I’ve looked at most of the threads about 2020 schedules and I was wondering who determines what teams a school will play. I realize ultimately the final say belongs to the AD but how much input does the HC have? Does the principal get involved or does he/she just rubber stamp what they are given. I realize every school is different in how schedules are handled.

 

Let’s look at STX for example. This will be the 3rd season for their HC and the 1st year for their AD, both replacing a HC and AD who had worked together for many years. Does the STX scheduling philosophy change with Coach Wallace now having more influence on who they play with the known difficulty they have filling out their schedule with competitive teams? Are they now more receptive to traveling to NKY for a game with CovCath as opposed to playing a lesser Jeff Co team that more than likely will end up with a running clock? Or do they keep everything status quo and continue to fill their their schedule with local inferior teams?

 

Just curious how schools determine who they play out of district when putting a schedule together.

I think at its most basic, the first call comes from the Administration/Principal. They determine how much freedom they give the Athletic Director (generally I think they tend to leave it largely in the Athletic Director's hands) and then the Athletic Director determines how much freedom they give the Head Coach.

 

If you have a new AD, then I would assume the Principal would be more likely to be a little more involved in the process, and same for the AD when there's a new Head Coach.

 

I know with a lot of schools, things like travel games in their non-district schedule come down to budget. That's where bowl games come in, offering more take for a team to make them willing to travel further than normal and have the opportunity to play someone who isn't necessarily from their neck of the woods. If your budget allows it, I think sound reasoning would tell you to look for a more quality opponent in most cases rather than play someone a team that will just be a punching bag. The RPI system is likely to push towards that as well.

 

Then there are other factors in play, like in Fayette County where the school district itself has an Athletic Director, and the Fayette County AD requires all of the county high schools to schedule one another. For Frederick Douglass and Bryan Station, who are the lone Fayette County schools in their respective districts, that means their ability to schedule many non-district teams is really under a stranglehold because there are 5 non-district teams that they have to schedule.

Let’s take another look at the STX situation. For the 20-21 school year, they will have a new president (coming in from PA), a new principal, a new AD, and a HC (though he has been around for many years in the state) that has been in the Louisville area for only 2 previous seasons. This should be interesting to keep an eye on for the 2021 season and beyond for STX football.

From my knowledge the schedule belongs to the HC of that sport unless you have a power hungry AD. The schedules should be the responsibility of each sports HC.