LHSAA Baseball Playoffs 101: What You Need To Know

April 16, 2023

GEAUXPREPS.COM BASEBALL POWER RATING PROJECTIONS (UPDATED EVERY FOUR HOURS)

LHSAA BASEBALL HOME PAGE

NOTE: GeauxPreps.com Power Ratings are unofficial. The LHSAA will release official playoff brackets on Tuesday, April 18, 2023.

OVERVIEW

With under 48 hours remaining until the 2023 LHSAA baseball playoff brackets are released, GeauxPreps.com wanted to give an insight as to how the postseason fields are determined.

Below are a few bullet points, referenced in the LHSAA handbook, to remember when looking at the power ratings before the bracket release.

LHSAA To Release Unofficial Power Rating Report Before Bracket Release

The LHSAA will post a power rating report Tuesday morning for each division. The list includes playoff-eligible teams, ranked accordingly, as well as squads that did not meet the 15-game limit or chose to opt-out. District champions will be noted. Schools will have a few hours in the morning to file appeals related to the seeding of teams or forfeitures in each class/division.

District Champions Earn Automatic Bid Into Playoffs

District champions receive an automatic bid to the playoffs. Only one representative from each district are guaranteed an automatic spot on the bracket. If there is a situation where a team wins its district, but doesn’t have a power ranking that places them on the bracket, that team will be placed as the lowest seed and move a team out of the playoffs.

15-Regular Season Game Minimum For Seeding Purposes

In completing the playoff bracket, all other teams qualifying for the state playoffs shall be selected on the basis of the established power rating system. Schools that fail to play 15 contests during the regular season, including district play and tournament games, shall be ranked separately using the same ranking system that is used to rank schools that played at least 15 contests or more during the regular season. These schools shall be ranked at the bottom of the bracket and seeded accordingly until all remaining positions on the bracket are filled.

Seeding The Brackets

In Non-Select Divisions 1 through V, qualifying teams shall be seeded 1-24 according to their power ranking with the top 8 teams receiving a first-round bye. In Select Divisions 1 through IV, qualifying teams shall be seeded 1-20 with the top 12 teams receiving a first-round bye while Select Division V shall seed qualifying teams 1-10 with the top 6 receiving a first-round bye.

Non-Select Divisions

DivisionBracket Size# of 1st Round Byes
I248
II248
III248
IV248
V248
Non-Select Divisions I-III will consist of best-of-3 series in first three rounds.

Select Divisions

DivisionBracket Size# of 1st Round Byes
I2012
II2012
III2012
IV2012
V106
Select Divisions I-III will consist of best-of-3 series in first three rounds.

Out-Of-State Team Reporting Procedures

When a team’s opponent is an out-of-state team, the classification of the out-of-state team shall all be weighted equally. There will be no play-up points factored into an out-of-state opponent. When a school plays an out-of-state school that has any games on its schedule after the LHSAA’s final playing date, those games shall not be used in determining the school’s power ranking.

  1. When a school plays an out-of-state school all contests played that count on their regular season record shall be used to calculate a school’s power ranking.
  2. If an out-of-state opponent plays more than 34 regular season games by the time of the LHSAA’s final playing date, only the results of the first 34 games played shall be applied in the LHSAA’s Wild-Card Program.

Power Rating Tie-Breaking Procedures

The LHSAA has a tie-breaking procedure to be used when determining seed placement for two or more schools that have the same power rating:

Tie-breaking procedures to be used when two or more schools have the same power rating are as follows:

  1. If two schools that are tied played each other during the season, the school that won the most games against the other school shall be the highest-seeded school.
  2. If the two schools did not play each other during the season, or if there are more than two schools involved in the tie, the tie shall be broken by applying the classification play percentage. The school with the higher percentage shall be the higher-seeded school.
  3. If after applying Rule 2, the tie is not broken, the school with the highest won-loss percentage in district play shall be the higher-seeded school.
  4. If after applying Rule 3, the tie is not broken, the school with the highest won-loss percentage in overall regular season play shall be the higher-seeded school.
  5. If after applying Rule 4, the tie is not broken, the school that finished in the highest position in the district shall be the higher-seeded school.
  6. If a tie still remains, the higher-seeded school shall be selected by having a “draw” conducted in the LHSAA office by the baseball seeding committee.
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