2022-23 AIA Awards and Thoughts

We crowned 7 Champions with the 1A-6A Conference winners and the first ever OPEN winner. There are some definite flaws with some of the AIA playoffs but we did add a shot clock and a new OPEN division. What can…

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We crowned 7 Champions with the 1A-6A Conference winners and the first ever OPEN winner.

There are some definite flaws with some of the AIA playoffs but we did add a shot clock and a new OPEN division.

What can they possibly improve next year?

Can we get one BIG school or arena to host the Final-4 or Elite-8? Especially the OPEN with many eyes on those games.

Can we get a HUMAN to seed the OPEN teams so teams don’t see each other too early in the same conference or even the same region? We had multiple teams play each other the 3rd time in early rounds.

I do like how the fact we can celebrate 1-6A separately but it may be nice to see 1-3A Finals one day, 4-5A Finals one day and then 6A-OPEN on another day.

Should we do all the conference Chips first and then go to the OPEN? If so, we need someone to seed the 8 or 16 teams. Maybe top-2 in each conference from 6-4A which is 6 then a possible 3A winner (Valley Christian) would have been worthy this year and the top rated team left from their algorithm.

Speaking of the algorithm–strength of schedule needs to be taken into account way more. Period !

Anyway, I do think it was a successful season with growth!

Before I list some awards, I do take into consideration the teams strength of schedule, unlike the OPEN bracket did. Also if a team is more balanced, it is less likely for many players on that team to be high on these lists. I am usually looking for very good players on great teams. There are obviously some exceptions to the rule. My lists won’t be the same as the “voters” of 2A-6A have. It is my personal beliefs when I watched the games all year long.