In the same respect i don't believe a team like Beechwood, who has an independant status, should be able to stay in 1A due to their enrollment numbers. The realignment has basically made it a cake walk to the playoffs and state finals for teams like these.

 

What does being independent have to do with their alignment?

Where is the 'eh, whatever' option?

 

Not much of change for the top few teams, who were always playing for playoff positioning anyway.

My problems do not lie at all with the regular season, although it did create a few new issues that will take time to resolve. All in all I was pleased with the regular season and will hold my judgment on the post-season until the season officially comes to a close.

 

First my nitpicks on the regular season. The new intricacies with the regular season that I particularly did not like, but will accept, is the stress it puts on coaches to find more non-district opponents. We found that for coaches in 4 and 5 team districts that although the new system did allow them to have the option to "bulk up" their schedule, it also presented the problem of being stuck with open dates and needing to fill the schedule with anyone possible, thus creating mismatches late in the season with no tangible reason for the favored team to play and a heightened chance of injury. For head coaches, it makes it particularly difficult when you and your 4A team are preparing for the playoffs with your team record at 6-2, and you have to play a non-district game with a 2-6 2A team that your team has no past history with. A prime example, I will use the team I follow Belfry: Scheduling issues caused Belfry to have an open date in Week 10, they were then forced to play East Carter,pretty much as a last result. Not only did the 8-0 Pirates have to make a long bus trip to take on a 4-4 team, but it was a team that is in the same class and in the same district as two of the other top contenders for the 3A title. Belfry was clearly a much better team, and won the game playing through the motions. East was just good enough that the Pirates couldn't necessarily bench all their starters, and fortunately no Pirate player was injured.

 

Now on the flip side, I do see quite a few positives. This does allow for new rivalries (and old ones that had to go dormant) can be started and/or revitalized. IFa coach can schedule effectively and early enough, he can in essence have more freedom to pick specific games that can help address particular needs he feels must be addressed. Once again, for the sake of consistency I will use Belfry. The Pirates had dominated their opposition and was in desperate need of a challenge going into the playoffs and were able to play 5A Johnson Central in what quickly became one of the most anticipated games in EKY this season. The result, both teams got to play a top notch opponent before the playoffs, the game was a sell-out, and both teams got weaknesses that were previously unexposed to come to surface in time to correct them.

 

All in all, my biggest gripe coming from a very successful program, is actually a positive gripe for programs looking to improve. The new system I honestly feels better benefits the struggling programs in the state, moreso than the established ones. With smaller districts, the chances of making the playoffs are greatly improved so coaches can effectively schedule to prepare for the one or two critical games needed to prepare their squad to compete for a playoff spot. In 4 team districts, the pressure of making the playoffs is completely off so the focus can be on scheduling the best way to generate revenue (i.e. more winnable games to inflate a team's record and build program confidence), or scheduling to prepare younger teams for the next season, this can not only allow teams the struggle with numbers to keep a larger pool, but potentially the increased revenue can improve faciltiies and strength programs or in extreme examples be pooled to eventually bring in a bigger name coach.

 

One facet that has the potential to be fully utilized with the new system is being able to schedule more games against out of state competition, something more benficial in certain parts of the state as opposed to others. NKY/CKY teams are able to play more games against Ohio competition that is far and largely tougher than KY schools, especially in the Cincy area. You also can see WKY schools play Indiana and Tennessee schools. Yet, for mountain schools who have isolated scheduling ability due to lack of good roads in the region, it is very difficult to schedule WV schools because the way their playoff system is set up, it would be less than a wise decision to compromise their playoff spot against a good KY school if the win would be practically meaningless.

 

Something I do expect to see in coming years is a higher influx of Bowl Games in Week 2 of the season, or possibly even Week 3 now. It also wouldn't surprise me to see a late season Bowl game with the increasing ammount of teams who have Weeks 10 and 11 as either an open date or as a non-district game. Whether these will work, or whether it is a wise decision is highly debatable.

 

In conclusion, I see the new system assiting in parity, it also affords the luxury for KY's top tier teams to establish a higher consistency of the national level with more freedom to play big name out of state schools, this will ultimately assist recrutiing in the long term. One season is wayyyy to early to evaluate how this system will work, and until the playoffs are complete it is impossible for me to evaluate the effectiveness of the system even in short terms.

I don't care for it, for a variety of reasons:

 

District schedule ends too early for most teams, forcing teams to have to peak twice in some cases, and rendering the last few weeks of the regular season meaningless. Used to be there was always a whole slate of games across the state the last weekend of the regular season where playoff berths and whether you got a home game or had to hit the road were on the line, making for great drama. Most playoff matchups were decided 2-3 weeks ago.

