Dino

This was a great year in the Indiana playoffs. Public schools swept all five classes and Lowell entered the playoffs with a losing record and stunned heavily favored Roncalli (a private Indy area Catholic school) in the Class 4A title game. Public schools in Indiana have shown that they can compete with the private schools by focusing on winning football games instead of whining about how unfair it is to make them compete against private schools. IHSAA got it right with class football

St. Xavier Bowling Green Russell Mayfield 47 pts.

Lowell opened the season 1-4! Ilove the Indiana playoff system.

Roncalli, which beat Cathedral (3 pt. loser to Cincy St. X) should win their 4th straight 4A title today.

Yes. I would say that Warren Central is the prohibitive favorite to win the 5A title.

Some of your percentages are off the losers in the last three games listed). It looks like they were not converted from decimal to percent format.

Mayfield Newport Central Catholic Bowling Green Owensboro Catholic Russell Rockcastle County St. Xavier Trinity 41 pts.

Bell County Henry Clay Somerset Boyle County Lexington Catholic Warren Central DeSales Bardstown Newport Catholic Fort Campbell 39 points

Is the purpose of the playoff season to select a champion in each class? If so, how does allowing all teams to participate diminish the playoffs? It doesn't seem to dampen the interest in the district basketball tournaments.

The open playoff system doesn't seem to hurt Indiana teams. I don't know about the lower classes, but I would pick Warren Central to win a game over any Kentucky or Ohio team. Likewise, I would pick either Roncalli or Cathedral (a 24-21 loser to Cincy St. X) over any similar sized school in either Ohio or Kentucky. I don't see any downside to an open playoff system. The best team in the state wins in the end and all teams have an entire season to prepare for the playoffs. Nobody gives up on their team midway through the season. Drawing for the first round match-ups also results in some great first and second round games.

Every team should be in the playoffs. Just like they are in basketball. What difference does it make if there are some first round blowouts? There have been some blowouts in state and regional finals games.

That post had as much to do with the thread topic as the responses did. The Lynn Camp game is over. Paintsville played a good game. Not much left to say about it. I guess that is why somebody 'jacked the thread. With that, I leave you to discuss the Lynn Camp game to your heart's content. :thumb:

The JC posts were in response to a cheap shot taken at Johnson Central's coach - and it was not made by one of our fans. The team that eliminates Paintsville from the playoffs this season will not need to be anywhere as good as Johnson Central.

I wish Paintsville all the success in the world for 9 games (plus the playoffs) each year. I also do not blame players for jumping ship in the past, nor do I begrudge anybody who wants to leave in the future. Between 2001 and 2003, I would have transferred too had I been in those players shoes and been able to afford a bona fide change of residence. I think that the people who put down Johnson Central and Coach Matney are a small (but vocal) minority at Paintsville, and I try not to let them get under my skin. I would love to see Paintsville upset Pikeville and Newport Central Catholic to make it to the state finals. I don't think that it will happen, but I will be pulling for Bill Mike and the Tigers to bring home a championship. Physically, this is the best looking Paintsville team that I have seen in many years. I was shocked at how easily JC handled them this year. This Tiger team would have beaten the Golden Eagles in most past years, IMO. If Matney had taken the job the first time it was offered, I believe we would be riding a five-game winning streak.

I never said that Bill Mike has not done a great job for a first year head football coach. I know that he was an integral part of the Paintsville staff for many years before accepting the head coach job. I was refuting the claim that Bill Mike is the best football coach in Johnson County. He isn't, and he won't be until Jim Matney retires or moves on. That is no knock on Bill Mike, but he is spotting Matney too many years of head coaching experience to ever catch up with him. To proclaim BMR as the best football coach in the county after one season is WAY premature. Now if you want to start another thread to compare Bill Mike's football coaching resume to Matney's, I would be glad to participate. Both men are fierce competitors, and both are excellent coaches. But there is no doubt that Matney is the better football and wrestling coach and Bill Mike is a better basketball and baseball coach. You are also right that JC should dominate the series with Paintsville, which is what it has done in the two years it has had Matney at the helm. Bill Mike could be a legitimate Coach of the Year candidate every year and Paintsville will still be lucky to win one game out of ten against JC with Matney there. Football is a numbers game, and JC has a huge edge in that area.

