2 minutes ago, Breds82 said:

I've seen both sides of this arguement. My freshman year we are a 4 seed (5-5) and beat the 1 seed from the other district 48-0. Sophomore year 2 seed (6-4) lost to a 3 seed. Junior year 4 seed (2-8) got waxed by 1 seed after a 3 hour bus ride. Senior year 3 seed (3-7) won 35-14 over a 2 seed.

Many of those records going into the playoffs are valid and justify being in the playoffs.  Are there upsets?  Sure there are.  That's great.  I even like it when the underdog wins.

Like I've said above, and for years, my stance is defending the players that have made it clear they would have been better off not being made to play the playoff game.  Many of these players were on 0-10 teams, maybe a few 1-9 teams.  

Prior to hearing these players give their thoughts on the matter, I was a proponent of letting everyone in the playoffs, because that is what I thought the kids would want, but that thought has since been corrected, by the players, not me.  I will shout their opinion on the matter for as long as I can, because they are not, were not, in a position to voice it for themselves. 

24 minutes ago, Ram said:

Well, I would normally think so as well.  But, in reality, the home team in the playoffs normally lose a lot of money on the first round games, and sometimes the second round games.  I know the team I have the most knowledge of does, and I would say your team does as well.   

St. X has to sell 500 tickets to break even which after the first round will have no problem doing. If St. X keeps winning will be big money because Male and hopefully a big money game hosting Trinity that will be standing room only. Probably most schools can break even at less than 500 because St. X pays a lot of security plus traffic control. I would think most schools after 1st round could sell at least 400 tickets.

3 minutes ago, Tigerpride94 said:

St. X has to sell 500 tickets to break even which after the first round will have no problem doing. If St. X keeps winning will be big money because Male and hopefully a big money game hosting Trinity that will be standing room only. Probably most schools can break even at less than 500 because St. X pays a lot of security plus traffic control. I would think most schools after 1st round could sell at least 400 tickets.

I would say they normally have trouble in the first round.  Of course, my greatest experience is with a Class 1A team.  Raceland has a huge fanbase (but some opt for a more interesting first round game then a blowout), but the problem is, many times the visiting team didn't bring enough fans to even pay for the travel.  I remember several times that the visiting team brought less than 5 payed attendees.  One game I remember specifically, the team had one (1) paying fan. 

For those that don't know, the home team in the playoffs has to pay the travel costs for the visiting team out of their gate proceeds.  Many times, the home team has to pay additional money out of their athletic money to cover those travel expenses because the gate for the game didn't cover it.

6 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

Then let's just not keep score, not have a tournament and declare no one winners. Every team schedules 15 "games" a season where you scrimmage another team for 3 hours. Everybody gets to play, everybody plays the same amount of games. 

Instead of Championship trophies, everyone gets a "You Played Football, 2022" ribbon. 

Wow. Little extreme reaction to what I said, eh Deuce? I usually don't see that out of you. I am not sure how it could be taken that I feel like everyone should be "given a ribbon" out of what I said. If a team earns a spot in the playoffs, no matter what the record, they should be able to play the game. I was simply saying that it doesn't hurt anything to let the games be played. The whole premise of the playoffs is NOT giving everyone a "ribbon". 

2 minutes ago, Kenny Powers said:

Wow. Little extreme reaction to what I said, eh Deuce? I usually don't see that out of you. I am not sure how it could be taken that I feel like everyone should be "given a ribbon" out of what I said. If a team earns a spot in the playoffs, no matter what the record, they should be able to play the game. I was simply saying that it doesn't hurt anything to let the games be played. The whole premise of the playoffs is NOT giving everyone a "ribbon". 

That wasn’t directed specifically at you, I apologize if it seemed that way. 

My entire argument is that a sub .500 team didn’t earn a playoff spot. With our current system, many are given one. 

2 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

That wasn’t directed specifically at you, I apologize if it seemed that way. 

My entire argument is that a sub .500 team didn’t earn a playoff spot. With our current system, many are given one. 

Can’t wait to see the total combined scores for the first round games this year.

3 minutes ago, Killowatt59 said:

Can’t wait to see the total combined scores for the first round games this year.

50 minutes ago, Killowatt59 said:

Can’t wait to see the total combined scores for the first round games this year.

What do they matter? If a 4 beats a 1 or a 3 beats a 2, what does it matter what happened in the other games?

Every year someone posts the combined scores of the winning teams and the combined scores of the losing teams.  It’s usually pretty remarkably lopsided.

On 10/30/2022 at 12:26 PM, Voice of Reason said:

I can't state here how strongly I am opposed to restricting playoffs. I want opportunity for as many as possible. In football especially there is a huge problem of the top teams dominating year after year. Restrict access further to those top teams and the sports will keep losing participants. It is about the experience for all these athletes first and foremost above winning. Restricting the playoffs makes it more about winning and less about experience and opportunity for as many young people as possible.

My question would be what kind of experience are the kids getting when they have a running clock on them in the 1st quarter, and lose by 50? 

56 minutes ago, GoodOleBoy said:

My question would be what kind of experience are the kids getting when they have a running clock on them in the 1st quarter, and lose by 50? 

Reality check. Life learning that things can get really tough and you have to work through it the best you can with class and character, then figure out how you can get better. Test yourself through adversity. Challenge yourself to get better. I could go on and on. Life is not easy. It is very hard and you have to work on it everyday.

Just now, Voice of Reason said:

Reality check. Life learning that things can get really tough and you have to work through it the best you can with class and character, then figure out how you can get better. Test yourself through adversity. Challenge yourself to get better. I could go on and on. Life is not easy. It is very hard and you have to work on it everyday.

Generally speaking I agree but not in this case.

57 minutes ago, GoodOleBoy said:

My question would be what kind of experience are the kids getting when they have a running clock on them in the 1st quarter, and lose by 50? 

 

12 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

Reality check. Life learning that things can get really tough and you have to work through it the best you can with class and character, then figure out how you can get better. Test yourself through adversity. Challenge yourself to get better. I could go on and on. Life is not easy. It is very hard and you have to work on it everyday.

 On this topic, I want to give a shout out to Trimble County. They had tons of adversity last night against Beechwood.  They dressed 17 players last night and knew what they were in for. They had a couple of turnovers in the 1st quarter that caused the game to get very ugly very fast on the scoreboard. Through all of that those kids kept playing hard and playing the right way. They did not hang their heads. Everyone who is part of that Trimble County program should be very proud of them for what they have done to rebuild football there and for how they handled themselves in that game last night.

3 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

Reality check. Life learning that things can get really tough and you have to work through it the best you can with class and character, then figure out how you can get better. Test yourself through adversity. Challenge yourself to get better. I could go on and on. Life is not easy. It is very hard and you have to work on it everyday.

How about learning that to achieve, you have to overcome adversity and do the best you can with what you have to make it to the playoffs.  But, if you don't, you miss out on something.  Success has to be had to do what many said you couldn't do.  If you don't make the playoffs, do what others don't so you can achieve what other can't.  Not everyone is successful without work and achievement.  

There are many ways to spin this, but life lessons can be learned without teenagers learning that everyone gets in the playoffs without winning a single game.