Seeding high school tournaments

In Massachusetts, there's the infamous Sullivan Rule. If you are a Division 3 school and play in a league with mostly Division 1 and 2 teams, you only need to get a .500 record against Division 3 schools to qualify. One softball team went 1-19, but 1-1 against Division 3 teams, and qualified for the tournament several years back. And the coach who bitched and moaned enough to get the MIAA to pass the rule, since her teams couldn't beat top-notch competition campaigned to get the rule put in place did handstands.

Even better was Massachusetts' flirtation with the open basketball tournament.

 

The other good exception is the newer one that all division champs and runners-up from leagues/divisions with five teams or more get in. Every now and again a team in a four-team division finishes tied as league champ and gets in despite being below .500 (Duxbury baseball).

Those teams that have shit records but get in on the "Sullivan Rule" should have reporters at their games just so we can put the finishing wraps on a 1-20 campaign. (We're talking about you Millis and Weston in seemingly every sport and Watertown baseball.)

 

Maureen Sullivan, what a wonderful lady. Sad to see she's no longer coaching.

I didn't know about that newer rule, KP, having been out of Massachusetts for a while. The softball team I referenced was Watertown, and its lone win came against a newer charter school. They played the top seed (a team I covered at the time) and got clobbered. Fun times.