NMAA releases new bracket for 5A girls
‘Mistake compiling data’ leads to Valencia being in, Santa Teresa being dropped
The New Mexico Activities Association on Monday released an almost entirely new bracket for the Class 5A girls state soccer tournament.
And then the NMAA released a third variation on that same bracket later Monday in what proved to be a massively confusing afternoon.
Only three of the 11 schools from the original 12-team bracket released on Sunday still possessed that same seed on Monday.
And there is also one new team in the field — Valencia, as the 12 seed, replacing Santa Teresa.
The NMAA would not comment directly on Santa Teresa being replaced. However, the Desert Warriors’ MaxPreps team page indicates that their season finale against Chaparral on Saturday — which was a 5-0 victory — has been forfeited, leaving Santa Teresa with an 11-10 record.
Schools in New Mexico are permitted a maximum of 20 games, which was the cause of the forfeit. But exceeding the game limit — which does come with its own penalty — is not the reason for the Desert Warriors getting the ax in favor of Valencia (9-9-2).
Santa Teresa’s record fell from 12-9 to 11-10, which impacted the MaxPreps rankings, and that proved to be the deciding criteria that favored Valencia, the Journal has learned. Those rankings on Monday afternoon had Valencia at No. 12 and Santa Teresa at No. 13.
As far as the juggling of most of the other teams that was revealed in the second bracket, the NMAA declined to elaborate.
“Due to a mistake when compiling data and because of an erroneous posting of a result (Santa Teresa), the Class 5A (bracket) released on (Sunday) is inaccurate,” the NMAA said in a statement. “The NMAA apologies for the mix-up.”
Among metro-area qualifiers, the biggest change involved St. Pius, which opened as a 6 seed Sunday but was bumped up to a 3 seed Monday, meaning the Sartans now have a first-round bye this weekend.
Alamogordo’s girls had been the No. 4 seed, but fell out of the top four to the fifth slot in the reconfigured bracket. The Tigers were slotted to play Santa Teresa — but will face Valencia instead.
These were the first-round matchups when the first bracket was announced Sunday:
No. 9 Bloomfield at No. 8 Grants; No. 12 Santa Teresa at No. 5 Los Alamos; No. 11 Artesia at No. 6 St. Pius; and No. 10 Roswell at No. 7 Los Lunas. These are the new first-rounders: No. 9 Artesia at No. 8 Roswell; No. 12 Valencia at No. 5 Alamogordo; No. 11 Grants at No. 6 Los Alamos; and No. 10 Bloomfield at No. 7 Los Lunas.
In addition to Los Lunas, the other two schools whose seeds weren’t impacted were No. 1 Albuquerque Academy and No. 2 Aztec. Among the top four seeds, Farmington dropped from a No. 3 to a No. 4.
Having a team fall out of a state tournament is extremely rare, but it does happen; in March of 2016, for example, the Santa Fe High boys basketball team voluntarily removed itself from the state tournament. Eldorado took the Demons’ place.