BleacherCoaches.com

Here is my plan for a playoff system in Pennsylvania. Why I care I don't know. I don't live there anymore but it will always be my home. This is the last I will say about it.

First close your eyes, take a deep breath, blow your nose, and clear your brain of all evil thoughts such as Districts, point systems, etc., etc. Next, open your eyes and before you are four outline maps of Pennsylvania. On the maps there are neither county lines nor District lines. What is on each map are many little dots each representing the four school classifications. We'll take map 1 for Class A. Study the map and gather the dots into groups of 6, 7, or 8. In football, in each classification, there are an average of 142 schools statewide. Conferences of 6 teams would make 23 conferences, 8 teams, 18 conferences or somewhere in the middle. This allows 2 to 4 pre conference play games with anybody, any classification, anywhere, Divide the map, east and west, with an equal number (or as close to equal as possible) on each end -- 9 - 12 each. At the end of conference play 32 teams from each half of the state would be selected to fill the playoff brackets -- 64 teams total. Almost half of the schools who participated. Conference winners would be selected to fill the highest seeds with remaining slots filled by 2nd or 3rd place finishers or best records, etc., with flip-of-coin for ties. Brackets would be just as NCAA -- 1 plays 16, 2 plays 15, etc., etc. Simple, simple, simple. Lower seed plays at higher seed until championship games. No 'evil thought' ideas come into play. If you want to keep old traditional rivalries alive there are enough pre season slots to make that happen. If you want to play out of class there are enough pre season slots to make that happen. Post season games could be scheduled between schools if they don't make the playoffs just as they do today. There would be no mixing of classification within conferences. If a school's enrollment increased to the next highest class they would have to be reassigned to a new conference, sorry. A school could opt to play in a higher classification if they so desire but they would be locked in for a predetermined number of years.

Each map would be treated the same for each classification. I won't bore you with any more of my ideas but hope I have made it easy to understand. Districts could remain but hopefully redrawn for representation only. Get rid of the silly arguments over where someone is locate and let the playoffs settle it each year.

As little as it may mean in the whole scope of things (who the best in the state is ..etc..).....I think we are forgetting how much a District championship will mean to a Berlin, NB, NS, or CT squad when it is awarded. To enter a tournament and come out on top, with the geographic boundaries as such, is something these kids deserve to cherish the next two weeks.....(But as soon as WPIAL-Titan sees this, we'll get the "I'll take the WPIAL champ by 50" post)...

Let me ask you this if outcome of the Bedford Central Cambria game was different would we even have this discussion.

Like I already stated... sometimes it takes something like this to make you see the injustice of the whole system.

I am not a Bedford fan, or a CC fan, or anything else.

I like the input from the "new" guys on here. We had this same intensive discussion last year. Many of the same points were brought up. HR's idea of "bids" is new. Kind of sounds like the BCS to me. What I don't like is the insecant bashing of other schools and conferences. There is no disputing the LHAC is the best all-around conference. It will get even tougher if Central and Heights bail out.

Here my two cents.

1. Whatever it takes go back to a 10 game regular season schedule!

2. The PIAA must go to 6 classes in football!

3. Implement a playoff system similar to the WPIAL!

4. Allow for spring practice (1 or 2 weeks) then no organized workouts until summer camp! Leave the kids alone in the summer.

*note* the PIAA is as bad of worse the UN. I see alot of similarties between Brad Cashman and Koffi Annan. Don't look for any progressive changes in PIAA football anytime soon. They make too much sense.

Do we want to open up the Private v. Public school debate again?

Wasn't there supposed to be a new 5A and 6A classifications this season? What happened to that idea?

5A and 6A was studied and proposed by both the football coaches Assoc. and the AD's Association. It looked like it had enough steam to pass.
However, the PIAA has formula's for everything, Cashman is big into that. And according to the formula's the number of classifications is based on the number of schools sponsoring the sport statewide. Obviously a lot of small schools don't have football so there are actually less football playing schools than there are basketball playing schools. Six in football would have had to equal six in basketball and probably some other additions based on the PIAA formula.

As a result of the proposal, the only thing that happened was a 4th classification in Baseball and Softball!!!

From my way of thinking. Comparing football with other sports is like comparing apples and oranges and I was very much in favor of the change. However, the PIAA maintains a "treat everyone and everything the same" mentality which in one way is good but in this case is bad from this guys perspective.

Good HR but the PIAA mediocrity is getting old. Smaller states have more than 4 football classes. States the same size and larger have more than four classes. I am really dumbfounded as to why the PIAA doesn't go 6 classes in football and basketball. It means 2 more championship games and more money for the PIAA coffers. Now don't start wailing about playing 6 football games at Hershey. The solution is simple. Play 3 at Hershey and 3 at Altoona. Will that happen? No way because it makes way too much sense.

If District 5/6 had a WPIAL format this is how it would look for AA.

Two sections 8 teams each broken down East/West.

West- Westmont, Forest Hills, Bishop McCort, Central Cambria, Penn Cambria, Ligonier, Marion Center, Purchase Line

East- Tyrone, Phillipsburg, Penns Valley, Everett, Bedford, Ridge, Central, Cambria Heights

Sounds pretty reasonable but..........

stop complaining and win the games on your schedule then worry about the playoffs.