Tournament brackets

Question
We recently received tournament brackets (5 teams). The schedule of games were as follows: Seed 4 vs Seed 5, Seed 2 vs Seed 3 and Seed 1 receiving a bye and playing the winner of Seed 4 vs 5.  Is that the proper bracket? It sees to me that 2 should play 5, 3 plays 4 with 1 playing the winner of 3 vs 4.  What does NSA rules say?  I originally went to the NSA site, and was directed here.  Please help!  

Answer
Hello Tangela,

The reward for being seeded number one does always result in the easiest path to the finals.  If there are an odd number of teams requiring there be a bye, the top seeds draw the byes.  The bracket you mentioned actually gives 1,2, and 3 seed a bye for the 1st round with the 4 and 5 seed playing an extra game.  That is common practice.  I'm assuming this is single elimination since you didn't specify.  The way this tournament was drawn up, if I understand you correctly, is the 4 vs 5 game is actually a "play in" game.  If everything falls as it should you'd have 1 vs. 4 in one semi and 2 vs 3 in the other semi.  That would follow logic that the 1 seed has the easiest path to the finals.  I don't see anything wrong with this.  The way you want the bracket drawn, your making the 3 seed play the extra game, assuming they won the first one, instead of the 5 seed should they win there first game.  I hope this makes sense, sometimes brackets can get very confusing.  I don't play much NSA, so I don't know that there is a standard bracket they use.