A little too much human meddling has overtaken the importance of the data-driven Rankings Percentage Index used by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) for state tournament seeding for every team sport state championship.
Touted with sponsored social media posts every week this fall, the RPI rankings fell by the wayside for some area prep teams who had been ranked in the upper range of their respective RPI all season long.
The RPI, first instituted for basketball back in 2016-17, measures a team’s winning percentage, its opponents’ win percentage and its opponents’ opponents win percentage, weighing those numbers at a 40 , 40 and 20 percent basis to arrive at an overall RPI score.
Before this season, regional and state basketball games were seeded solely on RPI, so once the 16-team field was set, each team’s RPI was used to seed each team.
It was simple, effective and worked well to provide competitive first-round matchups, even if its initial regional contests did end up placing Sequim and Port Angeles girls basketball in a loser-out contest at state.
This year, RPI is part of the measuring stick, along with seeding committees for every sport. The seeding committees can utilize other computer-generated rankings, the Associated Press poll voted on by media, coaches’ information and even the eyeball test.
For local state tournament-bound squads, there were wins and losses.
Forks, which spent much of its football season around the fifth spot in the 2B RPI, was bounced to seventh after a 40-0 loss to No. 1 Napavine. With a bye and no district-crossover game last week due to a first-place finish in the Pacific League, the No. 7 Spartans (7-1) were bumped down to a No. 10 seed and a long, long road trip to No. 7 seed Goldendale for a 1 p.m. game Saturday.
Despite looking set for a home state playoff game, Forks lost out on playing one more game on its artificial turf field and a split of revenues from the contest with fellow Southwest District schools.
Forks had a far higher opponents’ winning percentage (.458 to .361 for Goldendale) and strength of schedule than the Timberwolves, but Goldendale gets to host the game.
Quilcene, which hung around the fifth or sixth spot in the 1B RPI rankings, did get a boost from the seeding committee after a 61-34 quad-district win over Lummi on Saturday.
The Rangers (7-1) were pushed to a No. 3 seed and a bye in the first round of the state tournament this weekend. Quilcene will be back at it next weekend against the winner of No. 11 Winlock and No. 6 DeSales, with that game set for Sammamish High School.
Neah Bay volleyball, which spent the season at No. 1 in the 1B RPI rankings despite having a late start to the season due to pandemic precautions, was dinged the most in seeding for the 1B state tournament at the Yakima Valley SunDome on Thursday and Friday.
The Red Devils (11-0) were knocked down to a No. 5 seed in the 20-team tournament and missed out on the first-round bye awarded to the top four state seeds.
Instead, Neah Bay has to open against No. 12 Waterville-Mansfield at 1:30 p.m. Thursday instead of waiting for the winner of matches in the 13- to 20-seed range.
At the district level, there’s also been winners and losers, but those were directly tied to the RPI.
In addition to league seeds for champions and other automatic qualifiers, two at-large bi-district tournament seeds were available in football and volleyball for the Olympic, South Puget Sound and KingCo 2A conferences.
Port Angeles lost out on a bi-district football seed by one spot and the Port Angeles girls volleyball team earned a shot at the bi-district tournament due to its RPI.
State swimming allows fans
Spectators and non-essential personnel will be allowed at the girls swim and dive state championships at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way on Friday and Saturday.
While the facility will be allowed to operate at full capacity, masks will be required to be worn at all times for people in the facility with the exception of participants while they are competing. Neither proof of vaccination nor negative COVID-19 test will be required for entry as school-based events are waived from the King County Health Directive.
Tickets are available for purchase exclusively online through GoFan.
Preliminary sessions begin at 8:50 a.m. Friday for 1A and 2A teams. Port Angeles, Sequim, Crescent and East Jefferson all have swimmers and divers at the meet.
On-site parking has been reduced and carpooling is recommended.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-406-0674 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
