There seems no way to avoid travel and maintain a format where the best teams are rewarded for their play. I would like to think it could seeded from the polls, but whose polls do you go by, and we know how polls can be flawed. Most years it may not matter, but for instance this year you may have a contender outside the top 8 depending on which poll you go by. Case in point I do not remember which one but just a week or two ago Lex Cath had dropped out of one poll.

 

Seeding district champs followed by runner ups could be an answer, are there any districts with 3 solid contenders? Are there any districts with no contenders?

 

I guess there is no perfect answer, but any would be better than our current system.

We don't do it in either baseball or basketball, so why is the KHSAA so adamant that we cannot change the football format?

There seems no way to avoid travel and maintain a format where the best teams are rewarded for their play. I would like to think it could seeded from the polls, but whose polls do you go by, and we know how polls can be flawed. Most years it may not matter, but for instance this year you may have a contender outside the top 8 depending on which poll you go by. Case in point I do not remember which one but just a week or two ago Lex Cath had dropped out of one poll.

 

Seeding district champs followed by runner ups could be an answer, are there any districts with 3 solid contenders? Are there any districts with no contenders?

 

I guess there is no perfect answer, but any would be better than our current system.

We don't do it in either baseball or basketball, so why is the KHSAA so adamant that we cannot change the football format?

 

Can't be a human opinion poll... BGP does a ton of diligence in their rankings but any time humans are involved bias and reputation is part of the equation.

 

Would have to be a Computer System or a system similar to Ohio's Harbin System.

 

The District Champs/ Runner-Ups Seeding is definitely the best way to keep value in the regular season, but truth be told I also look at District 7 of 3A and see Powell and Breathitt make the playoffs when neither could beat a Bardstown or Western Hills who would miss the playoffs.

 

The trade off there is Bardstown and Western Hills did nothing to deserve a playoff spot whatsoever, whereas Powell did at least win the games needed to win their District.

 

I do not ever recall a 4 seed winning a state title in our current system..3 seeds have done it before but it is less than 1% of the time...and the 20 team playoff would make sure that those teams make the playoffs.

 

The travel and lack of neutral site venues will always be the bugaboo of a seeded system.

 

The easiest way to revamp the playoffs while keeping seeding would be to make Geography the precedence and split the State in Half once again and make sure the Semi's are played with a Geographical focus. You could help make sure there is never a 6 hour bus trip this way. This though will never appease the crowd of East vs. West or 6A where Jefferson County dominates.

 

The easiest way to revamp the playoffs while keeping seeding would be to make Geography the precedence and split the State in Half once again and make sure the Semi's are played with a Geographical focus. You could help make sure there is never a 6 hour bus trip this way. This though will never appease the crowd of East vs. West or 6A where Jefferson County dominates.

 

But since we are just fantasizing that KHSAA will ever do anything why would we leave in the current hot topic of East/West and the Jeff Co. problems?

We have discussed before the Belfry vs. the west issue before, but regardless Belfry has fared well once they got to the championship game. However their have been instances in some classes where there were blowouts in the final, leading into the "the real championship game was in the previous game" discussions.

Unfortunately some of those do have merit.

 

If we ever want to make it --RIGHT-- we will have to figure out the travel issues which personally I think is overblown. If you are 16 seed traveling 6 hours to a 1 seed, that is just the penance you pay, the 16 seed couldn't win it all if they hand picked each game thru the tournament. When you get closer to the middle of the pack, #8 up they should be quality enough teams that the travel shouldn't completely blow their chances out of the water.

Perhaps the final 8 could play a neutral sight?

WKU, Georgetown, and Campbellsville all are in the middle part of the state.

 

To be the best, you should have to beat the best-

Football is a game played by men who give their heart and soul, blood, sweat and tears all year, the best teams deserve to be rewarded for their efforts. It cheapens the game to give a team a shot just because where you live.

 

Its' a tough subject without a perfect answer, but the KHSAA owes the players a better format.

If Belfry turns the ball over like they have been against the better teams on their schedule, not sure they'd beat any of the other 7 teams on the list. They are fortunate to be on the opposite end of the bracket to 6 of the other 7 teams, so, while they may well make it to BG, that doesn't necessarily mean they're one of the Top 2 teams..

