The OSSAA has released the first rankings of the 2024 Fall season and I’ve got some observations.
Each week from now until the postseason, the OSSAA will release the rankings for every team in Classes 2A and A while it’ll just be the top 20 for Class B. These rankings are compiled from the coaches of the teams in their respective classes. When it is time for the pairings for districts and regionals to be announced, these rankings will be used to determine said pairing.
I know and understand that certain coaches have used these rankings as a way to try an manipulate those postseason pairings and for other reasons that aren’t necessarily reflective of what is truly happening.
Having said that, as I previously said above, I have some observations.
First, for an organization that is notorious for not being the quickest with disseminating information to the public, I have to give it up to them for releasing the rankings on Monday when the OSSAA Baseball Manual says it would the on Tuesday, 8/27.
Now on to the rest.
Class 2A
With the new look of the Fall Season adding the additional class of 2A, the rankings show all 16 teams of the class. When it is time to set the postseason pairings, they will be paired up into a best of 3 series (1 vs 16, 2 vs 15, 3 vs 14, etc.) with the winner of that series moving on to the state tournament. Think of the NCAA Super Regionals.
For the most part, I can’t really find anything egregious about these rankings. Personally, I’d rank Silo #1 over Dale because Silo has been dominant in their now 6 wins. Granted they may not have played the caliber of teams that Dale has, but the Pirates are coming off of 2 losses last week with the last loss to Calumet where they gave up 11 unanswered runs.
At this point I’d probably rank Byng at #3 with Oktaha at #4 and Calera at #5, but that is splitting hairs.
Class A
With the addition of Class 2A, Class A is now a 32 team class. In the postseason, they will pair up into 2 team districts (1 vs 32, 2 vs 31, 3 vs 30, etc.) with the winners going into 4 – 4 team Regionals. The winner and runner up of those regionals will then move on to the state tournament.
Class A is going to be so fun to watch this Fall. It looks like up to 10 teams (possibly 12) are state tournament contenders.
As far as the rankings go, as with 2A there’s nothing to get too upset about in the top 20. Outside of a bad loss (more of an anomaly) to Dale, Rattan has been the most impressive. Wright City has also been impressive, but they do have a loss to Okarche. Rattan, Wright City, and Okarche are my top 3 so far and I’d rank Okarche ahead of the Jax based upon that win even though Okarche has 2 losses.
I feel like at this point I need to clarify that when talking about a team that is ranked where they shouldn’t be or receives a 1st place vote they clearly shouldn’t have, my criticism is in NO WAY directed to the players on that team. They work hard and even though their team’s results aren’t where they would want them to be, at no point will I criticize an individual player.
With that said, we have our first egregious ranking/vote in this poll. Bennington received a 1st place vote while they came in at #25. Think about that. This team is only 7 spots away from being ranked last, but someone gave them a 1st place vote. What are we trying to do here?
Class B
There are over 50 teams in Class B so the OSSAA will release a top 20 each week. The postseason format for Class B will be the same as Class A although some districts will obviously have more than 2 teams (possibly up to 4).
Once again Calumet and Ft Cobb-Broxton are the top 2 teams in Class B and their rankings show it. I agree with Calumet being #1 seeing how they beat FCB head to head last week.
I can’t argue too much with the rest of the top 8 although I would’ve put Sentinel at #3 when it was time to rank them (Stuart hadn’t beat Oktaha on the road yet).
Now is where we get to the ridiculousness of it all.
- Leedey – I’m not saying they aren’t a top 10 team in B, but how do they get a 1st place vote? At the time of the voting, the Bison had lost 2 straight games by a combined 27 runs.
- New Lima – Yes they have the most wins in the Class at 10, but their losses are all by at least 8 runs to Tupelo (11-1), Mill Creek (8-0), and Santa Fe South (12-4). Two 1st place votes?
- Frontier – One 1st place vote. Yes they are 6-2, but their losses are to Drummond (11-4) who is ranked behind them and Ripley’s JV team
- Paden – One 1st place vote. At the time of the voting, Paden’s 3 losses were to Frontier (16-4), Santa Fe South (18-6), and Ninnekah (10-7).
As I stated earlier, I understand that coaches have used and will continue to use the rankings system to try and manipulate, for lack of a better word, postseason pairings. On top of that they may have other “reasons” for voting certain teams the way they do. However, that isn’t the right thing to do to the players on those teams and the other teams. Ranking a team a certain way could have a ripple effect on where another team lands and so one.
How about we vote the right way and let things play out as they should?
(I know I’m probably yelling into the void on this.)
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