In sports, whenever a committee is tasked with assembling a bracket and seeding playoff teams, the decisions are always met with scrutiny. I don’t envy the position of the people involved — it’s not an easy position to have. A group of people that spend a lot of time in the field of their sport have no doubt loads of knowledge, but that doesn’t mean they make all the right decisions.

On Feb. 23, the WIAA (Washington Interscholastic Activities Association) released the brackets for the upcoming state basketball tournament. The setup is simple: the top eight seeds are protected and are guaranteed to make the Tacoma Dome or Yakima Valley SunDome, depending on classification.

Those top eight seeds are highly coveted because of that factor and the anticipation on who gets those positions is always up for debate, year in and year out. This year at the 3A boys level and 4A girls level, a few decisions are head scratchers in the eyes of someone who has watched a lot of games all season.

The most egregious of which is Auburn Mountainview boys basketball team being given the 11th seed after losing the district championship game. The Lions were the number one seed and fell to Lincoln in the district title game, 70-55. The 11th seed would be fine in any other instance, but Bellarmine Prep, which didn’t even make the semifinals in the district tournament, was given one of the coveted top eight seeds, sliding in right at number eight.

Bellarmine lost their opening round game against Gig Harbor at home in the district tournament. They went on to beat Enumclaw and Silas to make the state tournament. Why were they given a break when they had lost that early to an inferior opponent (Gig Harbor is seeded 15th)?

Auburn Mountainview has a legit gripe, and due to the lack of transparency, will not be given any answers by the WIAA. The WIAA did not respond in time to comment on how teams are seeded. All there is are rumors through the grapevine.

Auburn Mountainview has more wins than Bellarmine (22 AMV, 21 Bellarmine), fewer losses (2 for AMV, 7 for Bellarmine), as well as a league championship split — and they made the district championship game. All cases for being seeded ahead, but Bellarmine is three spots in front of Auburn Mountainview.

Let’s take a closer look at the common opponents, and there are four of them: Gig Harbor, Silas and Enumclaw.

Bellarmine went 6-4 in the 10 games against common opponents with Auburn Mountainview. Auburn Mountainview went 3-1, with a larger margin of victories against Silas and Enumclaw.

The only case that Bellarmine has is they beat the district champions, Lincoln. Which they have, only one time in four tries. So, did the committee value one win in mid-January over an entire Auburn Mountainview season, or was this just a blatant mistake? If so, that begs the question, why play the games?

A side note apart from this District 3 quandary is Monroe in District 1 won their district title over Edmonds-Woodway. Monroe was given the 10th seed.

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Ben Ray writes about sports in South King County. Contact benjamin.ray@soundpublishing.com.