 

Some of you guys are hilarious.

Let me re-do this. Let's use the current top 8 in the BGP rankings. Assume that the better seed will always host the game until the championship, which would be at a neutral site.

 

[8] Corbin at [1] Central

[5] Caldwell County at [4] Boyle County

 

[7] Paducah Tilghman at [2] Belfry

[6] Elizabethtown at [3] Lexington Catholic

 

Top 4 seeds would all hold serve. And you would have what many have been saying all year.....A Central and Belfry Championship game.

But since we are just fantasizing that KHSAA will ever do anything why would we leave in the current hot topic of East/West and the Jeff Co. problems?

We have discussed before the Belfry vs. the west issue before, but regardless Belfry has fared well once they got to the championship game. However their have been instances in some classes where there were blowouts in the final, leading into the "the real championship game was in the previous game" discussions.

Unfortunately some of those do have merit.

 

If we ever want to make it --RIGHT-- we will have to figure out the travel issues which personally I think is overblown. If you are 16 seed traveling 6 hours to a 1 seed, that is just the penance you pay, the 16 seed couldn't win it all if they hand picked each game thru the tournament. When you get closer to the middle of the pack, #8 up they should be quality enough teams that the travel shouldn't completely blow their chances out of the water.

Perhaps the final 8 could play a neutral sight?

WKU, Georgetown, and Campbellsville all are in the middle part of the state.

 

To be the best, you should have to beat the best-

Football is a game played by men who give their heart and soul, blood, sweat and tears all year, the best teams deserve to be rewarded for their efforts. It cheapens the game to give a team a shot just because where you live.

 

Its' a tough subject without a perfect answer, but the KHSAA owes the players a better format.

 

Travels biggest issue is 1A and 2A to be honest. As well as just the overall "Competitive advantage" argument.

 

Once you get to 3A and above you have programs and school districts that are more financially stable.

 

The problem is when you look at schools like a Ballard Memorial, Jenkins Independent, Berea Independent, Nicholas County, Trimble County, etc.

 

For a program like a Belfry to make a 6 hour trip, pay for food, take cheerleaders, and have their fanbase travel the cost is easily offset. They could pay for that with concession money from one of their bigger regular season games.

 

For Ballard Memorial to be asked to drive to a 7 hour trip and take 2 or 3 buses to Shelby Valley for a 1st Round playoff game is a completely different story. This is Thousands of dollars for a team who may have averaged 900 people at their home games all season and essentially they would lose a substantial some of money while losing the game in a running clock.

 

Ballard Memorial cannot afford to get a hotel for their team (and in smaller classes the road destination may not even be in a town where overnight accommodations are even possible) so then you have teams potentially driving at 4 AM to get home in November. Lots of liability there.

 

The "Competitive advantage" side is one I don't overly sympathize with... I have seen Belfry for example drive 4 hours and play better than some of their home games. With that said, it is hard to ignore that teams who are asked to take an unprecedented road trip could have their normal routine impeded substantially. If it is a 1 seed vs. a 16 seed... well you should have played better in the regular season... but let's say it is the last 8 teams in the State and Belfry is the 4 seed at home and Tilghman is the 5 seed having to drive 6 hours.Along that trip they get behind a wreck and road construction and suddenly they are arriving an additional hour later and are rushed into preperation and warm-ups. You think the coaches and players of the school who loses that game are going to be happy and think they were given a fair shake at beating an equal team?

 

Distance is a HUGE deal as such

I don't disagree with anything you said there

There is no perfect scenario-

I don't disagree with anything you said there

There is no perfect scenario-

 

There is controversial solution for the small schools.

 

Combine them all and do a Class 1-A and Class 1-AA. Class 1A would be all Western A and AA teams, Class-1AA would be the same for the Eastern teams. Treat them as standard classes and use the same criteria, but let them end their Regular Season a week early with 9 games. The 1A and 1AA Individual Class Titles can be played at a smaller venue..most likely one of the same venues used for Semi-Finals weekend. Then you can play the All A Championship between the two winners with the rest of Championship weekend.

Just curious if anyone has checked into how a larger state, such as Georgia handles their playoffs?

How about a really big state like Texas?