One or Two

[MA1984]

Do we really need two divisions. I get it the point it gives more teams an opportunity to make the playoffs but a lot of teams don’t play anyone until they make the playoffs. I would like to see more competition to get to the playoffs to make it mean more. I don’t like seeing 8-2 or 9-1 teams make the playoffs and get hammered because they didn’t have real competition.

 

[Blue Bird]

Talk to the Coaches of those schools. There are many coaches more than willing to play that weak schedule to have all of the wins they can for the records sake and to not take a chance on injuries by playing the good teams. There are several D 1 teams that struggle to fill out there schedule every other year and would love not to travel so far to fill it. Quite frankly, I can understand a Coach not wanting the injuries. That is probably why there are as many 45 point games as there are.

 

[fireguy5455]

I'd like to see 16 Districts were you could have 7 or 8 teams making it easier for scheduling. Then take the top 4 for the playoffs with the 2 largest schools by enrollment in Div 1 playoffs and the next 2 in Div 2 playoffs. If I'm not mistaken the 11 man playoffs used to do this.

 

[Old Bearkat]

I'd like to see 16 Districts were you could have 7 or 8 teams making it easier for scheduling. Then take the top 4 for the playoffs with the 2 largest schools by enrollment in Div 1 playoffs and the next 2 in Div 2 playoffs. If I'm not mistaken the 11 man playoffs used to do this.

A potential district like that could be Garden City, Sterling City, Water Valley, Irion County, Robert Lee, Paint Rock, Blackwell, and Veribest. Of those only Backwell is Division 2 enrollment. In most years the top four would be Garden City, Sterling City, Irion County, and Water Valley/Robert Lee. Which of those 4 would be the D2 representative from this district?

 

[The Goon Farm]

I'd love to see the D1 and D2 Champs play each other, but not sure anything I'll ever be done to combine the two.

 

[LBK6manFan]

There ya go fellas, read the thread I bumped

 

[freeagent]

Problem with single divisions and taking the two largest enrollment schools to the D1 playoffs and the two smaller enrollment schools of the top 4 to D2 is that you might happen what occured in the (then) UIL5A playoffs a number of years ago.

The enrollment of the UIL 5A-D1 champion was actuallly SMALLER than the enrollment of the UIL 5A-D2 champion. If you have a district that has what would have been mostly D1 schools, the larger schools would tend to be at the top. If you have a district of what would have been mostly D2 schools, the opposite could occur.

Maybe UIL needs to have 8 districts in each classification with 7-9 schools per district. It would be a lot easier to find 3 non-district game than 7 and having 7 district games that mean something is what I'd prefer as a coach as opposed to hoping nobody gets hurt in those 7 "playoff useless" games waiting for the three that mean something at the end. Or playing home-and-home each season might work if you still have a four team district.

 

[Red_Devil_DDS]

6man is where you need the divisions the most, for competition’s sake. No way a school with 20 kids can compete against one that has 4 or 5 times as many.

Look at how many 11 man playoff games are decided by more than 30 points? Are you saying a team that loses by a large margin didn’t even deserve to be there, even if it’s in the 2nd or 3rd round?

 

[bigbadwolf]

D1 and D2 are needed. There’s still a huge difference in D2 schools.
Consider the somewhat salty 2018 Iredell Dragons.
They were beat by an extremely good Strawn team.
Both were obviously in D2.
Strawn had more graduating senior boys than Iredell had guys and gals in high school.

 

[Texlonghorn75]

D1 and D2 are needed. There’s still a huge difference in D2 schools.
Consider the somewhat salty 2018 Iredell Dragons.
They were beat by an extremely good Strawn team.
Both were obviously in D2.
Strawn had more graduating senior boys than Iredell had guys and gals in high school.

Where do you get that information about number of players and students? Strawn had ten seniors(2018) last year that went out for the team and one other that did not choose to play. Iredell that low on students?

 

[oldfolks]

Maybe we should just go back to the 1960’s where there were six to eight teams in a district. The district winner, only, goes to the playoffs and six-man and 2A only go two rounds deep in the playoffs. If you transfer you can not play for a year no matter the reason for transfer, move, or whatever.
No system is perfect but sending more than one to playoffs from each district and having D1 and D2 does give more teams a chance. Six-man is not the only division that sends weak teams to playoffs. We had a couple of districts that needed to send more than two. 3A had a four team district and the last place ended the season 0-11. They made the playoffs. Look at some of the scores last weekend in the larger classifications. They needed the mercy rule.
On December 18th, before dark, we will have a D1 and D2 state champ and a runner up in each division. Are these the truly best teams or good and lucky? It is still about the Student Athletes. If all the armchair quarterbacks would relax and watch some good football games and quit trying to change everything they would not be having to take so much medicine. See you the 18th and I will watch all 12 games if it goes as planned.

