[EKUAlum05]

Your argument is a bit mis-construed. Instead of looking at the blowouts of the very best 1 seeds vs. over mtached 4 seeds...the crux of arguing about the necessity of First Round games is more about the 2/3 matchups and the occasional 1/4 upset.

Sure Belfry will slaughter Knott Central, Bowling Green will manhandle Apollo, and Mayfield will have their starters resting in the 2nd Qtr vs. Caverna. But, haven't all three of those teams essentially done the same thing to the rest of their district? Would they also not do the same thing to the 3 seeds of the opposing district as well?

These match-ups unfortunately will happen, but for each of those 1/4 match-ups you will also have:

4 Male vs. 1 Lafayette
4 Middlesboro vs. 1 Prestonsburg

Not to mention Games like these out of your 2/3 matchups with arguably (2) Top 15 teams squaring off in their class:

3 Cooper @ 2 Anderson County
3 Desales @ 2 Green County
3 Garrard County @ 2 Russell
3 Greenwood @ 2 Christian County

There have been several 3 seeds make deep playoff runs and even win State Titles,and every year entire Districts get swept. This alone makes the First Round necessary. Cooper HS is one of the top 15-20 overall teams in KY and 9-1 and a 3 seed due to a 3 way tie. They have a very legit shot at making a Title push and if your way rang true they would miss the playoffs all together for losing a single district game.

An argument that is much more logical is to only do 3 teams per district and reward the District Champion with a 1st Round Bye. Though 3 way ties for first are common, it is very rare to impossible to see a 4 way tie. Though there are quality 4 seeds, the general rule of thumb insists that a team "lost"their way into a 4 seed instead of being a victim of circumstance. Thus you can reward the 1 seeds and eliminate the majority of the 1st Round Blowouts.