Playoff System?

So actually 12 state champions but still Region based!

SE and NW OH would be Rural Regions and NE and SW OH would be Urban based. 

the only thing i would change in CA is to disband the Central Section - go full North and South (divided just south of fresno).

having 3 sections doesnt make sense in football, and the playoff system basicly ignores central section because of it. (Central Section is snubbed every year)

if that is the concern, split the central section into north/south and have 4 sections - which then play each other to end up in a north/south game. 

North vs North Central
South vs South Central
Winner North vs Winner South

That and I'd like to see 5a and 6a pre split div 1 and 2 like 4a.

yea its not easy. but it just doesnt make sense to have 3 sections - i mean going back to the mid 2000's when Clovis East (Tim Murphy) was destroying all the big schools - and never getting a look. or Bakersfield HS in more recent years beating the open schools by 30 only to have those opponents get selected when they dont.

Like Jersey.

I really liked how Wisconsin did it when I was coaching there. Basically teams with a winning record qualified for playoffs. There was no true enrollment requirements for size or for each class or division. The 32 largest qualifying schools went in a division together, the next 32 largest went into a division together, etc. Within the division, the teams were split into four regions of 8 and those schools were seeded. so you played 3 regional games, then a semi final and state championship. The only thing I disliked about it was sometimes at the end of the season you might think you were in on the boundary of two divisions enrollment wise and it made it a bit of a crapshoot as to where to send your scouts.

I think with this topic, coaches really need to understand the vast differences from state to state regarding how their systems are set up. For instance my personal playing experience under some of the methods I have read here in this and past threads, would have been ridiculous. But those places have different travel issues and population distributions than Louisiana does, so for them it may be the only way to do things.

Right now we're on our 4th system in the past 25 years. We have 6 classes, with only 32 teams in the top class and all of those get guaranteed playoff berths.

For the top class, they are divided into 4 equal, 8 team districts and many of them must drive 3+ hours for district games. Teams from my area drove 4+ hours and were spending $10k on travel for their 1st round guaranteed playoff game. You can guess how many fans they brought with them...

The other 300 teams or so are divided into 5 equal classes, each divided into 8 districts based on geography. The top 4 teams in each district make it in (which guarantees 160 more playoff teams and big money for our state association) but the size of those districts varies from 5-9 teams. 1-9 gets you in some places (maybe 0-10 if a team's in trouble and suspended from the postseason) while 6-4 will have you sitting at home in the others. Again, the 32 biggest teams are in automatically, so fairness was never a serious concern.

Publics and Privates are sort of separated out into 2 different divisions, but a lot of privates choose to play in the public division (Div. 1) with a multiplier (which can have them play, at most, 1 class up). The Division II teams (only about 40 teams in 2 D2 classes with 2 separate playoff systems) can offer financial aid for athletes, while those playing in Div. 1 with the publication aren't supposed to (but can do some other things that gives them an advantage).

Believe it or not, this is an improvement over the cluster of a system we had in place for the past few years.

If I had my way, I'd separate the publics and privates all together into a single class with real districts, make 5 more or less equal classes (which we used to have) and make it at least 6-7 teams in each district with the top 4 making it in.

The state association will never lose that 6A playoff bracket, though, but it needs to add some more teams there due to the insane travel demands placed on them. Supposedly, the guaranteed playoff spots were their way of offsetting that, but it didn't work.

I expect us to try another system in another 2-5 years.

And what 7 or 8 classes right?

This is our last year in PA with 4 classes for over 600 schools.  Next year we start 6 classes so about 100 per class and after seeing how its set up now I think we should have stayed at 4.  Winning a state title is hard, not something that should be easy.  I have read so many threads here about preparing kids for life through football and all the lessons learned from the game but then when it comes to winning a state title we should water it down and make it easier to make it fair for everyone.  I mean if we want to prepare players for life they need to know you don't win all the time and have to deal with that.

Or 1 public school and 1 private school!

I don't think anyone will notice the change from 1/150 to 1/100 odds.

5 out of the last 7 doesn't seem too hard or special...

Obviously I am being somewhat facetious when I say that, but I do think it supports the point others here are making.  Maybe Pennsylvania isn't able to do it any better, but in some states maybe there is a better way.  Also (and I am not asking you to sit down and do more work just for my benefit or this discussion)  You mentioned that you have "yearly contenders"  and that is why I asked about the diversity of your quarters and semi's as well as the final match ups.  Heck, it might even be more appropriate to look the diversity of the first and second rounds (if you have 5 rounds) as well.   

I do think that 2 separate but linked issues come with a playoff discussion.  One is MAKING the playoffs, the other is winning a championship.

I really think school size is a very poor way to break up the divisions. Clearly it is not ery hard for some teams to win a state title, they are there every year. Also when you make the state finals, you 5 weeks more of practice than teams that don't make the playoffs, that is the reason a State Champ should have to move up a division the next year. Also if One area of the State only has 3 or 4 state titles in 40 years it is time to realize they should have their own Championship.


www.ohsaa.org/sports/history/FT/FootballParticipants.pdf