If the Sac-Joaquin Section ran its playoffs like the NCAA tournament- 2019

Apparently I did this blog last year, so I will keep it as simple as I can. I wondered what the high school basketball playoffs might look like if it was ran like the NCAA tournament. I will give some basic rules for my hypothetical tournament and what the brackets might look like. For the actual playoff brackets, go to There are teams that qualified for the actual playoffs that would not qualify here, and vice versa. Like last year, there would be no divisions. The smallest school could play the largest school. There are a few logistic differences between high school and college. 1) Because it is high school, I think teams should have a winning record in order to qualify. I gave the exception to teams who actually qualified for the playoffs (there are 3 teams in this case). 2) In college, teams cannot play in the same city as the host in the first two rounds, I allowed this as long as schools were not within two miles of each other. Like college, the bracket is divided in four-team pods, the highest-seed gets location priority. The #4 seeds gets what's left. 3) The talent "gap" between automatic qualifiers and at-large teams is not as big in high school as it is in college. Therefore, the at-large play-in games for my tournament will fall in the 15th seed as opposed to the 11th or 12th in college. If this tournament actually happened, there would be some predetermined host sites. In this model, I just used the largest schools in each region. For the tournament, there are four area codes in the Sac-Joaquin Section. Each region is named after area codes. Host sites 1st and 2nd rounds 209 530 707 916 Lincoln (Stockton) Davis Armijo (Fairfield) Franklin (Elk Grove) Turlock Yuba City Vacaville Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove) 3rd and 4th rounds 209: University of the Pacific (Stockton) 530: University of California-Davis 707: Solano Community College (Vacaville) 916: Sacramento State University Semifinal and Final: Golden One Center Play-In Games (@ Galt) At-large 15th seed: Modesto (14-13) vs. Stagg (14-13) 15th seed: Oakdale (15-13) vs. Lathrop (17-9) 16th seed: Highlands (13-9) vs. Foresthill (17-8) 16th seed: Greene Academy (11-9) vs. Stockton Christian (23-4) Bracket: Overall #1 seed: Weston Ranch (Stockton) 209 @ Lincoln (Stockton) (16) Mira Loma (11-13) vs. (1) Weston Ranch (27-1) (9) Kennedy (15-13) vs. (8) West Campus (20-6) @ Yuba City (12) Brookside Christian (23-3) vs. (5) Rio Americano (20-6) (13) Placer (17-10) vs. (4) Liberty Ranch (26-2) (11) Cordova (16-11) vs. (6) Monterey Trail (17-10) (14) El Dorado (17-11) vs. (3) Whitney (18-9) @ Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove) (10) Gregori (19-9) @ (7) El Camino (19-8) (15) Sacramento Adventist (23-5) vs. (2) Grant (20-6) 707 @ Turlock (16) Highlands/Foresthill vs. (1) Modesto Christian (21-7) (9) Sierra (15-11) vs. (8) El Capitan (20-6) (12) Ripon (16-11) vs. (5) Manteca (19-9) (13) Vacaville (14-11) vs. (4) Roseville (20-7) @ Armijo (Fairfield) (11) Marysville (20-7) vs. (6) Burbank (18-9) (14) Chavez (15-12) vs. (3) Vanden (19-7) @ Davis (10) Mountain House (20-6) vs. (7) Wood (20-6) (15) Modesto/Stagg vs. (2) Sheldon (17-10) 916/279 @ Franklin (Elk Grove) (16) Mariposa (22-5) vs. (1) Rocklin (24-3) (9) Woodcreek (16-9) vs. (8) Tracy (16-9) @ Vacaville (12) Turlock (14-12) vs. (5) Franklin-Elk Grove (18-9) (13) Edison (15-12) vs. (4) Central Catholic (19-8) @ Davis (11) Kimball (14-13) vs. (6) Sonora (22-4) (14) Bear Creek (13-15) vs. (3) Sacramento (16-9) @ Lincoln (Stockton) (10) Beyer (20-8) vs. (7) Golden Valley (22-5) (15) Argonaut (16-10) vs. (2) St. Mary's (20-6) 530 @ Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove) (16) Greene Academy/Stockton Christian vs. (1) Folsom (22-5) (9) Del Campo (13-13) vs. (8) Center (19-7) @ Armijo (Fairfield) (12) Foothill (13-8) vs. (5) River Valley (18-8) (13) Lincoln (18-9) vs. (4) Oak Ridge (17-10) @ Vacaville (11) Ponderosa (15-11) vs. (6) Davis (16-8) (14) Union Mine (17-11) vs. (3) Center (15-12) @ Franklin (Elk Grove) (10) Rodriguez (15-10) vs. (7) Inderkum (19-8) (15) Oakdale/Lathrop vs. (2) Jesuit (20-8) First 4 Out (all under .500) Elk Grove Pleasant Grove Vista del Lago Cosumnes Oaks NIT Teams would not have to have a winning record to qualify. Since the section does not have conference tournaments, those teams that finished second in league that did not qualify would get automatic bids. Elk Grove Bracket (8) Alpha Charter (Elverta) @ (1) Elk Grove (5) Los Banos @ (4) Ripon Christian (6) Enochs (Modesto) @ (3) Lodi (7) Sacramento Waldorf @ (2) Del Oro (Loomis) Cosumnes Oaks Bracket (8) Hughes Academy (Stockton) @ (1) Cosumnes Oaks (Elk Grove) (5) Valley (Sacramento) @ (4) Buhach Colony (Atwater) (6) Bear River (Grass Valley) @ (3) Nevada Union (Grass Valley) (7) Venture Academy (Stockton) @ (2) Granite Bay Vista del Lago Bracket (8) Vacaville Christian @ (1) Vista del Lago (Folsom) (5) Calaveras (San Andreas) @ (4) East Union (Manteca) (6) Amador (Sutter Creek) @ (3) Downey (Modesto) (7) Mesa Verde (Citrus Heights) @ (2) Laguna Creek (Elk Grove) Pleasant Grove Bracket (8) Western Sierra (Rocklin) vs. (1) Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove) (Game would be at Western Sierra since Pleasant Grove would host the other tournament) (5) Christian Brothers (Sacramento) @ (4) Rosemont (Sacramento) (6) Bella Vista (Fair Oaks) @ (3) River City (West Sacramento) (7) Denair vs. (2) Yuba City (Game would be at Denair since Yuba City would host my other tournament)