Footballking16

In my playoff proposal a tenth regular season game is added just so every team gets that tenth game of entitlement.

If you've locked up a #1 seed you deserve to sit your starters. You earned that #1 seed. You can't tell me that a regular season finale between two teams in which the winning team makes the playoffs and the loser goes home has the same connotation as a regular season finale in the current climate. Not a single IHSAA player today and guessing very, very few coaches have ever coached in this state in a regular season game with those implications.

Well there hasn't been a single regular season game with playoff implications in almost 30 years, so no way of really telling. Last week Merrillville pulled all of their starters in the regular season finale and inexplicitly lost to Chesterton. In a format with a postseason qualifier with seeding and home field advantage throughout at stake, Merrillville's loss could have potentially lost them home field advantage. But naturally the postseason field was already set by that time in the current all-in and the result of that game mattered zero iota so Merrillville stood nothing to lose by doing what they did.

Sectional 24 in my opinion most balanced given the way the draw was set up. Sectional 31 pretty weak, top two teams Lawrenceburg/South Dearborn play week 1 and winner should have a walk to a sectional championship. Both Sectional 21 and 22 are loaded but due to the blind draw are miserably set up. Both these sectionals are prime reasons why there needs to be seeding. It shouldn't be this hard for the IHSAA to figure it out by now.

What’s the harm in advocating a postseason format that challenges the powers that be to make the regular season mean something by qualifying for a tournament through regular season success and achievements?

I would feel as a player or coach, playing in potentially 4,5,6+ games with "playoff" implications sounds a hell of a lot better than being given an "entitled" playoff game. But that's just me. Players and coaches don't know any better because it's the way it's been for 30 years. Sure, switching to a qualifying format may suck for a few years if you're a current high school player, but 10+ years nobody is going to know the difference. I'm sure today's youth watches college and professional sports, I'm not sure how telling a group of kids that you need to earn your way into the postseason is some kind of punishment. It's not. They'll adjust. I don't fathom a playoff scenario that cuts the field in half would ever exclude a team that goes 10-0. It's purely a money grab. That's not going to be the case for high school sports. When ESPN,Turner Sports, Fox, etc start paying to broadcast Indiana High School football we can talk. Perhaps.

Perhaps every state recognizes that the regular season needs to have actual meaning thus dictating seeding/qualification. Just food for thought.

It's exactly what they did. They compounded a terrible format with an equally bad format.

I always hear words like "unique" when used to describe the all-in. It's unique to wear a winter coat in Miami. Doesn't mean it isn't dumb either.

Agree that many people like the all-in. Doesn't mean it's a good system and honestly, it needs a ton of improvement.

Blind draw butchered sectional 22. 4/12 top teams in 4A all on the bottom half of the bracket. Shame.

Wilson's chaos ball simply boiled down to not having enough trust in his defense. 50 points weren't enough in some cases. I truly believe in his mind that he needed the ball last to ensure that he was going to win. I think this really played in to some terrible clock management at the end of games that cost IU some victories during his tenure. Brohm is guilty of doing this as well.

I know guys who played for Allen in high school and were staffers under Allen when he first became head coach at IU. He does that stuff in practice. That isn't for show. He's genuine in that regard. I think it gets tiresome and when things aren't going well it's tough to stomach in the locker room. But it's real, it's not for show.

I don't think Allen is a phony. I think his antics are genuine but doesn't really fit the demeanor for a P5 coach. That stuff you see PJ Fleck do...I believe that's manufactured. If anything Allen is corny but I at least think he's authentic. I could see Wilson being a douche. He's an ego-maniac. Most head coaches are. Dabo, Saban, Belichek. Most those guys come off a douchey.

I like Wilson's demeanor/approach a helluva lot more than Allen's. Agreed with what Crimson said above, put Wilson with a competent DC and who knows where IU would be today. IU always had a functioning offense and could really develop all the positions on that side of the ball.

Well you did say it was unpopular 😂

Strength of conference likely dictates who some of these teams schedule out of conference. I know in the past some of these GCL South and North teams haven't been afraid to schedule anyone out of conference because if you want 3-4 of your conference games you're sitting pretty.

