The biggest thing that most people never think about is the disparity in school size within a given class. Even with 6 classes Ky has the following difference in school sizes between the largest and smallest in each class.

 

6A 700-1377 96.7% difference

5A 528-699 32.4% difference

4A 421-527 25.2% difference

3A 316-420 32.9% difference

2A 200-315 57.5% difference

1A 51-201 291.1% difference

 

Having 25% or more boys to draw from is quite a disadvantage to overcome, especially for smaller school.

 

Which is why reducing classes isnt going to help anything. The gaps just get wider.

Which is why reducing classes isnt going to help anything. The gaps just get wider.

 

Agreed.

 

The spread in size for Ky classes is similar to our neighbors north and south of us. Ohio has size spreads of 33.3% to 55.7% and Tennessee has spreads of from 34.0% to 47.8% in their 2A through 5A schools. Class A only list from 0 to 375 and 6A from 1500 to larger.

I'd be satisfied with going back to four classes.

 

I agree, 4 classes and make schools actually have to qualify for the playoffs. You would then take those blowout first round games out of the mix and not risk injuries in games that are not competitive.

I agree, 4 classes and make schools actually have to qualify for the playoffs. You would then take those blowout first round games out of the mix and not risk injuries in games that are not competitive.

 

4 classes doesn’t address any problem bring up aside from the “too many trophies” argument. All it does is widen the gap between the largest and smallest school in each class, take away scheduling flexibility (as districts get larger and there are more mandated games) and thus moves more blowouts into the regular season. And this problem would be magnified in the largest and smallest classes. If you truly want competitive balance and more meaningful games, reducing classes is not the way to do it.

Perhaps, and I offer that word questionably, we are so close to the billboard that we can't read it. Being in our present system so long we tend to focus on why change won't work rather than what might. So I offer this suggestion, perhaps we ought to start with the premise..."hs football in Ky is a brand new sport to be introduced in 2018, what would be a playoff system design to accomplish the goals of this exciting new sport?" Might open our minds and make us focus more clearly on what we want to accomplish and how to do that, rather than the negative approach of why change just won't work. Perhaps?

Perhaps, and I offer that word questionably, we are so close to the billboard that we can't read it. Being in our present system so long we tend to focus on why change won't work rather than what might. So I offer this suggestion, perhaps we ought to start with the premise..."hs football in Ky is a brand new sport to be introduced in 2018, what would be a playoff system design to accomplish the goals of this exciting new sport?" Might open our minds and make us focus more clearly on what we want to accomplish and how to do that, rather than the negative approach of why change just won't work. Perhaps?

 

It seems to me that people are most upset about two things. One, there's too many trophies. And two, there's too many bad teams in the playoffs which results in playoff blowouts. It's already been pointed out that more than a few states have way more classes for a lesser or equal population than KY. The world hasn't ended and HS football hasn't been destroyed in those states. As far as too many teams in the playoffs, I can see the point in that argument. But is that really that big of a deal? My biggest issue with it isn't the blowouts, it is that it lengthens the already long season.

 

My biggest issue in the whole deal, is the competitive balance of the sport. Cutting classes doesn't address this issue. It only widens the gap. While you might be adding a handful of good teams to each class, you'll be adding just as many, if not more, bad teams. And by increasing the district sizes, you'll be forcing more of these bad matchups and limiting the really good teams ability to schedule a couple other tougher games. Do we really want to see Trinity pick up 2 more district games against smaller, outmanned JCPS schools?? Or maybe add a couple current 1A schools to Belfry's slate.

 

It's not the number of trophies give out that is affecting the competitive balance of the sport in this state. It's the wide disparity of school sizes. And cutting the number of classes only makes that gap wider, which ultimately would hurt the sport even more.

Perhaps, and I offer that word questionably, we are so close to the billboard that we can't read it. Being in our present system so long we tend to focus on why change won't work rather than what might. So I offer this suggestion, perhaps we ought to start with the premise..."hs football in Ky is a brand new sport to be introduced in 2018, what would be a playoff system design to accomplish the goals of this exciting new sport?" Might open our minds and make us focus more clearly on what we want to accomplish and how to do that, rather than the negative approach of why change just won't work. Perhaps?

 

Well if this brand new sport was treated like all other KHSAA sponsored sports, every single team would be in the playoffs. Why would football be treated differently than Baseball, Soccer, Volleyball, Basketball or Softball?

 

Under the premise that you asked however...

I'd make slightly larger districts with 6 to 7 teams. (no Complaining about added travel)

That way each team would still have 4 or 5 non-district games they can schedule how ever they wanted to.

Then the top 4 would advance to the playoffs from each district, leaving the bottom 2 or 3 home come playoff time.

Biggest issue with districts in Kentucky is how spread out the teams in each size class are, we have little pockets of 4 to 8 teams then large gaps between the next cluster of teams.