What if AAAA Hoops used the BCS Model?

In a random moment of inspiration, I had the idea of applying the college football playoff structure to class AAAA hoops.  I don't advocate for this as I'd rather have a 64 team model and it wouldn't be all the best teams.  But it would have a regional balance component and an automatic qualification component so why not.  

In class AAAA, there are 62 teams currently.  They represent 11 conferences and there are 3 independents.  That can be broken down into leagues that are mostly AAAA schools and those that just contain a small number of AAAA schools

The Power 5 Leagues, 46 teams representing the AAAA conferences

• Lake
• Metro West (2 AAA teams out of 8)
  
• Northwest Suburban (1 AAA team out of 14)
  
• South Suburban
• Suburban East

The Group of 6, 16 teams playing in non-AAAA conferences or as independents

• Big 9
• Central Lakes
• Metro East
• Minneapolis City
• Mississippi 8
• St. Paul City

I'll divide the Group of 6 teams into a north section and a south section

North (7): Bemidji, Brainerd, Cambridge-Isanti, Duluth East, Moorhead, Sartell, Sauk Rapids-Rice
South (9): Hastings, Minneapolis Southwest, Minneapolis Washburn, Owatonna, Rochester Century, Rochester John Marshall, Rochester Mayo, St. Paul Central, Tartan

The setup would be a 12 team model like college football.  All 12 teams would be selected and seeded by a separate committee of folks like myself and others who participated in the original 64 team model many years ago.  The top 4 seeds would get a bye to Wednesday 1st round games at state.  The bottom 8 seeds would play the 1st round on the previous Saturday.  The sites would be based on matchups and college sites like St. Olaf, St. Cloud State, Concordia would ideally be used for those 4 games.

The 12 teams will be selected in the following order of criteria.

Automatic Qualification
1) Any AAAA school that won its conference qualifies.
2) If the winner of the Northwest Suburban is not class AAAA, then the top AAAA finisher qualifies
3) If no school from the Group of 6 North Division meets the previous criteria, the committee shall select 1 team from that group.
4) If no school from the Group of 6 South Division meets the previous criteria, the committee shall select 1 team from that group.

At Large Bids
After the automatic qualifiers are determined, the committee shall select the number the teams necessary to fill out the 12 team bracket.  All non-automatic qualifiers may be considered here.

Selection and Seeding
The committee shall use the NCAA tournament model for selection and seeding.  Priority should be given to the following information.

1. Head to Head Results
2. Conference Finish
3. Common Opponents
4. Strength of Schedule

So how would that have played out in 2023-24 for our current tourney.

The following 7 teams automatically qualify as conference champions

Cretin-Derham Hall, Lakeville North, Minneapolis Washburn, Park Center, St. Paul Central, Tartan, Wayzata

With no one from the Group of 6 North Division automatically qualifying, 1 team must be selected from there.  Brainerd is the highest seeded team of that group so let's say they get that bid.

That leaves 4 At Large Bids.  Hopkins, Minnetonka and Shakopee I think clearly get 3 of those.  The other one, I think would come down to Farmington or East Ridge.  Overall resume, I think you have to give it to Farmington there but it would be really hard to keep out East Ridge as they been as good as anybody after they got healthy for the last 2 months.

So you get the drama of having a conference winner like St. Paul Central or Tartan stealing a bid and maybe keeping out an East Ridge.  You still get all the very best teams as 9 of the 10 teams and the top 6 in the final state poll would make it.