No real surprises in playoff pairings; explaining New Castle's seeding

By Mike White | Monday, Nov. 2, 10:45 p.m.

The WPIAL was widely criticized a year ago when the league made Upper St. Clair the No. 14 seed for the Class AAAA playoffs and matched the Panthers against McKeesport in the first round. This year, everything was pretty quiet.

The WPIAL's pairings and seedings seem fair and can be understood. Some people might not understand New Castle's No. 12 seed in Class AAA and Uniontown's No. 6 in AAA. New Castle deserves to be higher, and Uniontown lower. But let's try to explain.

Some of the WPIAL's seedings are not "true" seedings because teams that finish first and second in their conferences get home games in the first round and usually have to be seeded in the top eight. But the WPIAL really did a smart thing in seeding New Castle 12th and Uniontown No. 6. Here's the scoop:

There is no way in the world the WPIAL believes New Castle is the No. 12 seed or Uniontown No. 6. New Castle is the third-place team from the Parkway Conference and many thought the Red Hurricanes would be the No. 9 seed and play Uniontown as the No. 8 seed. But if that happened, New Castle might win and have to face No. 1 seed Thomas Jefferson in the quarterfinals.

In order to keep New Castle away from Thomas Jefferson, or even No. 2 Hopewell, the WPIAL had to seed the Red Hurricanes lower. That's why the league put them at No. 12, and why Uniontown was moved up. Uniontown got no bargain, drawing a good Belle Vernon team.