3 hours ago, theguru said:

Seems like yesterday.

Watched a couple of Somerset games on YouTube and I was surprisingly impressed with size and physicality kinda reminds me of LCA...really excited about 2A playoffs even more..

40 minutes ago, DaTruth said:

Watched a couple of Somerset games on YouTube and I was surprisingly impressed with size and physicality kinda reminds me of LCA...really excited about 2A playoffs even more..

The Briar Jumpers were the champs that year, of course they had some dudes!

3 hours ago, ATLCat said:

Beechwood and Belfry rest safely in the East. RPI will be huge. I expect Belfry to finish 9-1 and I expect Beechwood to finish 9-1. The wildcard is waiting in District 7 thanks to our wonderful flawed RPI system. If Pburg finishes undefeated (very likely) then they could be a problem. Beechwood plays a bunch of 6A teams so I could see them having the edge on the 2-seed and maybe have enough bonus points to overtake an undefeated Pburg who will only have likely one win over a larger class school (3A Estill County). Belfry and Beechwood will need to hope the CPU math favors them because their district won't be doing them any favors whereas Pburg's district may be surprisingly higher in the RPI. I think Belfry and Beechwood would sign up to play at Pburg over drawing each other in Round 3. If that happens and Pburg avoids either that means they likely get a team like Breathitt County in a game very other 2A team in the State wishes they were playing instead.

 

Out West it is even more convoluted. LCA is already drawing the short straw with three losses. 

Mayfield, OCath, & Somerset all are teams I would be a bit surprised if they aren't sitting at 9-1 also when the season plays out.

 For this I think Coach Oakley Watkins might as well put a deposit down on a charter bus because LCA is about to do some travelling and having a game against either OCath or Mayfield on the road is a pretty safe assumption. Somerset doesn't have a lot of RPI meat on the bone, Southwestern may only win one game and their other wins won't be big class jumpers. South Laurel is a good quality loss but if South takes it on the chin to Pulaski and North they may be closer to LCA than the other two. Mayfield and OCath will be tight in RPI.

 

Long story short... Prestonsburg may end up being the RPI smoking gun case study if they end up in the Semi-Finals hosting while arguably two if not three Top 25 regardless of class teams are sitting on their couches after challenging themselves with their schedules and catching a lone loss as a result.

 

2 hours ago, Astro Domino said:

At this point in the West if OC, Mayfield and LCA all win out (which I expect them to do) I think it is inevitable that LCA travels to Mayfield for the 4th year in a row and for the 3rd year in a row in the 3rd round. For exclusively this reason I wish they would seed the 3rd round statewide. I don’t see any way OCath doesn’t get the top seed out west considering they play in a 4 team district compared to Mayfield being in a 6 team district which gives OC 2 extra games to play RPI boosting opponents. 
 

if the hypothetical situation ATLCat mentioned happens in the East where PBurg gets the 1 seed and Beechwood and Belfry have to play in the 3rd round then that to me is a complete red flag that the RPI would need a major overhaul.

I think there is zero chance an undefeated Prestonsburg finishes higher in RPI than a 9-1 Beechwood.

Last year we had that scenario heading into the last game of the year. Prestonsburg was 9-0 with a 3A win and they were #6 in RPI.

I see undefeated Prestonsburg playing at Belfry in round 3. As a Beechwood fan, I would like to play Prestonsburg in round 3 to get reps against a run focused offense before possibly facing Belfry.

I'm still not adjusted to the idea of being in 2A.  Every week I click the 3A rankings thread first and for a brief moment I’m looking for my Pirates ?

2 hours ago, DaTruth said:

As a Mayfield fan....I don't think I would like to face LCA in 3rd round even in Mayfield bc I think it could be the same results as last year..IMO

Oh I definitely don’t want to see them in the 3rd round. Maybe Somerset can beat them out in RPI and Mayfield can get Somerset and OC can have LCA.

7 hours ago, theguru said:

The Briar Jumpers were the champs that year, of course they had some dudes!

It's crazy that Somerset/LCA was a second round game.  

Just saw a mind blowing stat in the Link this morning….Beechwood to date is 44-4 over the last 4 years.  All 4 losses have come at the hands of neighbor, CovCath Colonels.

36 minutes ago, Oldercoach said:

Just saw a mind blowing stat in the Link this morning….Beechwood to date is 44-4 over the last 4 years.  All 4 losses have come at the hands of neighbor, CovCath Colonels.

Didn't mayfield beat them 2 years ago?

14 hours ago, Watusi said:

I'm still not adjusted to the idea of being in 2A.  Every week I click the 3A rankings thread first and for a brief moment I’m looking for my Pirates ?

Would you rather be in 2A or 3A this year?

47 minutes ago, Oldercoach said:

Just saw a mind blowing stat in the Link this morning….Beechwood to date is 44-4 over the last 4 years.  All 4 losses have come at the hands of neighbor, CovCath Colonels.

Those have to be regular season games bc Mayfield beat them in 2023 playoffs 

1 hour ago, Subway5024 said:

Would you rather be in 2A or 3A this year?

I think 2A is more winnable for Belfry than 3A simply because CAL is not in 2A. I would take CAL to win the State Title in every class except 6A this year. They are just next level.

With that said, if Belfry were in 3A right now they would probably be the 2nd ranked team as opposed to the 5th ranked team in 2A.

The ironic part is I think Belfry "potentially" has an easier path to the Finals in 2A despite that. If they can avoid that 3rd Round game with Beechwood you have to like your chances against the other Eastern Semi-State teams not from Fort Mitchell. In 3A you would have Bell County and LexCath in your Semi-State... then several very good teams in Rockcastle County, Bourbon County, Lloyd Memorial, Lawrence County, Russell, and East Carter. I would take all these "very good" teams over Pburg and Breathitt County head to head. 

2 hours ago, Subway5024 said:

Didn't mayfield beat them 2 years ago?

Correct, article perhaps left that post-season detail out and I missed it.  Thanks.