Soucie: Here’s what the 2021 spring playoffs could have looked like

The final weekend of the regular season was odd for a number of reasons.

For me, the strangest was not trying to scrounge up the last missing scores of the weekend to put a final playoff projection in place.

Despite not having to do that, it couldn’t keep me from constantly wondering what the field might have looked like if we were advancing to the postseason.

Since we didn’t have the typical consistency we have with a normally scheduled year, some modifications have to be made to the system.

First, all games that were canceled due to COVID-19 related reasons were counted as no contests. Teams weren’t awarded forfeit victories unless it was made known that the reasons for not playing were of a non-COVID related purpose.

Second, to qualify for one of the 256 projected-playoff places you must have played a minimum of three games.

Then, schools that elected to move up were moved up to their previously requested classes. Then, teams that faced the success formula were moved up a classification if they qualified for the field.

After establishing the field of 256, teams were seeded in order of victories amassed. Six win teams were seeded at the top of each classification then separated by playoff points. If two 6-0 teams were tied, a coin flip broke the seeds.

After placing the 6-0 teams, the five win teams were placed in the draw. In this case, winning percentage was the first deciding factor, followed by playoff points. All of the 5-0′s were placed first, then the 5-1′s.

The same protocol was followed with four-win, three-win and some two-win teams. All 2-1′s made the draw, some 2-2′s were removed via playoff-point tiebreaker.

Here are each of the eight classes with a state map with blue dots indicating north bracket and red dots indicating south bracket teams. There is no color designation for Class 7A and Class 8A who play in 1 to 32 brackets.

Beneath the maps, the bracket order is provided for the first round with seeds indicated.

Class 8A

Class 7A

Class 6A

Class 5A

Class 4A

Class 3A

Class 2A

Class 1A