All the talks about Boyle County being the best team in the state regardless of class has made me wonder, would it be possible to have an Open Division Championship in Kentucky to determine the true (overall) state champion? And would it be a good idea? I know that Cali and Arizona have it. It makes sense in Cali because of just how many schools they have but Arizona despite being much larger than Kentucky in population the amount of schools they have who play 11 man football is around the same. Kentucky has 224 highschool football teams and Arizona has 220. I feel like it could be possible, but I want to see what you guys think of the idea. 

 

 

Here's an article by the the AZCentral talking about them implementing it in Arizona.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/high-school/2019/01/22/aia-executive-board-approves-landmark-open-division-football/2643983002/

This article talks about this seasons open Division tournament

https://www.eastvalleytribune.com/sports/ala-qc-ready-for-third-straight-open-division-appearance/article_fa3b1ed8-849f-11ee-9d42-3b7802f7ba36.html

The eight teams will pulled out of the best from 6A, 5A and 4A through a computer rankings system. About 10-15 teams would be posted as part of the Open Division by the AIA each week starting Week 5.

Criteria for the computer rankings have not been determined. The board decided to table a motion to adapt an Arizona computer system that would put a 14-point cap as a point differential on game and factor in out-of-state games with strength of schedule for the February board meeting.
 

From the Arizona article.

If KY did same as Arizona and used Calpreps, this would be 8 teams for open.

I love the Idea. Schools in CA use to do divisions based on school size like Ky. Now your Division/Class is based on your teams previous years performance and who you have returning. Lincoln high school public school here in San Diego used to be Division 3(D1 is the best outside of open) about a decade ago with 1200 students but now with recent success they’re in Open and get to compete against the best of the best even the greater catholic schools and public schools with 2,200 plus students. Also I believe it’s up to the coaching staff/school wether or not they want to be in Open or not…. Bringing it back to KY I’m sure Boyle would have accepted the open challenge in a year like this. But I’m not entirely sure we would get enough teams on a year in year out basis to accept an open Invitation to compete against teams like Trinity X and Male.

6 minutes ago, Tigerpride94 said:

If KY did same as Arizona and used Calpreps, this would be 8 teams for open.

This would be 1 interesting playoff bracket! Would love for this to happen in KY to see who the true #1 is each year. 

Are KY programs bound to the KHSAA? Would another entity be able to form on its own and draw teams to play in say an Open, All-Private or All-Public “league” or state playoff structure?  I hear a lot of folks on here complaining about the KHSAA, the RPI, the number of classes, transfer rules, etc.  Could someone else do it better, and get schools to buy in?  I believe they could, although highly unlikely. I’d love to see someone try, for my own entertainment. 

KHSAA uses their RPI. Would they use something else? Who are the top 8 in KHSAA RPI?

56 minutes ago, Voice of Reason said:

KHSAA uses their RPI. Would they use something else? Who are the top 8 in KHSAA RPI?

I don't think could use RPI because of class factor. KCD has higher RPI than any 6A team for example.

For fans this would be amazing. I'm sure most of these schools are much more comfortable in their own classes where they have a much better chance of winning a championship. Really good 4 and 5 A teams would probably not be in favor of this.

16 minutes ago, Bud_Kilmer said:

For fans this would be amazing. I'm sure most of these schools are much more comfortable in their own classes where they have a much better chance of winning a championship. Really good 4 and 5 A teams would probably not be in favor of this.

I think they could try doing this after the season so like all the class championships could be  viewed as conference championships and then there could be an invite system to compete for the open Division Championship

34 minutes ago, Tigerpride94 said:

I don't think could use RPI because of class factor. KCD has higher RPI than any 6A team for example.

That's what I thought on RPI. I don't see the KHSAA using something other than RPI.

26 minutes ago, KP33 said:

I think they could try doing this after the season so like all the class championships could be  viewed as conference championships and then there could be an invite system to compete for the open Division Championship

It seems like Indiana had a post season tournament of champions several years ago. The smaller class state champs got destroyed by the ones from the largest classes. I believe they stopped it after just a few seasons.

Additional thought is that to do a 6 or 8 team post season tournament after the playoffs, it would stretch to Christmas and teams in the finals would have played 19 games.

38 minutes ago, Jumper_Dad said:

It seems like Indiana had a post season tournament of champions several years ago. The smaller class state champs got destroyed by the ones from the largest classes. I believe they stopped it after just a few seasons.

Additional thought is that to do a 6 or 8 team post season tournament after the playoffs, it would stretch to Christmas and teams in the finals would have played 19 games.

Shorten the original playoff system by 1 game. 1st round bye for 1st seeds.

48 minutes ago, Devils Fan said:

Shorten the original playoff system by 1 game. 1st round bye for 1st seeds.

It would still be 19 games if a 2-seed or higher made the finals and 18 games is still a lot of games for high school.

18 minutes ago, Jumper_Dad said:

It would still be 19 games if a 2-seed or higher made the finals and 18 games is still a lot of games for high school.

In the Arizona plan, the top 8 teams don't play in their class playoff so wouldn't be extra games.