District format
- Thread starter bhunt95
- Start date
I agree. Two bad teams playing each other can be a competitive and enjoyable game to watch. Gives kids some confidence instead of a beatdown by a top team.
Okay, but let's imagine a Class 6 scenario where all of these teams end up in the same district and finish with the following records:
DeSmet (Metro Catholic) 9-0
Joplin (COC) 9-0
Francis Howell (Gateway South) 9-0
Marquette (Suburban Northwest) 9-0
Rock Bridge (Independent) 9-0
Hazelwood West (Suburban 12 North) 9-0
Pattonville (Suburban 12 South) 9-0
Kickapoo (Ozarks) 1-8
Who gets left out at 9-0?
DeSmet (Metro Catholic) 9-0
Joplin (COC) 9-0
Francis Howell (Gateway South) 9-0
Marquette (Suburban Northwest) 9-0
Rock Bridge (Independent) 9-0
Hazelwood West (Suburban 12 North) 9-0
Pattonville (Suburban 12 South) 9-0
Kickapoo (Ozarks) 1-8
Who gets left out at 9-0?
Good God, is someone suggesting a partial return to determining playoff eligibility (not seeding) through a computer score?!? Didn't we learn our lesson 30 years ago? The above scenario would absolutely happen...
How about Round Robin format, but keep the 8 districts in an 8X8 format? Unfortunately, it's not likely to happen because some schools would insist on keeping conference games instead.
Weeks 1-3 Non-district games
Weeks 4-10 District games
Top 4 in each district make the playoffs and then cross bracket. Worst case scenario, you have a five-way tie at 5-2 in district and one team gets left out, but at that point you've lost at least 2 games to teams in your area of the state.
Let's call the districts A, B, C, D. Class 6 Bracket would look like this.
Region 1
-----------
B4 @ A1
D3 @ C2
Region 2
------------
A4 @ B1
C3 @ D2
Region 3
-----------
D4 @ C1
B3 @ A2
Region 4
------------
C4 @ D1
A3 @ B2
Highest seed hosts in Regional Semifinals and Regional Championships. State semifinals would be hosted by:
A. Highest remaining seed
B. District record
C. Overall record
D. Opponents W/L
Weeks 1-3 Non-district games
Weeks 4-10 District games
Top 4 in each district make the playoffs and then cross bracket. Worst case scenario, you have a five-way tie at 5-2 in district and one team gets left out, but at that point you've lost at least 2 games to teams in your area of the state.
Let's call the districts A, B, C, D. Class 6 Bracket would look like this.
Region 1
-----------
B4 @ A1
D3 @ C2
Region 2
------------
A4 @ B1
C3 @ D2
Region 3
-----------
D4 @ C1
B3 @ A2
Region 4
------------
C4 @ D1
A3 @ B2
Highest seed hosts in Regional Semifinals and Regional Championships. State semifinals would be hosted by:
A. Highest remaining seed
B. District record
C. Overall record
D. Opponents W/L
Or, you'd have what we have in Class 1 District 8 - #7 Knox County vs. #8 Schuyler County, a rematch of the Week 1 thriller won by Knox 40-0. Thank you sir, but, no thank you.
computer technology has come a long in the 3 decades. perfection is doable
Not as long as us humans are feeding the computers the information, no, it's not doable.
I think Missouri should take a look at the points system Ohio uses. It’s been in place for several decades now and has worked pretty seamlessly.
They go with four regions per division (terminology for districts and classes) instead of eight and take the top eight teams. Additionally, every team plays a ten-game regular season since not everyone qualifies for the playoffs.
This gives them a little more wiggle room when making districts because you can have varying number of teams per district in each class (i.e. 18, 17, 29) since you’ll still have only eight teams qualify. Here’s an example of how it looks.
In Missouri, a hypothetical Class 4 district that combines Districts 7 and 8 would look like this:
1. Lincoln College Prep
2. Smithville
3. Platte County
4. Warrensburg
5. Grain Valley
6. Excelsior Springs
7. Grandview
8. St. Joe Lafayette
Then the four district champions play in the state semifinals and then the state championship. Most amount of games any team will play is still 15. Just some food for thought.
Keep the current format but instead of 8 - 8 team districts have 16 districts with 4 teams in it. Better travel for teams, more parity I would think, and like the previous system - 16 district champs instead of 8.