 

Too few district games, forcing some schools to have to take whatever games they can get to fill out their schedule. This makes "scheduling with a purpose" — where a coach chooses non-district opponents that may emulate teams they'll see in the district or on down the road in the playoffs — a difficult prospect. With fewer locked-in district games, some teams might end up having to schedule beyond their means, or pick up a team they may end up beating by 60, because there's nobody left. Another problem I've noticed is good teams in small classes can't get games against other teams in their class, and are forced to "play up" all season long (see Bardstown's schedule for example) against bigger schools, risking injuries to key players.

 

Six classes is too many. Period. Too many teams getting into the playoffs, too many teams ranked. Strange district pairings with extreme distances traveled, costing schools much $$$ with high gas prices. Too many meaningless non-district games.

 

I've got others, but this is what I can come up with right now off the top of my head.

A-freaking-men!

Where is the 'eh, whatever' option?

 

Not much of change for the top few teams, who were always playing for playoff positioning anyway.

 

 

Welcome to BGP. You might want to visit the new member forum and introduce yourself. :lol:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Long time no see.

I really don't like it at all. Everything that Westsider has said in the past is correct I believe. Reidland will be the only team in its class not to make the playoffs. Doesn't seem right that so many make it with bad records. If everyone but one gets in then they should just let everyone get a playoff birth.

I really don't like it at all. Everything that Westsider has said in the past is correct I believe. Reidland will be the only team in its class not to make the playoffs. Doesn't seem right that so many make it with bad records. If everyone but one gets in then they should just let everyone get a playoff birth.

In theory, I agree. But logistically where would you put the fifth team?

Gosh, there are about 200 reasons to prefer the old four-class system to the current setup ... when I have time to write a novel, I'll do it.

I like the idea of smaller districts which allows you to play more local team which builds great rivalries and establish's great fan bases. The new alignment put us in a position to play more quality programs and exposes weaknesses we had. My only recommendation would be to allow the top 2 out of each district make the playoffs due to all the 4 team districts that allow some bad football in Novemeber.

In the same respect i don't believe a team like Beechwood, who has an independant status, should be able to stay in 1A due to their enrollment numbers. The realignment has basically made it a cake walk to the playoffs and state finals for teams like these.

 

Typical comment from a Beechwood hater! If you would do some research and review the numbers which is used to determine the class you play you would see that the largest number of boys for class A is 239 w/the lowest being 126. Beechwood, being soooo big and independent, has a total of 169

boys in grades 9-12. So, tell me, why shouldn't Beechwood be able to play 1A w/their large enrollment?

 

The way the playoffs are now are a complete joke. As stated earlier, for a team to be 0-10 or 1-9, etc, has no business of being in the playoffs. Top 2 teams go and be done w/it.:fire:

I like the 4 class setup better but I can live with the 6 classes. What I really dont like is districts playing themselves in the first 2 rounds...it favors the weaker districts.

I like the idea of smaller districts which allows you to play more local team which builds great rivalries and establish's great fan bases. The new alignment put us in a position to play more quality programs and exposes weaknesses we had. My only recommendation would be to allow the top 2 out of each district make the playoffs due to all the 4 team districts that allow some bad football in Novemeber.

 

While less travel might be true for some districts it is certainly not true for 2-2. Fort Campbell and Todd County (at the bottom of the state) are now in a district with Owensboro Catholic and Hancock County (at the top of the state) which is a 2.5 + hour drive, while there are other 2A schools half that distance that are not in our district (Trigg and Caldwell). I also think that 0-10, 1-9, etc… teams making the playoffs is ridiculous. Actually a team can be 3-7 and be a number one seed in the playoffs, how does that make sense? I would propose 8 team districts with the top 4 making the playoffs or at least 6 team districts with the top 4 in the playoffs.

To many bad teams making the play-offs. If you don't at least have a winning record you shouldn't be playing in the post season.

Back to the old days w/the top two teams going to the playoffs, period..... Too many bad teams making the playoffs only to add a bad game for a good team and for what, so everyone gets a taste of the playoff atmosphere. Financially, hurts both teams in the long run.

 

Theres also the risk of injury to a team making its way to state during a game that shouldn't have even been played.

 

A lot of good points made in this thread.

I don't like the fact that teams have to play the teams in their district in the playoffs, or the fact that everyone makes the playoffs.