Whoever comes out of 6A South will have definitely earned it. I know you're high on the Irish but their defense has been exposed in the two games they've played against worthy opponents. Beating Center Grove was a nice win and good momentum heading to the tournament, but Center Grove was the better team for all of the last 2-3 minutes of that game. I personally would be worried about a potential rematch. I think it's coin flip whoever comes out of the regional between sectional 3 and 4. I'm going to go with HSE.

The purpose of this post wasn't necessarily to stir discussion for potential bubble teams like Harrison. Any format that cuts the field in half and/or uses a qualifier is going to leave some teams out, that's the nature of the business. That's also why it makes regular season games for meaningful. Teams can play their way in or out the last few weeks of the season. Rather this post was designed to illustrate that the all-in isn't necessary because Cinderella runs in Indiana High School football don't exist. Detractors of a qualifier believe that everyone should be included because the postseason signals a sign of new life and teams that were non-existent in the regular season are somehow going to turn it on come "week 10". It doesn't work that way. There will be a few upsets (5 or less) in the first round where a bottom half Sagarin rated team beats a top half Sagarin rated team and you will see some bottom half teams advance a round, sometimes two, given the nature of the blind draw that allows for bottom half Sagarin rated team to play other each other, but when the dust settles, sectionals are almost exclusively chalk. If the sectionals were seeded all the way through accordingly, the myth that Cinderella exists would instantly die. You'd have running clocks in almost every game that feature the top 2 teams playing the bottom 2 teams.

Computer polls are only imputing and calculating data. There’s no bias in the algorithms like you see with the human element. A computer model is much more likely to spit out an accurate reading for a team like Luers despite being 4-5 than a coach in Southern Indiana who has nothing to go by other than W-L record. You’re taking the bias out of the equation by using computers. Computers aren’t a 100% science but they’re generally better than the human element. I’ve always proposed in my format that a tenth regular season game be added (for those detractors who think that high school athletes are somehow entitled to a tenth game) and the field then be effectively cut in half. That leaves landlocked conferences like the SIAC and SAC one OOC game a year. Sagarin unfortunately does not factor in GS win over the team from Kentucky or any of the data from the teams they played. Hurts GS in this scenario. It significantly helped a team like Chatard in the Massey Poll who played Elder and Christian Brothers, two teams who are both highly rated in national polls. Don’t know the first thing about Norwell. Was shocked West Lafayette wasn’t #1. Can tell that out of state opponents not being factored into Chatard and GS Sagarin equation has helped Norwell.

Using Sagarin, yes Norwell is the #1 rated team in 3A. I use Sagarin because its readily available and it's unique only to Indiana High School football. If a playoff format was ever implemented using a predictive rating measure, I highly doubt Sagarin would be used as it doesn't factor in out of state competition. Massey and Calpreps do however.

I support qualifying formats for all sports. It doesn't get rehashed on here because this is a football forum. Until it does. Never say never. It will never happen if there isn't a continued push year after year. People likely thought the same thing about legalized marijuana or online betting....until it happened. The old cluster and points system didn't include half the field at the conclusion of the regular system. No very good teams are going to be left out in a qualifying format that includes half the field. There will be a handful of bubble teams fighting for the last few spots come the last week of the regular season. With that, it brings a great deal of emphasis and real value meaning to the last few weeks of the regular season. That should be accepted, not scorned.

What percent of coaches have seen half the teams they are seeding/qualifying let alone the entire field? High school football coaches don't have that luxury. Also there's a ton less bias in computer rankings such as Sagarin as compared to the human element.

Not sure if that is a blatant hold but I've seen far less get called. Probably a legitimate argument to be had there if you're Center Grove.

5A and 6A would be cut in half as well under current alignment, although if I were in charge I'd make the 16 largest enrollment schools 6A and they'd all make it seeded 1-16 and the remaining schools divided up between 1A-5A and the top 32 schools would qualify to form 8 four team sectionals, 4 in the northern half and 4 in the southern half.