Will traditional powers keep scheduling lower classed teams? If playing down hurts your RPI it seems if teams want more than 2 home games in the playoffs you will schedule up. I know rivalries play into this but home in the playoffs means something.

Will traditional powers keep scheduling lower classed teams? If playing down hurts your RPI it seems if teams want more than 2 home games in the playoffs you will schedule up. I know rivalries play into this but home in the playoffs means something.

 

A good program could certainly schedule a top rpi, but do you sacrifice good competition that prepares you, just to beat up on weaker higher classed teams to build your RPI.

Will traditional powers keep scheduling lower classed teams? If playing down hurts your RPI it seems if teams want more than 2 home games in the playoffs you will schedule up. I know rivalries play into this but home in the playoffs means something.

Playing up is important, but you have to win playing up. Otherwise, it does you no good. You get no "points" for playing up and losing.

Playing up is important, but you have to win playing up. Otherwise, it does you no good. You get no "points" for playing up and losing.

 

I'm actually talking about teams like Beechwood and Boyle who have rivalries with lower classed teams. NCC and Danville. .7563 to .7562 is the difference between having home field in substrate. A lot of expenses are at stake for teams who have to travel.

I just can't see Boyle and Danville not playing each other regardless of RPI impact. The community would be up in arms.

I'm actually talking about teams like Beechwood and Boyle who have rivalries with lower classed teams. NCC and Danville. .7563 to .7562 is the difference between having home field in substrate. A lot of expenses are at stake for teams who have to travel.

 

But how much money would Boyle be giving up by not playing Danville? Wouldn’t you potentially be losing money twice?

Someone will figure out how the "Game the system" and get a ridiculous RPI. I think most will schedule like they have been.

 

One thing that could happen is the really good small schools may find it hard to schedule bigger schools as bigger schools will fear a hit to their RPI, win or lose.

RPI is flawed in my opinion. Bowling Green played a much tougher schedule than South Oldham, and had to travel 2 hours to them. Even though Bowling Green was clearly the better team last night. South Oldham played a cupcake schedule and had a much higher RPI than Bowling Green. They should've just used Calpreps if they were gonna use a ranking system, but any computer ranking won’t be perfect.

RPI is flawed in my opinion. Bowling Green played a much tougher schedule than South Oldham, and had to travel 2 hours to them. Even though Bowling Green was clearly the better team last night. South Oldham played a cupcake schedule and had a much higher RPI than Bowling Green. They should've just used Calpreps if they were gonna use a ranking system, but any computer ranking won’t be perfect.

You get no credit for playing a tough schedule and losing.

You get no credit for playing a tough schedule and losing.

 

It also makes people not want to play out of state. It also doesn’t factor in the points in the loss, if BG lost to T by 1 or 49 it wouldn’t matter. It’s just not a good system. You’re crippling your teams’ RPI by not playing cupcake teams and putting yourself in games you may or may not win. But if you don’t play those, you aren’t ready for big games.

The best teams usually win, whether they are playing at home or on the road IMO. Home field, other than convenience, isn't a huge advantage in high school football. It's not like the "home crowd" (see thread on attendance) is gonna cheer the home team onto victory and make it difficult on the visiting team.

Under the old system you didn't play every game at home, every year, if you were the best team.

 

As @BillNye said, home field doesn't really matter to the outcome of the games at this point.

Out of state opponents are discounted heavily by the RPI system. Given that many KY teams play out of state opponents, the MaxPreps system would be much fairer to those teams. Rumor is that some feared teams running up the score if that system is used. Fact is, the MaxPreps system caps all wins at 35 points, so it would do you no good to run up the score. It also would give good value to be competitive and losing against a superior opponent. The RPI values winning, no matter the strength of the opponent.

 

Bottom line, the goal of any "playoff rating system" is to project the best teams a path to the finals. No system is perfect but the RPI seems more flawed that using MaxPreps.

 

Winning on the road is not impossible. Great programs can win no matter the venue. Since 2002, Bowling Green has lost TWO road playoff games. 2010 at Christian County, 2018 at Owensboro. I am certain similar numbers exists at Belfry, Boyle Co, Trinity, etc.

I agree, road playoff games aren’t a huge deal as the team who’s better most likely wins. I just think the system needs a bit of work.

The teams that will be in demand for scheduling are bad teams in bigger classes. Look at the schedule of the #1 team in the state in RPI, Kentucky Country Day. That will tell you what the KHSAA RPI rewards.