thehotsnakes

I've been trying to understand where you're coming from on this. But I can't.

Hey! There we go! I honestly think if they even had the rotation to include within the district once every 4 years, people could get on board with that. 1 year has the potential for a lot of travel, 2 years in normal, 1 year is minimal.

At the end of the day, in the 2nd round you're looking at pretty much the same 8 teams every year. From where we were using 3A west earlier, I looked at that and of the 8 teams in the past 2 seasons, 7 of the teams were the same. 6 out of the 8 games, were the exact same games. The two years before that, 6 of the 8 teams were the same. The 2 years before that, 6 of the 8 teams were the same. I'll still maintain that I think the travel burden being shifted around is something I think is a benefit, but the fact that it's the same teams every year does make for different matchups. Period.

Just looking at the KHSAA alignment information, it just appears on the surface that on each side of the bracket, you're taking the travel burden off of 1 district for 2 years. The question you then have to ask, would be how much of an issue do you have with spreading that travel burden away from those same 4 or 5 schools? And is this change worth it for the potential 2nd and 3rd round matchups?

Well, I guess it's all in how you look at it. There's a lot of teams that are really close in all classes and districts, who would end up playing each other. Are there going to be years when a team gets a really potentially long drive? Yes. But, when they get a much shorter drive for the next two years, you don't think they'll be glad for that? If I was a coach who had the chance to eliminate a 4 hour drive for 2 out of 4 years, I'd be down with it. This change offers the opportunity to take the travel burden off of the same teams and the same districts every year. I'm a big fan of that.

What about the drive times for D2? The changes cut down their drive times, without question.

By switching the teams who travel where, you aren't entirely increasing the number of teams. You're just changing who is and who isn't. If team A is located 4 hours from team B and Team C, you don't have 2 teams driving that 4 hours, you simply take that burden off of one every other year. Kentucky, with 6 classes, requires lengthy travel times almost universally. But instead of having the same teams doing it year in and year out, you're switching who travels when. The four hour drives are still there, it's just more universal now. Instead of Team B traveling that distance every single year, they now get opportunities to not travel that. That seems like a pretty great thing for them. Does it suck for Team C? Yeah, it does. But it does feel like it helps to balance out the traveling across the districts. I love the change, and it would take a lot to sway me away from that.

A lot of teams are already travelling around 4 hours in the first or second round already. I think it's just changing who is doing that now. A really good example would be in 3A, districts 1 and 2. That's a 3 1/2 hour at the least, type of drive in both the first and second rounds. In a year when it's switched, they're playing teams that are much closer to them than in district 1. In districts 3 and 4, those drives out west aren't much different than what district 2 currently has. That's just one side of one class. I've got to believe that it's pretty similar in other districts and other classes. Maybe not universal, but it's probably enough. I might do some of the numbers on it later.

I love it. Without a doubt, I love it. Are there some flaws? Obviously. But, at the end of the day, I think it makes for a much better experience, and gives some teams a chance to do something better. If I'm in 2A district 2, I'm glad I get to avoid Mayfield. If I'm in 3A, I'm glad I get to avoid Belfry. You're giving other teams the chance to do something, instead of facing the same opponents and making the same trips in weeks 11 and 12. If I was a player, I'd love the chance to play a new team the next year. I think you'll get better support and more excitement about it. Allowing teams an opportunity to possibly win an additional game, or maybe even 2, is a huge deal to those specific programs. At the end of the day, most people know who is going to be playing in week 15. But, to those schools who get to play for a regional championship or on Thanksgiving? Those are dream seasons at probably 85% of the schools in this state.

Is there currently anyone on staff who would be considered a favorite, or anyone with previous connections to the program?

The Fightin Stalnasties!

I do know for a fact that he had accidentally hit "reply all" on more than 1 occasion when inquiring about potentially vacant asst. coaching positions around the state on the ListServ for football.

I think these are all valid and correct. Although, I think one thing I would alter would be saying that "the game has changed." Football is always changing and always will, in just about every capacity. The game IS change. 1. I've always said that safety has to be the first goal. That's not something that can be negotiated, nor should it be. People can spin it about making the kids "tough" by whatever metric they determine, but at the end of the day it's simply about being either pro safety or pro risk. Period. 2. I could have an entire post solely devoted with how parents, fans, players, boosters and school administrators view and treat coaches. They're being asked to devote their time to someone's kids who aren't their own, spend time away from their families, have minimal life outside of coaching. They're expected to teach, and teach well. To win every game possible, regardless of talent. If they don't do these things, they're not committed or are a bad coach. And have zero financial incentive to do any of this. The people who watch the game will always "know more" than the coach. An alarming number of school administrators are increasingly refusing to support coaches who have to make tough decisions. And none of this mentions the fact that coaches are being asked to move wherever in the state, to coach at Occasional Talent County High School. If this were any other job, would we even be having the discussion on why there is a hesitancy to get into the profession? 3. Everyone needs a break. And I think there is an increasing trend to a longer break over summer, both official and unofficial. While I don't think there will ever be a full June dead period, I won't be surprised if June practice ends up being a thing of the past within the next few years. 4. I don't think the team aspect is dying. I just think the kids who are talking and tweeting about their offers are the ones who get noticed. I still think ultimately, at the end of the day, the team kids far outnumber the "D1 Dream Supastarz," it's just that social media has given a voice that wouldn't have been there before. Selfish kids have always been selfish, unselfish kids have always been unselfish. 5. I think the same thing could be said about kids who are playing on any level other than FBS, and high level FCS. I don't have problems with kids tweeting about their commitment to a certain NAIA school, I don't have any problems with them having a signing day and it being in the local papers. The cost of higher education is what it is, and that won't be changing for awhile. I think the real issue in that situation is lack of honesty from parents, teachers, counselors, high school coaches, college admission counselors, and college coaches. If a kid who hasn't really ever had to work for anything, personally or athletically, gets his ego inflated for 4 years, goes to a school 5 hours away, has never really been away from home, has never really competed; suddenly he's in a completely brand new environment and he can't handle it. He hasn't be prepared correctly, he hasn't been given the proper tools. Someone needed to have a seat with that kid and go over what it was like. They didn't, so he felt compelled to come back home. Some kids need to stay close to home, some kids need to go away. People around them need to better control the situation around them.