 

[eldrut]

Since D1 has a higher enrollment of student-athletes than D 2 my suggestion would be for D1 go to eight(8) man and leave D2 as six (6) man.

 

[Potato Frank]

Since D1 has a higher enrollment of student-athletes than D 2 my suggestion would be for D1 go to eight(8) man and leave D2 as six (6) man.

and maybe 2A Division 1 should have 13 men on the field since Division 2 has 11 guys. This doesn't make any sense. That's more work by schools, players, coaches, and the state. Furthermore, the schools that are on the bubble between D1 and D2 every year would always be wondering what kind of football they're going to be playing the next fall and hope the computer puts them on the right side of the line.

 

[Jericho941]

It all boils down to MONEY! UIL makes more money with 12 state champions than with only 6, more playoff games, more money, etc. I have never really cared for the watered down version of the playoffs since the inception of the 2 division system. Is that what we want as a society? "well its hard for us to compete so lets change the rules and make it easier" How about work hard get better reap the rewards. No team should be able to call themselves the "state champion" unless they DEFEATED every other team that plays in the state. Not in their division the STATE. Of course this is just my opinion and i am an old school pre-wusification everybody gets a trophy 2 division guy, your opinion may be different and that is fine with me.

 

[Johnny South]

No team should be able to call themselves the "state champion" unless they DEFEATED every other team that plays in the state. Not in their division the STATE.

Now that would take a while!! Lol

 

[Jericho941]

Now that would take a while!! Lol[/quote]

Well in a perfect world football season is year long as all other sports are boring and IMO useless.

 

[LBK6manFan]

Personally, I think if the number goes up from 104.9 to 115 or 120 than you have to bring back 8 man. Cut off 6man at 70 or 75. 8 man corresponds with 11man better than 6man. Brian Urlacher played 8 man in NM. 6Man does not need divisions. It has ruined the integrity of district championships and has made the playoffs weaker, In both divisions. McLean and RS should be playing for the true state championship but they cant because of the split. Nothing against blum or MC but I see mercy rule wins for both McLean and RS.

 

[Johnny South]

As I have stated before, I was against the split when it came about. But as they have continued to raise the enrollment limits, there has to be a split. There is no way that these small 40-50 kid schools can play with most of the 100+ schools. When a high school has 20 to 25 kids in each class, they can play 11 man. Whether they have success at it depends on several factors, just like in 6 man. Then too, look at some of the largest schools in D1. They came to 6 man because they were so terrible in 11 man. They are just as terrible in 6 man. I would say to stop raising the enrollment limit for sixman, and keep the ones who can playing 11 man.

Does my opinion carry any weight? About as much as it did when I complained about Benjamin lobbying for dividing 6 man.

 

[LBK6manFan]

As I have stated before, I was against the split when it came about. But as they have continued to raise the enrollment limits, there has to be a split. There is no way that these small 40-50 kid schools can play with most of the 100+ schools. When a high school has 20 to 25 kids in each class, they can play 11 man. Whether they have success at it depends on several factors, just like in 6 man. Then too, look at some of the largest schools in D1. They came to 6 man because they were so terrible in 11 man. They are just as terrible in 6 man. I would say to stop raising the enrollment limit for sixman, and keep the ones who can playing 11 man.

Does my opinion carry any weight? About as much as it did when I complained about Benjamin lobbying for dividing 6 man.

Completely agree with you Johnny. I personally hate the division splits because it weakens everything. Being a player in an 8 team district meant so much for a district championship.So did bye district.. Now it doesnt. Its who makes it to the quarterfinals or semis now. Broadcasting live 6Man championship games hasnt done any good for the most part. Teams have been getting mercy ruled in the finals which I believe will happen again. When Strawn played Balmorhea a few years ago, Coach Lee could've 45d Balmorhea but I believe he had respect for coach Jones and didnt end it early... played his 2nd/3rd team. Very classy imo. If there was an immediate fix to all of this, I would be all for it.

 

[oldfolks]

Just checking all scores for the 24 remaining teams and the results from these past three days for everyone except six-man. What are we going to do with the situation in 6A? One game was won by 60 points and another by 42. This is the largest classification in the state but two of the four games in 6A were won by these one sided scores. All you arm chair quarterbacks, that have all the answers, need to contact the UIL and help them out to make the games more equal. Meanwhile, I already have my tickets for the four days of State Championships and if we can find a way to add another day, I will be there for it also. I was a little upset this weekend. I was only able to make three games.