What purpose do conference affiliations serve? Isn't this an antiquated throwback of a thing to have? Do teams care about being Conference Champs anymore? All-Conference players? Why?
Why have leagues and conferences today?
- Thread starter JNreturns
- Start date
It is a pre-playoff antiquated system. Especially in the everybody makes the playoffs era. Also you should never run any kind of a points system for seeding or otherwise when conference's have different size school classifications within them.
#1 See # 2 question.
#2 Yep
#3 YES
#4 YES ( Only way the grunt workers get the recognition they deserve.)
#5 See #3 and #4.
If you played a 10 game schedule and 7 of those games were district games winning a district championship would hold more value than a conference championship because it leads to the playoffs. Also it would make being a All-District team award winner more of an accomplishment than it currently is. It would be the combination of 7 games worth of play as opposed to 3 games. I guess some folk need more patches on their jackets to be validated.
Some of the drives in these districts are stupid. Conferences cut down on drive time because you arent stuck with similar sized schools
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KC area doesn't do a media district team anymore just Coaches all-district. I believe other areas of the state still have media selected All-District teams.
All district schedule is horrible especially in the rural parts of the state. Lamar for example wouldn't get to play any of its rivals and would have to play an entire schedule basically in central Missouri. Conferences serve a solid purpose.
I don't want to live in a conference free world.
I would not belong to a conference that would have me as a member.....
Who finished 2nd in your conference last year? Who won it the year before last? Nobody ever knows, because it doesn't matter. It's for the old dudes who hang their hat on beating the school up the road, and for AD's who don't want to put a schedule together.
Conference's come and go and get reshuffled all the time to reflect growth. If everyone was playing in the exact same leagues they were 30 or 40 years ago your statement would hold value. Life is constantly changing and so does football.
I 'get' this argument against conferences from folks who are from areas where conferences come and go. I'm sure it would seem pointless.
But, where there are truly rich traditions and a history? I vote yes on that every day. Yep. I'm sure I'm old-fashioned. I like tradition, rivalry, camaraderie.
But, where there are truly rich traditions and a history? I vote yes on that every day. Yep. I'm sure I'm old-fashioned. I like tradition, rivalry, camaraderie.
Maybe in your area, but for the most part in our area we have been playing the same schools for many many decades. The Big 8 has been around since 1982, not many people in this area can remember a time when the Big 8 did not exist. The original conference was established around the 1920's with the original members being Aurora, Carthage, Joplin, Lamar, Monett, Mt. Vernon, Neosho, Nevada, Springfield and Webb City. So Aurora Lamar Monett Mt Vernon have been playing each other for a long time. Nevada again will be a member.
I have to admit it is sad that going forward Monett Mt Vernon & Aurora will no longer play each other every year going forward...now to us old timers those were are rivals, not this new found 2000's brawl with Cassville, but hey things change.
Agree with NorthwestBleacher -- a lot of areas have conferences that have been around for 30 or 40 years. It would be a shame to lose those rivalries to 8-team district play. I doubt if those rivalries care if one of the teams is in a different class.
I'm old enough to remember the era where conference play was still almost everything. The playoffs were limited to the point system or the three game playoff--and conference was critical--making All Conference, an incredible honor.
I also don't see the appeal of just playing your class. Enrollment is always the thing whiners whine about when they get beat as well.
If you did a 10 game schedule and 7 were district games you would have 3 games to play whoever you want from any class and keep your rivalries.
Competing with the teams in the Big 8 is one of the contributing factors to our success. Wouldn't want to change that.
History has shown that this scenario would result in 3 bye weeks for us.
Harrisonville has traveled to St. Louis, Arkansas, Springfield, Jefferson City Waynesville in the regular season. Travel is the cost of making a schedule and building a decent program.
in my opinion, smaller schools care about conferences and bigger schools do not
It is pretty widely accepted that the top high school football players come from Texas. Why we don't model our system after what they do is beyond me. They don't have conferences, and they play their district games during the regular season. They seem to do just fine. We should just run high school football the way they do from the schedules, to the rules, to the summer contact days, ect.
They play their baseball season during late winter so it will be over in time for spring football. How would that work in Mo?
I'll post my usual response to this topic...
Some areas of the state might make sense to play an all district/classification schedule. I'm thinking maybe in the more populated areas where you have large concentrations of C4-C6 schools.
