Greetings from the Buckeye State!  Just thought I'd pass along what's happening up here this weekend for those of you who may be interested.

Our 6-week regular season ended last week and tonight starts the playoffs for teams that "opted in".  Usually teams are seeded based on our famous Harbin computer rankings but this year, coaches seeded the teams who opted in by region, by class and they are playing at their higher seed beginning tonight.  For those teams that did NOT opt in to play in the post-season, they have the choice to either end their season OR they could schedule a game against another team that also opted out or otherwise had the night free.

Where it gets interesting...if your favorite team loses tonight, it may NOT be the end of the season!  In an effort to give as many teams a shot at 10 games, if the schools really wanted that, they are permitted to schedule up to 3 more weeks of games against teams that are out of the post-season, by loss or by choice.

Will be an interesting month ahead for those of us North of the Ohio River.  Best of luck to everyone in the Bluegrass on your continued seasons and hopes that everyone stays health and avoids and Covid shutdowns.

-CardinalsFan

1 hour ago, CardinalsFan said:

Greetings from the Buckeye State!  Just thought I'd pass along what's happening up here this weekend for those of you who may be interested.

Our 6-week regular season ended last week and tonight starts the playoffs for teams that "opted in".  Usually teams are seeded based on our famous Harbin computer rankings but this year, coaches seeded the teams who opted in by region, by class and they are playing at their higher seed beginning tonight.  For those teams that did NOT opt in to play in the post-season, they have the choice to either end their season OR they could schedule a game against another team that also opted out or otherwise had the night free.

Where it gets interesting...if your favorite team loses tonight, it may NOT be the end of the season!  In an effort to give as many teams a shot at 10 games, if the schools really wanted that, they are permitted to schedule up to 3 more weeks of games against teams that are out of the post-season, by loss or by choice.

Will be an interesting month ahead for those of us North of the Ohio River.  Best of luck to everyone in the Bluegrass on your continued seasons and hopes that everyone stays health and avoids and Covid shutdowns.

-CardinalsFan

CF---

Entering the playoffs who would you say are the top 4 teams in Ohio's largest class?   I believe you are a Colerain fan.   Are they in the mix to win the championship?

15 minutes ago, tcjkbt said:

CF---

Entering the playoffs who would you say are the top 4 teams in Ohio's largest class?   I believe you are a Colerain fan.   Are they in the mix to win the championship?

Great question!

Unfortunately, Colerain is suffering from a once in a generation down cycle team.  They are averaging 24 pts/game and haven't done that poorly since 1999.  They lost 2 conference games this year for the first time in their history and are 4-2 heading into the playoffs.  I can see them winning 1, possibly 2 games, but that's it really.

Last year's champion, Pickerington Central (Columbus area), is the favorite to repeat.  The other 3 likely come from the group of St. Edward (Cleveland), Mentor (Cleveland) and St. Xavier (Cincinnati).  A dark horse candidate would be Coffman (Columbus area).

Will be interesting to see who comes out on top.  Overall, play in Ohio has continued it's downward trajectory in terms of quality of play.  It's honestly painful to watch.  I hope a resurgence will occur next year when/if things get back to "normal" but there are no guarantees.

-CardinalsFan

I'll go with Lakota West as a long, long shot in D1.