WPIAL brings back play-in games to determine state basketball playoff qualifiers

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, February 14, 2023 | 3:14 AM

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No more sitting and waiting.

Many WPIAL basketball teams will have their state-playoff hopes in their own hands this winter with the return of a consolation bracket. Rather than the traditional follow-the-winner tiebreaker system used for years, the WPIAL will hold play-in games to decide some PIAA tournament qualifiers.

The WPIAL briefly used play-in game in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons with much approval, but the league abandoned them once the sport expanded to six classifications the following winter.

Yet interest among coaches never waned.

“There was a lot of feedback from our member schools wanting to try that again. Why not?” said WPIAL administrator Vince Sortino, who oversees the league’s championships. “We’re going to try that again this year and see how it works out for one year. If it works out, we can move forward with it. If it doesn’t seem to work out, we can go in a different direction. But there was no reason not to try it again.”

Sortino discussed the play-in games Monday when WPIAL playoff brackets were revealed on TribLive HSSN.

Teams losing in the quarterfinals of Classes 5A, 4A, 3A 2A and A will enter the play-in bracket with a chance to qualify for states. In Class 6A, teams must reach the semifinal round to qualify for the play-in games.

In Class 5A boys for example, seven WPIAL teams qualify for states. Therefore, the four teams that lose in the quarterfinals will compete on the court for seeds 5, 6 and 7. The four teams that advanced to the semifinals will automatically qualify for states as the WPIAL’s top four seeds.

“I think it’s good thing,” WPIAL basketball committee chairman Bill Cardone said. “It creates excitement rather than sitting around, rooting for another team and waiting to see. This way, everyone knows what’s going on. And it gives kids an opportunity to continue to play. That’s what we should be about.”

The current follow-the-winner system rewards teams that lost to the eventual WPIAL champion or runner-up.

The number of state qualifiers varies by classification. In the boys brackets, Class 6A has three state qualifiers, Class 5A, 4A, 3A and 2A have seven apiece and Class A has five. On the girls side, Class 6A has four, Class 5A and 3A have seven, Class 4A has six, Class 2A has eight and Class A has five.

The number of state qualifiers is determined by the number of WPIAL teams competing in each classification.

In 2019, a group of coaches asked the WPIAL to reinstate play-in games, but that request was denied. The league instead said it would reconsider adding play-in games for the 2020-21 season, but those plans were dashed by the covid pandemic.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.