
East Catholic celebrates its fourth CCC championship in five years after a 55-47 victory over Northwest Catholic at Babe Allen Fieldhouse against Northwest Catholic on March 5, 2020 (Photo Sean Patrick Bowley)
It appears there will be a true Central Connecticut Conference champion crowned in boys and girls basketball later this month, albeit using a different format than in past seasons.
The CCC has approved having all 32 teams playing in the tournament, likely to begin on March 22, in the proposal obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media.
All will be seeded 1-32 likely on March 19 using head-to-head, winning percentage and by lot.
The top eight seeds will be in the top bracket and be determined the CCC champion. Then the other three brackets will be seeds 9-16, 17-24 and 25-32 and finish with a champion in each of those.
All games will be played at the higher seed, including the finals to be held on Friday, March 26, with a Saturday, March 27 makeup date. The host school will determine the spectator policy.
There will be a consolation bracket for each of the regions, guaranteeing each team two games. This entire format will be the same for girls and boys basketball.
In other leagues, the SCC has previously determined a format for a Division I and II champion and the ECC will have both a North and South Division champion. The FCIAC, SWC, NVL, Shoreline and Berkshire League will have one league champion.