Go back to four team districts and the best team advances . Why did they try to fix something that wasn’t broke in the first place
It was far and away the best playoff system we have had. There was much less travel and in a sense it was a little regional playoff among towns that had considerable interaction with nearby towns already. Secondly, you didn't run into the ridiculous situation where the team you played for final preseason game or even the week before you now turn around and play in districts. Third, for those who argue that there were too many district champs, I will concede the point to you although I never saw the harm when we all knew what it represented. Instead we just call it sub-district 1A and sub-district 1B, etc. Winner is district champ. There were much bigger crowds for district games and you didn't have that one horrible week like the one coming up where few of of the 1 v.8 or 2 v.7 games are competitive. Those were disbursed among the three weeks of District play. Further, you could lose a district game and still not necessarily be eliminated as you are now. Some times you would have two 0-2 teams playing on the final night. Of course they had been eliminated and it wouldn't have been the best football you have ever seen but I saw some really spirited games with relatively equal opponents playing their guts out to win that last game of the year.
The current format is doing nothing to help participation in these downtrodden programs that are already struggling to field a team. Every year that goes by, more and more 11 man programs fold up shop. There were never any GOOD reasons to go away from the 4 team districts. A lot of bad reasons, and people with various agendas besides what was best for the sport and the players. Same with going to a 15 game season. It was done for all the wrong reasons, and none of the right ones.
I am in favor of the current point system, with 1-4 playing in the district tourney and 5 playing 6 and 7 playing 8 for their week 10 game. Top 4 in the 8 team district, bad teams have a chance for a competitive game, and max games is 14.
One good thing about the current system is that 100% of district championships/playoffs/qualifying are decided as we all think it should be: on the field. Not with a point system (other than seeding) or point differential (as was often the case with the 4 team districts). Sometimes it’s not pretty, but that will always be the case.
That WAS NOT the reason we went away from it. The reason was Webb City and similar dominating programs and the proximate teams who always ended up in their respective districts. They wanted to be the second best team of eight rather than the second best of four. In other words, they were ate up by the fact that some other team was a district champ that they felt they could beat.
As for settling it on the field, everyone knew the rules going in. If they couldn't get it done on the field that was their problem. Only in the rarest of cases was it decided by a coin flip. I wish I had the raw data on how many times it was decided by point differential and/or coin flip.
I don’t think a coin flip did it too often, but definitely in several districts in every class every single year a playoff qualifier (and non-qualifier) was determined by point differential. Also, how is it that if you had 2 or 3 teams at 2-1 in the district that one of them “got it done” and the other 1 or 2 didn’t? Now there is only one way to “get it done” and that is by winning on the field, whether by 1 point or 13 points or 100 points, it makes no difference.
The question is not if a #7 seed has ever won, but would a #1 and #2 seed Coach like to have a bye week for healing bumps and bruises, or would they prefer to play to keep the 17 and 18 year old kids in their normal routine. I'd like to hear coaches input on this.
The goal of district play is to determine the best team to advance to state tournament .
it would be good if the games were competitive
week one match up 1&2.....3&4.....5&6.....7&8
week two match up winner 1&2 vs winner 5&6,,,,and winner 3&4 vs winner 7&8
Week three District championship game
I bet you would be surprised at how good ALL of the district games would be, and you would end up with the same team advancing to state playoffs
Personally I like the new format a lot, do I wish the 1,8 game was more competitive? Sure. I like how everyone seasons alive at the end. there have been enough upsets imo to justify the current system and gives teams that play up or have an injured player a shot of redemption and a chance to right the ship.
Um no. That was the right thing to do. THEY did to themselves. Lacknn b of morals or ethics brought them down. Classes.
It only determines seeding, not qualifying. That is not what the old system did. It determined who did and who did not get in the playoffs.
Honestly like the format we have now. If a change was going to be made, I'd say go back to 4 team districts for all the reasons that have already been stated.
True.
I have a hard time calling this district format the "playoffs." To me, it's not the playoffs if everybody is still playing.
If it were my choice, we'd still have the 4 team districts. It was best for everybody. And fair. So some 2-1 team doesn't make it out, and another 2-1 team does...who cares. Neither one is probably winning it all anyway.
Really, truth be told, I defend the current system all the time, but I thought the last one was still pretty good whether they took the top 1 or the top 2 like we did for a few years before the current system.
They got it done by point differential. Sure it changed game strategy, for every team, so what, they knew going in what the set up was and it still left it to get done on the field.
I know there were some point determinants. I just wish I had the raw numbers as well as how far the prevailing team advanced after the fact. My point is, I don't think we left too many championship caliber teams sitting at home. Another interesting bit of trivia would be how many 2-1 district teams were eventual state champs.
Would not be surprised. They had to forfeit last week also, lack of numbers.
They should have to cobble together a team made up of non-football players and show up anyway. Band members, volleyball players, home schoolers that live in the district, whoever they can get. All #1 seeds have the right and obligation to pound somebody 85-0. It's the only fair way to determine a state champion.
