Teams qualify for the playoffs the same way they do now -- district play. But I say there's a way to eliminate any kind of 'ranking system' by just eliminating districts altogether. All teams in each REGION (8 or 9 teams) play one another in regular season for this set-up:

 

Once the teams are set, use a "ranking point system" in each region to determine who plays who.

 

So instead of the winner of District 1 playing the #4 team in District 2, they might play the #3 team in their own district in the first round, due to the "ranking point system".

 

Figs has the right idea. But I say there's a way to eliminate any kind of 'ranking system' by just eliminating districts altogether. All teams in each REGION (8 or 9 teams) play one another in regular season for this set-up:

 

1) 221 football-playing schools, so divide by 6 = 36.5. All classes but one would have 37 teams. Combine what are now "districts" into "regions" of either 8 or 9 teams.

 

2) Region teams are required to play all teams in region in regular season.

* Schedules are almost completely done -- most teams would be in 9-team Regions, meaning 8 required games and 2 games for traditional rivalry games some teams play outside their class.

* Main issue in scheduling would be for AD's in each region to balance out travel times each biennium.

 

3) My preference on playoff format would be for top SIX out of region make playoffs. First 3 rounds of playoffs are intra-region (helps with travel). #1 & #2 in each region get rewarded with a Bye in 1st Round. #5 plays #4...winner plays #1 in 2nd Rd; #3 plays #6...winner plays #2 in 2nd Rd.

* Every game in playoffs would be a re-match of a regular season game.

* Blowout games matching what are now #1 against #8 are eliminated.

* Allows team that lost in regular season a chance to revise game plan and requires team that won to prove they're better both times.

 

4) Many more teams wouldn't make playoffs this way -- if it's a big deal for them to get one more game, why not allow them one 'post-season' game with the matching 'place' from the nearest region (in other words, #7 from Region 1 plays #7 from Region 2)?

* nobody 'advances,' but they get one more game (programs split the gate to help traveling team).

* no longer would the worst team from one district have to play the best team from another.

* taking 6 from an entire region would not cause one very strong district's #4 team (think: Manual in the 6A Super District) not to make the playoffs.

Edited December 6, 201411 yr by CoachJ
added clarifying sentence in paragraph one

Very interesting thoughts, CoachJ. Seems like a good plan. Other than fewer teams making the playoffs, anyone else see any downsides to it?

I would venture to say every time a player takes the field the game means something. Ditto for the coaching staffs preparing the teams.

Hello, lurked on the site for a bit, finally got around to making an account.

 

Anyway, good idea, but I think it still doesn't solve an important problem. If this system had been applied to the 6A bracket this year then presumably all the Super district schools would have been in the same region and once again only one of them would have gone past the quarter finals even though they are arguably the best four 6A teams.

 

This could be solved by mixing the region brackets like so.

 

Top left Bracket

1' Region 1 (Bye)

vs

Winner of 5' Region 1 and 6' Region 2

 

vs

 

2' Region 2 (Bye)

vs

Winner of 3' Region 1 and 4' Region 2

 

The Top right bracket

1' Region 2 (Bye)

vs

Winner of 5' Region 2 and 6' Region 1

 

vs

 

2' Region 1 (Bye)

vs

Winner of 3' Region 2 and 4' Region 1

 

The bottom brackets would be like this only replacing Region 1 with region 3 and region 2 with region 4. The winner of the top left would play winner of the bottom left in the semis (same for right half) and then the winning teams meet in the finals.

 

To illustrate theoretically, Male and Trinity would have in the quarterfinals here instead of the second round (same for Manual and St. X) assuming they could beat the best of their neighboring region. This would eliminate any kind of 'weak bracket' by distributing the best of each region to both sides and making certain that only the strongest teams make the semis/finals. Which would hopefully prevent blowouts like we saw with Trinity/Meade County in the semis, and Desales/NCC in the 2A finals.

 

Also, I would suggest reducing the number of required region games to four or five (depending on whether there are eight or nine teams in a region). That should still be enough to rank by and gives the teams more freedom in constructing their schedules.

 

Thoughts?

Edited December 6, 201411 yr by psychicscubadiver
Corrected faulty grammar

Welcome to BGP psychicscubadiver. Great comments. I'm interested to hear what others have to say in response to your thoughts.

Psychicsubadiver...

 

Good points to achieve the goal of getting the top 2 teams in the finals in each class.

 

Problem with that will always be the real-world issues of TRAVEL for the teams. Pitting a Region 1 team against a Region 5 team might require in some classes having a 3-hour bus trip multiple weeks in a row.

 

I know a lot of people don't like the idea of the 3 or 4 best teams playing against each other early in the playoffs, but when you consider (in 6A anyway) they are the ONLY four schools that have a similar draw of students (i.e., they can all four choose from the entirety of Jefferson County), it does make sense a bit they'd have to play through each other to advance.

 

Strength in football is PARTLY due to the size of your enrollment, but coming from an independent HS that was attractive and available (through a small tuition payment) to kids from a large surrounding area, I can tell you the student 'market' you can draw from is just about as important.

Ah, I believe I misinterpreted your suggested region layout then. As I figured it, the eight western-most schools in the state would comprise Region One. The eight eastern-most schools would comprise Region Four. The middle two regions would be similarly split and would serve to house any remainders (i.e. if there were 34 schools, Regions 2 and 3 would have 9 each).

 

This addresses the travel concerns mentioned. Once again using 6A as an example, the only three hour drives that would occur (according to Google maps) would be McKraken county and Marshall county (Region one) against whatever Louisville teams (Region two) they played. Travel like that is inevitable no matter how you arrange things. Even if both counties only played 'in region' there would be similar travel times with Meade County and Central Hardin.

 

Also, I would suggest having the higher seeded team be the one that travels. That way the lower seeded team has home field advantage (making for a more interesting game) and the burden of travel is put on the team that has a higher chance to gain from the meeting.

 

In regards to your suggestion that the super district makes sense as those schools are geographically close, I would have to disagree. The playoffs should be a contest to determine the best teams in the state regardless of their location.

Welcome to BGP psychicscubadiver. Great comments. I'm interested to hear what others have to say in response to your thoughts.

 

Thank you. It seems like a good community here so I was happy to join. Funnily enough, I wasn't much into football when I actually went to high school, but the sport has grown on me the past couple of years and I remember my alma mater fondly.

I came in this expecting something like the Dr.Pepper college football playoff commercials.