statelinesportsnetwork.net
Absolutely agree. Nothing good can come out of these games - coaches claim rhythm, another chance to work on things and tune up...I call BS. How does beating a team like that make you any better whatsoever. Make no mistake, these games are for padding stats and breaking records. Thats it.
I cannot speak for Tri-Village. They apparently had a girl set a record last night. However, I can speak for Crestview. Our coach took a first round game and every team went away from us. This isn't always the case. If you look at two other border schools to Crestview, albeit in division three; the #3 seed Parkway took the first round game instead of a bye and the #9 seed Wayne Trace elected to play them......Wayne Trace won the game. Had Parkway have taken the bye, they would be in sectional finals on Saturday night. Its a gamble to take the first round game. Its tournament. Anything can happen.
Another issue is money. With home sites for sectional games now, even though the schools get 0% of the gate, they still get concessions, parking, etc. It may not be a large amount, but that number for two games is almost always going to be higher than that number for one game. I don't know that coaches take that into consideration when they place themselves on the bracket, but I'd bet some do...
Neither Crestview nor Tri-Village hosted their games.
To speak on every team going away…
You sure on their record? Their website (Metro Buckeye Conference) only has them playing 8 games this year.
Maybe someone is assuming basketball is the same as football with teams hosting home games ?
Still. They were 0-8 then. I could have swore the bracket said 0-19. I may have been mistaken
In looking at the site info on the brackets, the Central, NE, E, and SE all use that format. IIRC, the Central was the first to do it. It appears that only the NW and SW use neutral sites for the sectional rounds.
Central went to it around 2012.
I believe the NE saw where attendance was heading under the neutral site format and figured they might at least draw a good home crowd to limit their losses by playing at the higher seed's venue. NE went to the home site format starting with the 2014-2015 season.
In the SE’s case, the boys’ used to play the sectional games at the mentioned schools and then the District stage at the Convocation Center in Athens. However, OU can no longer guarantee the dates necessary every year so some of those neutral sites have since become district sites in order to assuage the volunteer workload (with higher seeds hosting until the district in turn.)
There’s no home games.
He has no idea what he’s talking about. There’s no home games
East played at West tonight.
We've already established that 4 of the 6 Districts allow the higher seed to play at home in the sectional rounds (C, E, NE, and SE). The NW and SW are neutral site all the way through the tournament.
MCGal is totally right here.
McGal has a fair point. It is ultimately the strategy of the coaching staff on what. they feel is best for their team. There are plenty of teams that would rather take the bye rather than risk an unnecessary injury or worst case scenario an ejection or something that prevents a player or coach from being able to play in their next game. Some teams use the extra time off to get healthy and I think someone mentioned above that they will get more out of a hard practice against themselves rather than beating someone by 90.
So earning a first round bye is a punishment?
I like this too.....give some incentive for taking the bye.