Opinion: Ohio should rethink long football season (Vindicator)

Do like baseball does and allow teams to schedule games if they make an early playoff exit. In 2020, for as hard as that year was, I really thought the format was good.
6 regular season games and everyone qualified. Then, when a team was out of the game, the were able to schedule games in order to get to 10 games on the year.
Only thing I don’t love is the everyone qualifies. I do think 6 to 8 games is plenty to determine a top 16 in a region though.
 
More data leads to better conclusions. If only 6 games count towards playoff qualification, that makes each game huge. Which makes every loss potentially crippling. Which means that nobody -- nobody -- will be scheduling Hoban, St. Ed, etc.

10-game regular season. It allows for a full conference slate, select OOC games, and enough wiggle room to schedule a challenge or two without devastating consequences.
 
Oil Filter said:
More data leads to better conclusions. If only 6 games count towards playoff qualification, that makes each game huge. Which makes every loss potentially crippling. Which means that nobody -- nobody -- will be scheduling Hoban, St. Ed, etc.

10-game regular season. It allows for a full conference slate, select OOC games, and enough wiggle room to schedule a challenge or two without devastating consequences.
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Maybe they could schedule each other. 😉 16 teams in a region to make the playoffs is plenty. In a 10 game slate there are still many examples of 2 win teams getting in. It would work itself out just fine. With only a 6 game schedule, you’d have enough to play your conference teams before playoffs. Only schools that would really struggle with finding games would be independents. They’d be forced to conference up.
 
16 teams per region is far too many. The object of the playoffs is to determine the single best team, not to give every team which is mediocre or better some false sense of accomplishment. Yeah, there is the occasional blind squirrel, but the top 8 covers the overwhelming majority of legitimate contenders. And remember, that's contenders for the title; making a "deep run" and falling short doesn't count.

Besides, there are a lot of schools which have more than 6 conference games. And there are a lot which have traditional rivals outside of conference play. One shouldn't be so cavalier to dismiss those concerns.

Finally, no AD wants to be scrambling to find games on a few days' notice. You don't know until Saturday who's in the pool of potential opponents for next week? And then you have to kill yourself lining one up, negotiating home/away, trying to exchange film, etc.? That's absurd.
 
Oil Filter said:
…the top 8 covers the overwhelming majority of legitimate contenders. And remember, that's contenders for the title; making a "deep run" and falling short doesn't count.
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From earlier in this thread:
Oil Filter said:
16 games is absurd, as is any proposal which shortens the regular season. 14 games is as far as it ought to go; even that's dancing on the edge
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So take the top eight, play a 10-game regular season, but only play 14 total games? How would that work?
 
Mr. Red Raider said:
Here's a couple of possible ideas that COULD work:

Option A: Having an 8-game regular season games and having the state finals before Thanksgiving weekend. If teams are eliminated after Week 8, they can play up to two games for a total of ten if they choose to. Something like 2020, when eliminated teams played even when the OHSAA playoffs were going on.

Option B: Having a 9-game regular season (starting last week of August), with the state championship ending first week of December.

Option C: Having a 9-game regular season, going back to 8 teams per region, and the state title game before Thanksgiving weekend.

One of the positives of the 2020 season is the state championship game taking place before Thanksgiving weekend.
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A or B for me.
 
serpico said:
So take the top eight, play a 10-game regular season, but only play 14 total games? How would that work?
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The point is not that 8 is the magic number; the point is that 16 is too many.

Personally, I'm good with the top 4. While you may get a champion from 5 and below, the regular season counts, too. If you stumbled repeatedly in weeks 1-10, tough luck. You had multiple chances and blew it. Don't cry about could have been; own what actually was.
 
Oil Filter said:
16 teams per region is far too many. The object of the playoffs is to determine the single best team, not to give every team which is mediocre or better some false sense of accomplishment. Yeah, there is the occasional blind squirrel, but the top 8 covers the overwhelming majority of legitimate contenders. And remember, that's contenders for the title; making a "deep run" and falling short doesn't count.

Besides, there are a lot of schools which have more than 6 conference games. And there are a lot which have traditional rivals outside of conference play. One shouldn't be so cavalier to dismiss those concerns.

Finally, no AD wants to be scrambling to find games on a few days' notice. You don't know until Saturday who's in the pool of potential opponents for next week? And then you have to kill yourself lining one up, negotiating home/away, trying to exchange film, etc.? That's absurd.
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Would it really be so hard? It could run as easy as setting up a double elimination tournament. Losers face off and higher seed gets the home game. You could continue that or allow schools the freedom to schedule any remaining games after the first loser vs loser round.
In reality, it’s about the kids. 10 game regular seasons become a battle of attrition for small schools. That week 6 to 8 is when teams really seem to hit their stride. I feel like that would be a perfect length regular season.

