into the spring.

But many girls basketball coaches aren't buying into it.

"Any communications major will tell you that face-to-face communication is much better than telephone," Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum said, "and telephone is better than written. I haven't met a coach yet that likes it."

There is some thought that the IHSA is catering to the wishes of schools south of I-80, a thread of opinion prevalent in reviewing some past moves by the state.

"Distance should never be the basis for a decision," Nussbaum said. "I'll drive an hour and a half to a meeting downstate."

Timothy Christian coach Ryan DeKoekkoek said the new way of seeding is more efficient but said meeting with coaches does give you a better feel for opponents than just reading reports.

Montini's Jason Nichols said five teams in his sectional didn't even send in reports - and others didn't write a word about their teams.

Count West Chicago's Kim Wallner as another coach who dislikes the change. Without a coach to lobby in person, a pack of teams with similar records but varying conferences and schedules look an awful lot alike.

"You need to give opportunities for coaches to speak for their team," she said, "and the ability to look at strength of schedule. People pay more attention when coaches explain their schedule in person. They keep fooling with the integrity of the game."

Ultimately, the integrity of the process is the bottom line. There's a problem when a school votes Fenwick sixth in a sectional, as was done in a recent year.

Wheaton Academy coach Beth Mitchell likes the convenience of online voting. Even more important is that she said every coach can see how every school voted. The IHSA can make adjustments if a seed looks out of line.

Some problems never go away. A few schools from Chicago didn't make it to the seeding meetings in past years and didn't submit an online form.

Nichols said to "ask him how he felt about this" once the seedings finally come out.

The LaGrange Park native did yearn, though, for a trip to Riverside. That had nothing to do with basketball.

"The most upsetting part," he said, "was missing the Dr. Pizza."

jwelge@dailyherald.com