So........ Any leads on who John Hardin might be interested in at this point in time?

BOOOOO!!!!! I loved the day filled with football. There was always something enjoyable about getting breakfast, then watching football. Then getting lunch, then watching football. Then watching football, and then getting dinner and some drinks.

As far at the geographically centered comments and concerns, I believe my numbers are pretty accurate. STATE FINALS AVERAGE DISTANCE TRAVELED 2016 WKU: 146 miles (1 school) UK: 96 miles (1 school) UofL: 103 miles (3 schools) 2015 WKU: 160 miles (2 schools) UK: 110 miles (2 schools) UofL: 131 miles (1 school) 2014 WKU: 161 miles (0 schools) UK: 130 miles (0 schools) UofL: 117 miles (3 schools) 2013 WKU: 146 miles (1 school) UK: 109 miles (0 schools) UofL: 116 miles (1 school) A point: If a school was in the same town as the finals location, I gave them a mileage of 0. I know there's a difference between traveling across Bowling Green compared to Louisville, but that was an easy way and the difference was very minimal. +/- a few miles didn't make a difference in any of these. Clearly, WKU isn't the more central choice. Heck, even with Graves and Mayfield making the finals, and that being a HUGE drive to Lexington, WKU was still 3rd in 2014. The driving distance winner is UK, plain and simple. EDIT: Adding in the Graves and Mayfield trips ends up hurting WKU a bit more than UK. But even if you factor in 2014 to UK, WKU had 2 teams in town in 2015 and that was still a further drive than UK would have been in 2014. WKU can't be spun as the better geographic choice in any realistic way.

UK was, indeed, the most central location last year. It was the shortest drive, and by a decent margin. And, UK has hosted the SEC CCG game the same number of times as the rest of the conference combined!

Somebody is angry over this! I felt like this was in the works the first year the schedule had to be adjusted. With the teams who were in the finals this year, UK was the shorter average distance than WKU or UofL. And it was by something like 50 miles 1 way. UK is ultimately a more centralized location.

I actually think some states might have 2 different venues. For some reason, North Carolina sticks out as one. I think they play half the games at Wake Forest and the other half at NC State.

I feel like the better availability of close parking will be a nice thing at CWS. Parking at WKU wasn't ever terrible, but UK has a lot of spaces that are much closer. And when it's the first weekend in December, I'm all for not having to walk that far outside.

So, are we moving back to 3 games a day? Because that would be great.

I think it's in a much more dangerous spot than you might be giving credit to. I'm not going to say it's dying, but nothing like that happens quickly. If the old guard is too slow to step out and let the game evolve, then numbers will suffer. That's not my opinion, that's a mathematical certainty. Something will come along that breeds the same positive qualities as football, with a perceived improved safety situation, that isn't as physically grueling, and it's a huge time suck for teenagers. If the game doesn't adapt, the game will die. That's how everything in the world works, and football isn't in some magical vacuum to protect it from this. Edit: I also feel the numbers aren't necessarily important when compared with other sports, because quite simply there are more people on a football team. A varsity basketball roster is, what, 12 or 13 kids? Is there even a limit to the amount of spots on a football roster, other than limiting what numbers are physically able to be worn? Football is the most played sport because football allows and requires the most bodies. It will always be the most participated in sport because when it's not, it literally can't function.

Those are great! The O has a nice pop from the matte.

This is 100% accurate for a vast majority of teams in the state. The additional game reps are indeed great, in theory. But, the ability of freshmen football to mimic legitimate games isn't great. And many times has the feel of more of a pick-up game than anything else. A major issue, however, with freshmen games becoming JV games becomes level of competition. If you have a legitimate frosh team playing in JV games, that isn't an issue until a team has a fair amount of varsity players who play JV. Then, you end up having one team of kids with little to know varsity experience who are in 9th grade, playing a team of juniors who see significant reps on Friday night. There isn't any possible way to regulate sub-varsity games, but that would be a great start to issues like this.

I know Perry Thomas was rumored for the Taylor County job, and was looking to get back into the public school retirement system. Could there be some interest from both parties?