Every year, about this time, somebody is screaming that there should be more teams in the post season playoffs and then when a 6-4 or 5-5 team makes the final eight in their region somebody else says there are too many mediocre teams in the playoffs.
In other states, California for one, everyone makes the playoffs, even those teams that haven’t won a single game. Of course, that is the way it is in all of the other sports in Ohio.
Could it be done here? Sure, there are a couple ways that come to mind. It would probably take at least two additional weeks of playoffs in order to include all of the schools that participate in football. As I see it you could go about that in two ways.
You could just start two weeks earlier than you already do. That would make the second week of August the start of the regular season and two-days beginning in mid-July. I tend to support that version because I am a football fan and the more football the better. However, there will be plenty of folks against that option. They will say that starting football in some cases nearly a month before school begins would be the wrong sign when it comes to a balance between education and sports.
Then again, I believe students should be given an academic credit for participation in sports, so I’m not surprised when those folks don’t like me.
Playoff expansion could also be accomplished by eliminating a week or two of the regular season. With most leagues playing at least seven conference games that leaves little room for non-league play where many schools try to schedule tough opponents in order to improve themselves or play next door rivals. Clear Fork versus Fredericktown, Ontario and Lexington and Shelby against Madison would be examples of this. I would hate to see those rivalries disappear.
I think it is fair to say that the inclusion of more schools in the playoffs would dilute the system. Making the playoffs should be a reward for having a good season. Sort of like college football bowl system used to be. Now there are so many bowls that many teams that are only .500 get to the play in the Sun Bowl, Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl or Swankonsports.com bowl – hey, wait, maybe there should be one of those.
Before the point system was developed, you had to win your league to make the post season and some think we should return to that format. However, if you do that I think it would be hard to create good match-ups because some leagues include only larger schools, some smaller schools and still others have a mix of both, so it would be difficult to create divisions based on those winners.
No matter the system, you are not going to make everybody happy. Likely, the system we have now is about as good as it is going to get. However, you are going to have problems convincing the players, coaches and fans of the schools that finishes ninth in their region and miss the playoffs by a quarter of a point.
After years of toil and sweat behind radio station microphones, longtime broadcaster, Jeff Swank joined the new generation of sports followers on the web.
Swank launched his internet radio station with nothing more than some wire, a box with some knobs and switches, and an itch to do much more than just scratch the surface of everything sports.
Richland Source is proud to introduce Jeff as a writer focused on high school sports. He will contribute a weekly column and analysis of a featured game of the week from one of our area high schools.
In addition to his work at Richland Source, Jeff provides complete high school sports coverage for over 70 Ohio schools at his web site, http://www.swankonsports.net76.net/.
