Under the current seeding process, a bracket template is created for each school year, which ensures that higher seeds play lower seeds in the early rounds. It basically reads Region 4 No. 4 vs. Region 3 No. 1, etc. The regions rotate each year during the four-year alignment cycle.

Those in favor of change want to abandoned the formulaic approach to the state tournament and seed the playoffs at the end of the regular season. It wouldn't be nearly as convenient, but some believe it would be more fair.

One of the suggestions is that a committee of principals and athletic directors get together at season's end and seed teams No. 1 through 16. Some have even indicated that in sports like football and basketball, a computer generated ranking system like Parry's Power Guide could assist with the process.

Such an approach would help eliminate coin flips, play-in games and the sometimes chaotic tie-breaking procedures that most regions inevitably used to determine seeding.

Drawbacks include the necessity to cut back the season several days to allow time for the seeding process, not to mention the inevitable controversy when one team is chosen over another for the 16th seed.

Bovee said that Colorado's association seeds teams in football and basketball, so it can clearly be done. The likelihood of Utah following suit anytime soon seems highly unlikely.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com

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