However from my perspective it's very unattractive. Carthge - they would trade the closest and best games of the year CJ, Webb City, Joplin for what... Sedalia, Belton, or more Springfield schools? Webb City would trade basically all the COC for... Mc County, Nevada, Bolivar? Joplin and Poo would be spending a ton of time on the road to KC. Everyone would spend more time on the road down here when there are perfectly suited opponents right next door.
I do agree that conferences are more about scheduling, and less about crowning a champion. But what's wrong with that? The COC is won by the same team (almost) every year and that team is more interested in winning state titles than tossing another conference or district title on the pile out back. I just don't think anyone cares much about winning conference. It doesn't get you anything, but winning district does. Even when Carthage stole the COC from Webb, I didn't hear much about it. The wanted to win the district.
I don't have a problem with the current tournament bracket. In theory I like the concept of having to "make" the playoffs, but I also witnessed a positive aspect of the all-in model this year when Neosho started clicking late in the season. I would just hate to see a scenario where the COC can't exist anymore. It's a really fun conference. I would hope if something changed, maybe it would be a shortened "regular" season then maybe CJ, WC, Joplin, Carthage, Neosho would band together and form a new Southwest Large Conference or something and maybe trade games with some of the other former COC to fill in any holes in schedule.
Some areas of the state might make sense to play an all district/classification schedule. I'm thinking maybe in the more populated areas where you have large concentrations of C4-C6 schools.
However from my perspective it's very unattractive. Carthge - they would trade the closest and best games of the year CJ, Webb City, Joplin for what... Sedalia, Belton, or more Springfield schools? Webb City would trade basically all the COC for... Mc County, Nevada, Bolivar? Joplin and Poo would be spending a ton of time on the road to KC. Everyone would spend more time on the road down here when there are perfectly suited opponents right next door.
I do agree that conferences are more about scheduling, and less about crowning a champion. But what's wrong with that? The COC is won by the same team (almost) every year and that team is more interested in winning state titles than tossing another conference or district title on the pile out back. I just don't think anyone cares much about winning conference. It doesn't get you anything, but winning district does. Even when Carthage stole the COC from Webb, I didn't hear much about it. The wanted to win the district.
I don't have a problem with the current tournament bracket. In theory I like the concept of having to "make" the playoffs, but I also witnessed a positive aspect of the all-in model this year when Neosho started clicking late in the season. I would just hate to see a scenario where the COC can't exist anymore. It's a really fun conference. I would hope if something changed, maybe it would be a shortened "regular" season then maybe CJ, WC, Joplin, Carthage, Neosho would band together and form a new Southwest Large Conference or something and maybe trade games with some of the other former COC to fill in any holes in schedule.
use
Texas has a large amount of college and pro talent and entertaining hs football to many because of population, not because they have a superior system. It’s simply the law of averages. My comments are based off a small sample size when I attended the state championship weekend once a few years ago. It was not a lot of fun to watch. They all played like the St Louis schools, big, fast, athletic, reckless, and undisciplined.
Things may have changed with expansion but I felt there system for determining playoff teams, dividing between upper and lower division of each class based off district record was dumb.
As far a spring ball goes I am pretty sure MO allows more contact days through the offseason than Arkansas does with spring ball. Heck it’s too cold for baseball most of the spring season as it is and you want to move it up a month and a half?
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Texas has a large amount of college and pro talent and entertaining hs football to many because of population, not because they have a superior system. It’s simply the law of averages. My comments are based off a small sample size when I attended the state championship weekend once a few years ago. It was not a lot of fun to watch. They all played like the St Louis schools, big, fast, athletic, reckless, and undisciplined.
Things may have changed with expansion but I felt there system for determining playoff teams, dividing between upper and lower division of each class based off district record was dumb.
As far a spring ball goes I am pretty sure MO allows more contact days through the offseason than Arkansas does with spring ball. Heck it’s too cold for baseball most of the spring season as it is and you want to move it up a month and a half?
Maybe there is merit to some of what they do (I don't know their system), but we aren't Texas. We're much smaller than TX, CA, or FL (states that also come up a lot) so what works in those states may not work here. Not to say it isn't worth discussing or trying new things, but it's not apples to apples. And like others said, Texas (and FL, CA) have way more people, so it makes sense that recruiters hit them harder. Weather is also very different in those states compared to MO, especially north of the river.
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