Strength of schedule

[Lawnboy13]

Under most cases, I would say for strength of schedule to matter for ranking purposes, then school ABC who is playing a bunch of tough games needs to win some of them for it to matter. Anybody can play a tough schedule and lose all the tough games. Like Kentucky football in the example used...you can't brag about playing in the SEC and playing a tough schedule if you almost never win any of those games.

 

High school football though, can be/is a little bit different. Lets take the much talked about on this board Newport Central Catholic. Small 2A school. Plays a bunch of bigger 5A and 6A schools in non-district. This year they struggled in those games and their record doesn't look all that great. BUT, even though they didn't win those games, as RCC9 has pointed out, it may very well and probably has helped prepare them for the 2A road ahead. So, in essence, a good 1A or 2A school could put a brutal non-district schedule together against much larger comp, lose ALL those games and still possibly be one of or even the best team in their class. So in this case, the team may not have to win as I stated above.

 

What I think is more telling is when these big schools schedule down and/or schedule weaker opponents in their respective class. Lets take Scott Co. for instance. 7-0. Darn good record. Combined won loss for the teams they have played, 16-37. Played one team with a winning record, and played three teams with only 1 win each this late in the season. How good is Scott Co? Man, I have no clue, neither does almost anyone else. They MIGHT be the best team in KY. they MIGHT not be top 5 in their own class, I really don't know. What I do know is, I don't think their schedule has/will help prepare them for though battles in the state tournament. Now, to be fair, one or two of those games might have been scheduled thinking the teams would be decent, like maybe PRP for example. But it didn't turn out that way. If I'm Scott Co, and my goal is to build a 6A championship team, and I think I am well on my way there, then I absolutely BURN UP Trinity's, St. X's, BG's phone trying to get a game or two EVERY YEAR. Just seems to me they go out of their way not to do that. But that's another thread I guess. Anyway, point being my team can only learn from playing in games like that, and even if we lose it helps in the long run.

 

Ya, what he said. And many times they beat these 5A & 6A teams.