There is no good argument not to include all teams in the playoffs that want to participate. The best team in each class will win the state tournament, regardless of whether teams are excluded or not, and regardless of how many classes there are. The anti-private, anti-big school crowd needs to face facts. Trinity or St. X will win a state title in most years if they are allowed to compete.

Lots of professional people are paid lots of money and still make a lot of bad decisions. We call them Congressmen. Putting a lot of thought into a pigskin purse will not make it into a silk purse. I favor eliminating districts altogether, keeping four classes, shortening the regular season to nine games, letting every team into the playoffs (as is the case with basketball), and drawing for first round home games. That would allow teams maximum flexibility to play the schedule that their coaches believe will best prepare them for a deep playoff run. Teams short on funds could schedule games close to home to hold down expenses, and teams that could afford to travel the country playing top competition would be allowed to do so. If Kentucky is determined to increase the number of classes to six, eight, or even more, then the length of the regular season could left unchanged.

Playing a tough, competitive schedule helps you prepare for the playoffs. Games in which the outcome is never really in doubt, whether your team is on the winning or losing end, do not do much for preparing you for anything. When your opponent is not challenged and pulls their starters early in the second half, the game is not as valuable to either team as a hard fought win or loss is, IMO. To be the best, you have to beat the best. Simply playing the role of a punching bag doesn't quite cut it.

Kentucky has too small of a population to require six football classes. Generally, the only reason for a state to increase the number of classes is to level the playing field and allow the playoffs to be completed in a reasonable period of time. Going to six classes would do nothing the loosen the stanglehold on the 4A title that Trinity and St. X enjoy and it would necessarily increase the travel expenses for many rural schools. Indiana has five classes. Ohio has six. If Kentucky increases its number of classes to six or more, it will just be a weak football state with a lot of classes.

Increasing the number of classes is a horrible idea. It looks like the schools that would benefit most would be the small 1A schools. Current "tweeners" like Johnson Central, which bounce between classes every couple of seasons, would also benefit, but new tweeners would be created to take their places.

1. Teams east of Lexington 2. Teams west of Louisville 3. Teams outside of northern Kentucky and Jefferson County 4. Teams outside of Lexington

Teams remaining in the playoffs: 1A Paintsville (East) 1A Somerset (Southeast) 2A Russell (East) 2A Belfry (East) 2A Sheldon Clark (East) 3A Rockcastle (Southeast) 3A Bell County (Southeast) 4A None (East has no 4A teams, all Southeast 4A teams have been elminated) What am I missing?

Good luck convincing anybody outside of Paintsville that Bill Mike is a better coach than Jim Matney. BMR is 0-1 against JCHS - at team that Paintsville has dominated over the years. Paintsville's 50-6 loss in the Apple Bowl indicates that BMR is the second best active football coach in JC. The Tigers had a lot of talent returning this season, and I don't believe that they won any games under BMR that they would not have won under David Lemaster. I don't know why some Tiger fans insist on putting down Johnson Central on a regular basis in a futile effort to make their own team and coaches look better. Being second best to Matney is not too shabby, even if the county has only two football teams. Paintsville has a solid 1A team and I will be pulling for them every week until their season ends.

:thumb: Kentucky is barely large enough. population-wise to justify four classes. Increasing the number of classes would add to the travel expenses of rural schools. Everytime Johnson Central gets bumped up to 4A, its average one-way trip to a district away game jumps to over two hours. The more classes there are, the greater the average distance will be between district opponents. It's not worth tens of thousands of dollars in extra travelling expenses to crown one or two more state champs.

Make that 5. I forgot to include Paintsville.