Indiana gets it right!

[thsrocks]

This is from today's Indianapolis Star:

 

I’m sure people — especially fans of teams in other leagues — tire of hearing about the dominance of the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference(Indianapolis big school conference) in high school football.

 

The playoffs have only served to further exemplify the MIC’s stranglehold in Class 6A football.

 

If you haven’t noticed, three of the four teams playing in the 6A semistate round this week come from the MIC. Third-ranked Center Grove (11-1) plays at No. 8 Warren Central (9-3) and sixth-ranked Carmel (9-3) hosts No. 1 Penn (12-0) on Friday.

 

While this development is not surprising, it’s worth noting that the gap between the MIC and other conferences seems as wide as ever. The evidence:

 

• The five MIC teams sitting at home were sent there by fellow conference programs.

 

• The top five teams in Class 6A in the Sargarin Ratings — and seven of the top 10 — are from the MIC.

 

 

So, Indiana lets everyone in the playoffs AND has it set up so the MIC has teams in three of the final four of 6A. Kentucky takes the opposite approach and lumps 4 historically successful big city teams into one region.

[theguru]

Two separate issues, right?

[CBDV]

Do they play a 10 or 9 game regular season?

 

How do they seed?

 

 

What do they do in classes with an odd number of teams?

[barrel]

From another site

 

"In Indiana we have 6 classes. We have a very unique set up. Everyone automatically makes the playoffs. Your first round opponent is determined by a draw of ping pong balls, just like the lottery. You are divided into 8 team sectionals (except 5 and 6A which are 4 team sectionals) and that determines your potential draw. We are already two weeks into the playoffs with the sectional championships set for Friday."

[Jumper_Dad]

This is from today's Indianapolis Star:

 

I’m sure people — especially fans of teams in other leagues — tire of hearing about the dominance of the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference(Indianapolis big school conference) in high school football.

 

The playoffs have only served to further exemplify the MIC’s stranglehold in Class 6A football.

 

If you haven’t noticed, three of the four teams playing in the 6A semistate round this week come from the MIC. Third-ranked Center Grove (11-1) plays at No. 8 Warren Central (9-3) and sixth-ranked Carmel (9-3) hosts No. 1 Penn (12-0) on Friday.

 

While this development is not surprising, it’s worth noting that the gap between the MIC and other conferences seems as wide as ever. The evidence:

 

• The five MIC teams sitting at home were sent there by fellow conference programs.

 

• The top five teams in Class 6A in the Sargarin Ratings — and seven of the top 10 — are from the MIC.

 

 

So, Indiana lets everyone in the playoffs AND has it set up so the MIC has teams in three of the final four of 6A. Kentucky takes the opposite approach and lumps 4 historically successful big city teams into one region.

How would you divide up 6A to get your top 4 in different regions so you could have an all Louisville 6a Final 4 like Indiana has in INDY?

[CBDV]

From another site

 

"In Indiana we have 6 classes. We have a very unique set up. Everyone automatically makes the playoffs. Your first round opponent is determined by a draw of ping pong balls, just like the lottery. You are divided into 8 team sectionals (except 5 and 6A which are 4 team sectionals) and that determines your potential draw. We are already two weeks into the playoffs with the sectional championships set for Friday."

 

I like it.

[barrel]

You like the ping pong balls? I could see people having fits over that depending on how the draw went

[CBDV]

Yes and no.

[Bluegrasscard]

It the article I posted before seeing this thread I note that if the Kentucky adopted the apparently former Indiana system you could seed Regions/Sections that are 7 or 6 teams and improve on the blind draw Indiana uses.

 

The negatives of blind draws is they nullify the regular season results. While I would like to see all teams get into the post season it seems there should still be a 'reward' for winning in the regular season.

[barrel]

People in KY get ticked off now with the way things are. Imagine BGP if a 1 and 2 seed had to meet in the first round while a 3 draws a 6 all due to ping pong balls. People always complain about KY's system (I played when there were only 4 classes and the complaints today would of been true then too in many ways) and I don't think they have looked at other states. Here are a few examples of other states explained by coaches from those states.

 

Louisiana is different this year.....all private/charter type/magnet schools make the playoffs in 4 divisions and public schools play in classifications and qualify for the playoffs as district winner or as wild cards by power points....top 32 make the playoffs in 5 classifications.

 

In kansas we currently have 5 classes of 11 man football and 2 classes of 8 man football. The 4 biggest classes play 9 regular season games with the last 3 games being district games. The top 2 teams from each district advance. District winners play runner ups in round one. Class 3A and 4A play their final regular season game on a Thursday, round one on the next Tuesday, and round two on Saturday. 3 games in 10 days. 6A, 5A, and 2A don't have the Tuesday game since there aren't as many teams. 2A plays in 5 or 6 team districts. Top two teams advance. The two classifications of 8 man play in 6 or 7 team districts with the top two teams advancing.

 

Illinois

 

9 Game schedule and at the end of regular season the top 256 teams (basically everyone with a winning record) are placed into 8, 32 team brackets based on school enrollment. So we have 8 state champions.

 

SC

 

4 classifications based on 135 ADM, redistributed every 2 years (200ish schools that play football)

 

AAAA splits into 2 divisions with a 4 round 16 teams tourney. Points system determines what the seeds are #1-16 for each division. Also your region finish determines where you are seeded. 11 games are in the regular season. Also, if you count a team from a lower classification, you have to sometimes wait and see how that team does in the first round of the playoffs, since A, AA, and AAA only play 10 regular season games.

 

Confused yet? Well determining which division you qualify for is not based on the 135 ADM count that put you into the AAAA classification, but rather the current 135 ADM is used to determine whether or not you are DI or DII. (So it is plausible to be in AAAA but have numbers that would put you in AAA.)

 

But don't let that get your knickers in a knot, there are 52 teams placed in the AAAA classification. The only teams guaranteed to be placed in DI are the 16 biggest, and the only teams guaranteed to be placed in DII are the 16 smallest. Therefore there are 20 teams that theoretically could be EITHER DI or DII.

 

Now for those 20 limbo schools the placement between being a top (home 1st round)) seed in DII and a lower (traveling 1st round) could hinge on an upset in a game that you are not not playing in. Or your team even plays against those teams. Or have those teams in your region. Or even play against one of the teams that is playing in the upset game.

[TIGER1988]

NO PING PONG BALLS FOR ME. I like the current system with a few tweaks. What about seeding each region top to bottom. one vs eight and so on.

[Jumper_Dad]

NO PING PONG BALLS FOR ME. I like the current system with a few tweaks. What about seeding each region top to bottom. one vs eight and so on.

 

I like the seeding idea but with some of the districts 100 miles or even more apart, it would be hard for a lot of schools to play a region schedule that would allow for regional seeding.

[NKY Bandit]

Nothing good ever comes from Indiana.

[TIGER1988]

I am not positive about the locations of all the schools in the east. But a scheduling that kept our current 6 class system, and evenly split schools into those classes seems the most correct way to do it. I believe there are currently 222 teams in KY. That would put 37 teams in each class and either 4 or 5 teams in each district. I am sure that some of this would cause extra travel for some. But, I think most everyone is at least in a 4 team district now. This would allow for the lowest record teams in each region to miss the state tournament, and reward the better teams.

[Dark Horse78]

You like the ping pong balls? I could see people having fits over that depending on how the draw went

 

In Indiana the drawing (ping pong balls) is televised and is a BIG deal. Pretty unique, never know who you will get. Could have 2 9-0 teams playing in round 1...talk about an early match-up!! Not advocating it, just a unique system.