I don’t mind the 10 game regular season, but if that’s the format, only the top 8 should get it.
 
Oil Filter said:
The point is not that 8 is the magic number; the point is that 16 is too many.

Personally, I'm good with the top 4. While you may get a champion from 5 and below, the regular season counts, too. If you stumbled repeatedly in weeks 1-10, tough luck. You had multiple chances and blew it. Don't cry about could have been; own what actually was.
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Plenty of 5-8 seeds have won it. Leave them out and you’re eliminating worthy champions, including potentially 9-1 teams that didn’t ‘stumble repeatedly’.
 
8 playoff teams per region is the best. 16 playoff teams is still better than every other idea I have seen here. I would almost prefer to keep 16 per region, and make it 6 divisions again. If you go back to 6 divisions though I would cut off D1 at a max of somewhere between the top 80-100 schools enrollment wise. That would put around 120 schools in D2-D6 which gives you around 24 schools per region. If you go 80 this year I believe Shaker Heights would be the smallest D1 school at 570.

16 games is only played by two schools in a division and I don't think the kids had a problem with it. Now spending all summer doing 7 on 7 I agree is overdone and I think after a couple years of this coaches will figure out that it really isn't that beneficial.
 
serpico said:
I’d rather determine the true best team in a division than make it a scheduling contest that favors teams in large metro areas that have an easier time scheduling Harbin cows.
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There are many aspects to building a successful program. Scheduling is one of them. You'd rather stay home in November than take a bus ride in September? Your program, your choice. Live with the consequences.

Seriously, man. Most teams are in a league. That's pretty much a fixed payoff. That means the Harbin cow opportunity is only there 3-4 weeks. Take it. Besides, that's why we have regions instead of a statewide playoff pool. You are competing against other schools which have the same competitive environment as you. It's not like the school 5 miles down the road has options you don't.
 
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Oil Filter said:
There are many aspects to building a successful program. Scheduling is one of them. You'd rather stay home in November than take a bus ride in September? Your program, your choice. Live with the consequences.

Seriously, man. Most teams are in a league. That's pretty much a fixed payoff. That means the Harbin cow opportunity is only there 3-4 weeks. Take it. Besides, that's why we have regions instead of a statewide playoff pool. You are competing against other schools which have the same competitive environment as you. It's not like the school 5 miles down the road has options you don't.
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1) Many leagues only leave you one or two shots at a cow. Also, the cows have to agree to play you.
2) Each quadrant of the state, excepting perhaps the Southeast, has large metro areas mixed in with rural parts. Those aren’t the same competitive environments. Witness Middletown Fenwick, which used to nearly get an annual invite to the Class A/D5 playoffs because it could schedule up so easily.
3) I’d still rather determine the best football team in each division rather than who has the best AD, even if it takes an extra week.
4) More data leads to better conclusions 😉
 
serpico said:
Each quadrant of the state, excepting perhaps the Southeast, has large metro areas mixed in with rural parts.
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Right. Because there are as many D1 teams within 40 miles of Toledo as there are within 40 miles of Cincinnati or Columbus.
 
Talked to a friend of mine. He said why not EXPAND the regular season to 12 games but reduce the playoffs to 16 teams per division. Everyone gets an extra home game (in theory) and the whole season is still 16 weeks. Not the worst idea I have heard. Not the best.
 
aztecjim said:
Talked to a friend of mine. He said why not EXPAND the regular season to 12 games but reduce the playoffs to 16 teams per division. Everyone gets an extra home game (in theory) and the whole season is still 16 weeks. Not the worst idea I have heard. Not the best.
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Idk, man. 12 guaranteed games is a long haul. As you admitted, not the best/worst idea here. Can't imagine the scheduling would be easy. Many teams currently struggle to find 10 games. And going back to only 4 in a Region would make programs that much more selective of who they're willing to play.
10 reg games, 8/region wasn't broken. Why did it need fixing?
 
raider2bearcat said:
I don't think it's a factual reason, but it certainly, to many, feels wrong that teams with 4-6 or even 3-7 records can compete for a state championship.
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thePITman said:
The awwwwful - often embarrassing - first round match-ups.
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Well Ignatius won coming in the playoffs 6-4 one year and St X made it the finals Records are just numbers. Many teams will schedule tough opponents because there is chances to make the playoffs are better. I just went through Playoff History Class A-AAA and D1-3 through 2010 State Semis and Finals and I stopped at 50 games that opponents won by 27 or more points. So blowouts happen in every round.
 
I’ve said it for awhile now, 8 teams make the playoffs and have 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16 all play each other in a ”bowl” game. One more chance for the seniors to play and the OHSAA preserves the legitimacy of the playoffs
 
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