Are there too many teams in the Playoffs?

When you have four and five team districts, some will be weak districts. These are small schools we are talking about. Playoffs are the playoffs no matter how good your team is. The first round of playoffs will weed out some good teams and most of the teams that are fairly weak. Having a seeding system would, my opinion, be unfair to all but the very best in the state. It would in the long run have to have human bias involved. If you went to eight districts in the state, the UIL would insist on sending four teams out each district to the playoffs. (They will have their cut) Any other situation would involve byes and byes are not good. PERIOD.
 
I'm in agreement with Blue there....it would be better to have too many teams involved, then just have two "elite" teams that were elected by a panel of whatever...especially if my Momma and Auntie never got to vote in the first place....
 
Why is everyone so worried about "undeserving" teams making it to the playoffs? What makes them undeserving? Did those teams not practice hard all year? Were they unclassy in their play? Just because they win when they had to (by forfeit or on the field), their record should be held against them?

FYI, I've seen state championship teams that are "undeserving"....coaches and players. I saw where one school won state a couple of years ago, and during the season, called timeout with 5 seconds left to score (on a reverse) and win 80-0 (11man). So, that team is more deserving than a team that goes 2-8 during the season (and 2-1 in district play)? Give me a break.
 
I would like to see 6 or 8 team districts. But, the way it is set up now, the more schools that come to six-man, the larger the districts will become. If the uil keeps raising the upper limit, it may not be long until we have 6 team districts. And, I am in favor of the two playoff teams per district.
 
I don't believe UIL will change their format for the playoffs any time soon...but it would be nice to have more teams in SixMan and increase the size of the districts...if we could only hold hands with our TAPPS brothers that would make the situation a little more competitive perhaps....
 
If my post was misinterpreted, I apoligize..... I never mentioned undeserving teams, that was brought up later.
The original question, Are there too many teams in the Playoffs?, prompted my reply.
My opinion remains the same even though one of the teams I follow on a regular basis would not be in the playoffs this year.
You can talk about fairness or anything else; it boils down to revenue and I doubt the schools or booster clubs are getting rich.
 
Johnny South":1keuh7i1 said:
I would like to see 6 or 8 team districts. But, the way it is set up now, the more schools that come to six-man, the larger the districts will become. If the uil keeps raising the upper limit, it may not be long until we have 6 team districts. And, I am in favor of the two playoff teams per district.
I'd like to see
a mandatory Home/Away
for all district play.
Then we wouldn't have to find so many non-dist. games
to fill schedule.
And all questions of best dist. record
would be answered on the field.
jus sayin'.
 
I see no problem with any team that wins and is runner up representing the district that they play in. and I don't have any problem with the #1 playing #2 in the first round that's the way the ball (football) bounces. the final two who play in the state are rarely the best two teams in my opinion. if the quandary is how to possibly get the best two double elimination playoffs might help but im sure it would only increase the controversy. Larger districts wont do squat either (again my opinion). this same line of mess comes up each year, those who have a problem with it why not just wait till the quarterfinals to go to a game then maybe you will feel better ( I highly doubt that though)

im sure no one will support the BCS system but is logical it takes factors much like those who rank our rankings to evaluate one team over another. the worst is the sportswriters polls not far behind is the coaches polls,,,
the more you take the personal end out of evaluation the better the odds on ranking them correctly
I don't support gambling but im fairly sure that since it is how they make billions and billions of dollars on every facet of a football game they have more at stake in getting it where they can make the most money (notice I did not say correct buy rather how they will maximize their profit while still enticing people to gamble)
 
If we went back to a system whereby just the district winners made the playoffs, where would that leave a team like T-Rock? These guys could win the whole damn thing and they wouldn't even make the playoffs under the old system. You guys make some pretty good points (especially about four teams from one district in 5A) but think about that one for a minute. Personally I like the top two teams making it but I wish we could have a minimum of 5 teams per district. I know it's a logistical impossibility but it would make a "top two" finish more meaningful. Just my two cents worth.
 
Larger districts wont do squat either (again my opinion).

I crunched some numbers, cause I'm just a geek like that. If there were only 8 districts instead of 16 and there were 4 teams per district instead of 2. (Still giving us 32, so no major change) And I put district 1 & 2 together 3 & 4 together, etc. Here are the results. Note: the perfect number would be 16.5. That is if the top 32 teams made the playoffs, 16.5 would be the average.

As is Div 1, the average ranking of teams going to the playoffs is 21.4
with 8 districts taking 4 from each district 19.8

Div 2
19.3
18.1

So larger districts, even taking more from each district, would increase the quality of teams that make the playoffs.

FYI, I am not a proponent of taking 4 teams, just doing the numbers.
 
No its not too many. Gives us more football to watch, and the kids who make it feel great; there's nothing like a playoff atmosphere definitely not too many.
 
I think the system works as is. Do I think its perfect? Not at all, there is room for improvement. Should it be changed? In my opinion, yes.
Will it be changed? Probably not in the near future, and that's fine too.
 
Just the first place teams going to the playoffs? My freshman year at Gordon was Coach Campbell's first year at Gordon and it was also the last year of 1 team going per district.

If only the first place teams go to the playoffs that would take both of Strawn's state championships away from them. In both 2003 and 2008 Strawn got second in district losing to Gordon both years. They ended up winning state with a record of 14-1 both times. In 2008 Strawn lost to Gordon by 30 points in district but came back and beat Gordon by 31 points for the first time they ever met in the playoffs.

Side note: In 2009 Strawn again returned to the state game losing it. Were did they place in district? 1st place.

How many teams do we have that have won state, after getting 2nd in district, since the 1st and 2nd place teams started going to the playoffs. Sounds like a good problem for one of the number cruncher's.

Best teams playing for the state championship? In 2008 Strawn ended the season ranked #1 and Gordon was #2 but they met early in the playoffs.

Yes, all of my info here is based on Gordon/Strawn, sorry. LOL

Andy
 
I guess one of my concerns is not the number of teams but the length of the season.
It really doesn't matter what we prefer........... The Almighty UIL will do whatever they want....., and we all know what a great job they do.........
 
If we were to establish eight districts in each division, what would the driving distance be for most district games? Districts 9 and 10 wouldn't be too bad. Gordon to Rochelle is just over two hours. Maybe? Eden to Marfa. Yikes!
 
Consensus so far:

It's far from perfect but much better than a one team representation per district or a BCS scenario..

Better to be more inclusive than less so...sometimes the underdogs do win...Momma gets to see her boy one more time

UIL makes more money but we get to watch more football... hospitals, gas companies, mama's kitchen, ref's get a little more cash too...
 
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