With action in the Passaic County soccer tournaments set to begin this week, the seeds are out for both the boys' and girls' competitions, along with field hockey.

This year, the county coaches' association is using a different bracket as a one-year experiment. College basketball fans may be familiar with the format, which was used the last few years by the Big East Conference. It features a tiered system of seeds, with the top teams receiving a "double bye" into the quarterfinals. The main goal behind using this format is to avoid the extremely lopsided games that often occurred in the first round of the county tournament in past years.

In the boys' soccer tournament, DePaul will be the top seed, followed by defending champion Clifton. Third seed Lakeland and fourth seed Hawthorne Christian also earned double byes. The fifth through ninth seeds will have a single bye, while the remaining six teams will play preliminary round games this week.

On the girls' side, defending champ Clifton is the number-one seed. The next three seeds, in order, are Wayne Hills, Lakeland and Wayne Valley; all three of those teams also get a free pass into the quarterfinals. With 16 teams in the girls' tournament, the eight lowest seeds play opening-round games this week, with the winners advancing to meet seeds 5-8 in the next round.

The soccer semifinals are set for Saturday, October 19. The boys will play at Passaic Schools Stadium while the girls will compete at Wayne Valley High School. The boys' and girls' finals will be contested as a doubleheader at Wayne Valley on October 26.

With field hockey only having six teams in Passaic County, that sport is not affected by the experimental bracket. Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley are the top two seeds, with the finals set for October 19 at Wayne Hills.

To see the brackets for any of these Passaic County tournaments, and to follow the results as posted by the PCCA, click on the Brackets link at the top of the page.