I'm honestly surprised there aren't way more teams that decide not to participate in the playoffs.  If I am one of those 0, 1, 2, or even 3 win teams, you know your fate is getting clocked early.  Why would you want to put your team through that?  It doesn't help you as a program, and it certainly doesn't help the team that is beating the brakes off of you.  Playoffs should be about getting the best teams into the post season, period.  KY needs to cut the playoff teams drastically, probably by half for the regular season to have any semblence of being meaningful and also to make the playoffs a goal for programs to achieve.  

23 hours ago, Tkinslow said:

Well I disagree, all of these kids work hard all season and deserve a chance to play in the playoffs. Guys you also need to consider that high school sports don’t have unlimited funds so the more games they play the more money they bring in to be able to buy uniforms and other equipment needed to run the program. It seems like to some you would only have the teams that can win it in the playoffs if that’s the case what’s the point of having the 3A playoffs let’s just award CAL the trophy and move on.

I have a couple of questions.

1. Do host schools get to keep any or all of the gates for playoff/tournament games?  In Ohio, all post season contest ticket sales goes to OHSAA.  So host schools lose quite a bit in hosting playoff games.

2. You do realize that almost every high school football program loses money right?  They are not the cash cows people think they are.

46 minutes ago, New Colonel said:

I have a couple of questions.

1. Do host schools get to keep any or all of the gates for playoff/tournament games?  In Ohio, all post season contest ticket sales goes to OHSAA.  So host schools lose quite a bit in hosting playoff games.

2. You do realize that almost every high school football program loses money right?  They are not the cash cows people think they are.

Sorry, I missed an entire page somehow in this thread that answered my first question.

A lot of great discussion in this thread, old rehashed discussion, but great discussion.  

I like that the notion that the KHSAA gets money from the first four rounds was corrected.  As the original person commented about, "Its about the money", it is about the money.  If you ask the schools that are routinely a one seed, they would overwhelming tell you it is about the money.  When I was heavily involved at Raceland, the school lost money on every first round game, and the majority of the second round games.  I don't mean the gate lost money, I mean the school lost money.  We would routinely play a first round team that brought less than FIVE paying fans - five (5).  The agreement was always that Raceland would pay for the visiting team's travel and expenses.  Being a first round game, not many local fans from other schools would come, and the visiting team would bring five people, one year a team brought one (1) paying fan.  

So, the gate money was low, it wouldn't be enough to pay for the travel and expenses of the visiting team and the school would have to pay the rest of the money out of the General Fund to cover those expenses.  So, not only did Raceland not make money on the game, they lost education money as a result of it.  

As for "all kids want to play one more game", I can positively tell you, they do not.  When my son was playing and in the first round, and sometime the second round, the opposing players would tell our players on the field, "tell me where to go and I will go there, there's no reason for us work hard because you all are going to kill us".  One, player told him, "just push me in a direction and I will go with you".  These kids have had a terrible season and I'm sure enjoyed playing football, but they are done and want to move on.  Just ask them. 

I remember one season, the visiting bus showed up and I was there to great them and tell them about the facility.  The coach got off the bus and immediately asked, "Do you know what time Golden Corral closes".  I said I did not, but I would find out for him.  I came back and told him they agreed to stay open until his team got there after the game so they could eat.  He was so thankful and said, "The boys are going to be so happy, they really wanted to go to Golden Corral".  The boys played the game because they wanted to go out and eat.  Three plays and Raceland had scored three TDs.  One offense, one special teams, and one defense. 

Edited October 31, 2025Oct 31 by Ram

I'm all for more people playing football.  I think it is the best sport in the world and it teaches young people so many things.  I don't care if the player is terrible, good or great.  They will learn so much from it.  I have said many times, "just as much is learned on the football field as is learned in the science classroom or the math classroom, it's just a different learning environment".  I want as many young people to learn those lessens as are willing.  

Winning teaches a lot.  But, so does losing.  No one likes to lose, but it's something that you learn from and don't want to repeat.  I remember missing the playoffs one season, I never wanted to feel that way again, neither did my teammates.  Guess what?  We didn't because we knew what it felt like.  Let the kids learn, let them win, let them lose and leave the game with dignity after a rough season. 

Edited October 31, 2025Oct 31 by Ram

Surely Frankfort will withdraw from their Paris game. They had to forfeit in the middle of the game last night against Western Hills.

1 hour ago, Ram said:

The agreement was always that Raceland would pay for the visiting team's travel and expenses.

Why would Raceland agree to this?

16 minutes ago, New Colonel said:

Why would Raceland agree to this?

At the time, that was the rule, "The home team pays for travel for the visiting team".  

1 hour ago, Pi said:

Surely Frankfort will withdraw from their Paris game. They had to forfeit in the middle of the game last night against Western Hills.

It has not been made official, but I think Frankfort has forfeited the playoff game next week against Paris from what I've been told. 

15 hours ago, Pi said:

Surely Frankfort will withdraw from their Paris game. They had to forfeit in the middle of the game last night against Western Hills.

Isn’t there some rule about withdrawing the week of the game?  Such a shame to see a once great small school program at such a low state.  Wasn’t Danville almost there recently?

15 hours ago, Ram said:

At the time, that was the rule, "The home team pays for travel for the visiting team".  

That's a wild rule.

29 minutes ago, Oldercoach said:

Isn’t there some rule about withdrawing the week of the game?

I'm sure it's frowned upon, but what would be the repercussions? 

22 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

I'm sure it's frowned upon, but what would be the repercussions? 

I believe the rule is if you withdraw this upcoming week you also remove yourself from district play next year. If you withdraw before the end of the regular season there’s no punishment. 

5 minutes ago, gchs_uk9 said:

I believe the rule is if you withdraw this upcoming week you also remove yourself from district play next year. If you withdraw before the end of the regular season there’s no punishment. 

That's a pretty steep penalty considering the many factors that could contribute to a team withdrawing.