Iowa high school site has Davenport North listed as 1-8 on the season and in the playoffs! How is that even possible? Sorry I know it is 4a but I couldnt believe that when I saw it.
1-8 team makes playoffs?
- Thread starter tigerhawk2015
- Start date
It's actually happened before (Mason City got in at 1-8). You can blame, in order, the 32-team playoff setup; the fact that 4A has only 46 teams; and districts.
With 46 teams, there are two districts in 4A that have only five members. They play their entire 9-game season with only 4 district games, all to eliminate only one of them from the playoffs. If one squad is bad enough to lose all four district games, they are the one that gets left out. If another team is almost as bad, and loses all their games except the one to the 0-4 team: Ta-da! Welcome to the playoffs, 1-8 fourth place team!
The state went to 32 to stop the complaining about teams from tough districts finishing third and missing the playoffs (look at Glenwood in 3A this year; with just the top two in, they would have missed the playoffs with an 8-1 record). But that ended up opening the door for 3-6, 2-7, or even 1-8 teams getting a playoff game.
Won't be happening next year, though.
With 46 teams, there are two districts in 4A that have only five members. They play their entire 9-game season with only 4 district games, all to eliminate only one of them from the playoffs. If one squad is bad enough to lose all four district games, they are the one that gets left out. If another team is almost as bad, and loses all their games except the one to the 0-4 team: Ta-da! Welcome to the playoffs, 1-8 fourth place team!
The state went to 32 to stop the complaining about teams from tough districts finishing third and missing the playoffs (look at Glenwood in 3A this year; with just the top two in, they would have missed the playoffs with an 8-1 record). But that ended up opening the door for 3-6, 2-7, or even 1-8 teams getting a playoff game.
Won't be happening next year, though.
In next years set up Glenwood would probably a great candidate for one of two wild card spots! It will be interesting how they pick those.
I would much rather have a 1-8 team make the playoffs then have a 8-1 team miss the playoffs. Huge mistake cutting down number of teams.
I'd rather have an 8-1 team who didn't won their district miss the playoffs than continuing to have teams play 4 games in 15 days for safety reasons. Want to make the playoffs then win, it's that simple.
It was prestigious when they first went to 32 qualifiers and they called the "first round" Sub-state. You weren't an official playoff qualifier until you won that sub-state game. That was 100% the right way to do things.
And Mepodawg, I'm not a big fan of the "Just Win" crowd. If you have a 3-way tie for 1st place in the district then technically everybody "Just Won" the same number of district games. However, you have to send one team home solely based on how many points they won/lost by or alphabetical order. To me, that's a broken system. I'm pretty sure Beckman and Clear Lake fans would agree with me
No perfect answer for sure. Positives and negatives for both 2 and 4 team setups.
Not sure if dropping the season to an 8 game regular season and week 9 start the playoffs was even considered. Teams that don't make the playoffs have the option of a scheduled 9th game with another non-qualifier with a sister/brother district to satisfy the "need for revenue" crowd. I think this would bring a good balance. In every other sport everyone gets to compete in post season. Not realistic in football but IMHO more kids getting the chance the better.
Not sure if dropping the season to an 8 game regular season and week 9 start the playoffs was even considered. Teams that don't make the playoffs have the option of a scheduled 9th game with another non-qualifier with a sister/brother district to satisfy the "need for revenue" crowd. I think this would bring a good balance. In every other sport everyone gets to compete in post season. Not realistic in football but IMHO more kids getting the chance the better.
Take top 3 in each district, or top 2 and 8 wildcards but that could get political, give the 1's a first round bye and have the 2's play the 3's. Would protect against a 3 way tie for district champ not qualifying and more than likely limit the chance for a 3-6 team making it in.
The problem with that I see is still the 3 games in 15 days issue. I don't know the right idea, 24 teams sounds great but we still have the same problem we do now with the number of rest days.
3 in 15 is what you play yes every week. 4 in 14 or 15 depending on how you count it might be a bit much when you put in travel time on weeknights. The dropping to 16 might lead to some teams being left out but have 24 teams still would leave some teams playing 4 games in 15 days.
As for the idea of saying no team with a losing record should ever get it, with a 9 game schedule it is possible to have a 2nd place finish in the district with a losing record. if you lose all 3 non district games and 2 district games you could end up 4-5 but be second in your district. Look District 1 this year, central lyon went 5-4 but finished ahead of 7-2 Cherokee. Had central lyon lost to West lyon they could have gone 4-5 overall but still been second place in their district. I agree that losing records aren't good in the playoffs but there could be cases and might have already have been cases where a team with a losing record overall actually is team who is #2 in the district.
As for the idea of saying no team with a losing record should ever get it, with a 9 game schedule it is possible to have a 2nd place finish in the district with a losing record. if you lose all 3 non district games and 2 district games you could end up 4-5 but be second in your district. Look District 1 this year, central lyon went 5-4 but finished ahead of 7-2 Cherokee. Had central lyon lost to West lyon they could have gone 4-5 overall but still been second place in their district. I agree that losing records aren't good in the playoffs but there could be cases and might have already have been cases where a team with a losing record overall actually is team who is #2 in the district.
Simply cannot look at overall records. Some teams try and challenge themselves in non-district games some teams play as easy as game as they can get.
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