2020 Year-End Results and Bracketing Process

October 31, 2020 Football Blog Updates

While several pieces of email communication have been distributed, many blog posts, and hundreds of phone calls, it is probably wise to summarize what will happen as the regular season concludes the weekend of November 5-6-7. None of the procedures have changed since earlier notices (with the most recent communication always prevailing in the event of a conflict), however, this will summarize the next steps.

When the last game is played on November 6-7 weekend, and as soon as the RPI is calculated at the top of the next hour, bracketing will begin using the following steps:

• The current RPI values for all teams are displayed on the website as always and are on the website at https://bit.ly/2TFU7KD.
  • The process for calculating the RPI remains extremely transparent and is detailed at https://bit.ly/2GdSjW2 including potential tiebreakers in the highly unlikely event that the five-digit calculations result in a tie being detailed at https://bit.ly/3jLXJWa.
  • As has been stated on multiple occasions, whether a game has been canceled due to COVID or a team simply choosing not to play is exactly the same.
  • On the RPI page (and this is subject to change) COVID cancelations on record are shown as ties, solely to track the number of contests canceled for the Department for Public Health and the Governor’s office, and have no impact on standings as a tie is not possible within the playing rules.
  • Each COVID cancelation or open week is treated (within RPI) as a tie against an out of state team.
  • For those interested, a complete listing of COVID cancelations in all sports is on the website at https://bit.ly/37XryRb.
  • Treating the open slots exactly the same ensure that 1) schools and teams can make cancelation decisions based on health conditions and without prioritizing standings and 2) ensures that all teams have the same number of calculations, reinforcing the validity of the formula.
  • At least 729 games go into the calculation of each team’s RPI, so making plans or analysis on preliminary data will likely prove futile as every game played by every team has the potential to impact the total.
  • The RPI is calculated at the top of every hour, so the most important thing schools can do is QUICKLY and ACCURATELY report both schedule changes and results.
  • There are no manual or discretionary steps in the RPI calculations and as such, this process should happen quickly after the receipt of the final score.
• The standings of games actually played remains online as always at https://bit.ly/2THuSHW
  • DRAFT positions have been listed on the standings but will not be official until the last game has been played during that weekend.
• The bracket builder for 2020 is again listed online at https://bit.ly/37Tg5SO and is DRAFT until after the last regular season contest.
• There is a list being maintained of any district seeded game that has not been able to be played due to the pandemic and that list has been public all season and is online at https://bit.ly/3kNxsbb.
  • That listing of non-played games will be updated during the weekend of November 5-6-7 as additional cancelations are anticipated.
  • From that listing and solely for the purpose of seeding the postseason, a win will be added to the existing record for the team with the highest RPI and a loss to the team with the lowest RPI. This tie-breaker was announced late summer and reiterated in a reminder to the schools in early October.
  • This win and loss will not be added to the scoreboard or permanent data record of any school or individual but is solely used for seeding.
  • This win and loss will not cause any additional RPI calculation. The end of season RPI is the final RPI value for 2020.
• After those non-played game winners are determined, revised standings (without any ties broken) will be published on the website at https://bit.ly/321IH8G.
• The ties will then be broken in the following order:
  • Two team ties:
    • Broken by a head result first if such game was played
    • Broken by RPI total if such a game was not played.
  • Three team ties:
    • Broken by head to head results first (same as prior), meaning if one team beat the other two, that team is the winner.
    • If one team has beaten the other two, then the head to head comparison will break the second position (as the two-team tie is broken)
    • If none of the teams has beaten the other two, RPI comparison will decide the result.
  • After ties are broken, standings will again be updated and published at the links above.
  • Results of the tie-breakers will be on the website at https://bit.ly/3jKbeFP
• Following the development of the final standings, the bracket builder will be updated and declared official.
• After the standings are final, the scoreboard brackets will be built with all games having the default time contained in the postseason instructions.
• Additional playoff information will be distributed in the coming days.
• If all goes well and all scores are reported in a timely manner, this process should be done not later than 8 a.m. the morning following the last contest.