
Some sports promote balance with the redistribution of financial resources or with mechanisms like a reverse order draft pick. There is also a tradition of open draws in some of the oldest competitions in the world, e.g. the FA Cup. Then there is the deliberate penalising of horses from previous performances through the handicap system.
The seeding system can be far from perfect. It is pretty straight forward in Munster football. It is not so obvious in Munster hurling. All five participants could make a case for being seeded. Newly crowned All-Ireland champions might not be seeded in Munster based on recent Munster championship performances. The Clare manager would not be impressed!
Those interested in the range of issues involved are directed to an excellent 2002 paper in the Journal of Sports Economics written by Allen Sanderson. The paper title is The Many Dimensions of Competitive Balance.