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First Round Playoff Talk

LukeFeddersen said:
Brackets will be released shortly. Get in here for discussion now!
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I like Coon Rapids Bayard coming out of the West and Lone Tree coming out the East. Oh wait, both teams are 8-1 and the state neglected to use the wild card structure in 8 man so they are left out. What a travesty to those kids.

Coon Rapids beat Newell Fonda 49-26 in a cross district matchup. Newell Fonda is in. Coon Rapids beat a very good Westside team in OT. Westside is in.

Lone Tree beat HLV 55-8 in a cross district matchup. HLV is in. Lone Tree beat a very good Midland team by one score. Midland is in and probably a heavy favorite to make the dome.

Can someone explain how or why the State of Iowa Athletic Association would have different qualifying criteria depending on the class. It makes no sense some classes have wild card opportunities and some don't. These teams were 8-1 - one blemish and don't have an opportunity to play in the playoffs.

If this is really about the kids, something needs to be done. Teams that won 89% of their games excluded from the playoffs - what a joke!
 
They had an opportunity to play in the playoffs...it was called the regular season. They didn't take care of business when it was needed. Sucks, but everyone knew the format before the season started.
 
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IowaFan5 said:
Can someone explain how or why the State of Iowa Athletic Association would have different qualifying criteria depending on the class. It makes no sense some classes have wild card opportunities and some don't.
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There are 8 districts in 4A and 8-man. Top 2 = 16 teams.
There are 7 districts in 3A thru A. Top 2 = 14 teams, plus 2 WC = 16.

The coaches in the middle classes wanted 7 districts of 8 teams instead of 8 districts of 7 teams so there wouldn't be a non-district game in the middle of the schedule.
 
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You could probably throw in a 7-2 GT/RA team as well.

I truly feel for the kids because they are all definitely playoff quality teams. But thats the nature of the game. Take care of the district play and you don't have to worry about it. There are definitely flaws and I like the use of wildcards in other classes, but you have to do what you can in the format in place this year.
 
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Maybe they should do what Nebraska does....8 District champs make it in and they have 8 wildcards. Not sure if that is the answer...but maybe worth looking into.
 
Should have left it at 32 teams. Gone to 8 districts and play 7 district games plus 1 non-district. Once all the 32 are known match the non-qualifiers up for their 9th game. Keeps all the games on Fridays and a week between games. Best of both worlds plus you don't move the schedule up to week 0.
 
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My main complaint is that the state uses point differential as a tie-break criteria, but caps it at 17 points per game. Seventeen is nothing in the 8-man game. I understand not wanting teams to run up the score, but isn't that what the continuous clock is for when the margin reaches 35? Football isn't Blackjack. There isn't a team in the state that elects to stand at 17. In district play, Lone Tree's point total was +33/game, Midland was +30 & Iowa Valley was +25. In my obviously biased opinion, with a three way tie that is a truer indicator of who held sway in D4.
 
DawgPoundGreat said:
Should have left it at 32 teams. Gone to 8 districts and play 7 district games plus 1 non-district. Once all the 32 are known match the non-qualifiers up for their 9th game. Keeps all the games on Fridays and a week between games. Best of both worlds plus you don't move the schedule up to week 0.
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I like this a lot. I'd rather see a few undeserving teams get in than shut out kids who have earned the post-season experience. Plus it gives the non-qualifiers, who are likely to have poor records the chance to go out on a competitive note.
 
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The coaches were give the choice of an 8 game schedule or a 9 game schedule without being told that it would for sure change to 16 playoff teams if they chose to stay with 9. The coaches chose to stay with 9. This "vote" was gathered through a survey to football coaches and AD's. Then the state informed them since they chose 9, the playoffs would be cut to 16. The IFCA was not given all the information for what would change if they chose to go with 8 games or to stay with 9.

Not exactly fair to put it on the coaches when they weren't fully aware of what they were voting for and what was going to happen if they recommended either way. Now, where the IFCA did go wrong was not demanding that the full plan of both be laid out to examine when a vote for 8 or 9 was being made. Although, the "survey" was viewed as a preliminary collection of data at the time, not a full "yes/no" vote for the future of the playoff system.

Now, we can move on with the debate of what is best, knowing the facts of the situation.
 
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Nice try. But the coaches are not that stupid to not figure that out. They knew why they were being surveyed. And the repercussions.

Class 4A needed to be cut down. Watered down playoffs when you have 48 teams and 32 make the playoffs. Staying with the 32 teams makes sense with 8 man. 61 teams works well with that number of playoff teams.
 
Voicefromthestands said:
Nice try. But the coaches are not that stupid to not figure that out. They knew why they were being surveyed. And the repercussions.

Class 4A needed to be cut down. Watered down playoffs when you have 48 teams and 32 make the playoffs. Staying with the 32 teams makes sense with 8 man. 61 teams works well with that number of playoff teams.
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Who gives a sh*t if the 4A play-offs were watered down? In baseball and basketball, everyone makes it in. Who says you've got to operate each division the same, where play-offs are concerned? Newsflash! It's unlikely schools with 100-200 students are gonna fit into the same cookie-cutter world as the schools with 10 times that enrollment.
 
I don't understand why a team is penalized points in a loss. A loss for a team should be zero. A win by a team is plus points up to what ever scoring cap they want to set. Just my opinion...
 
I believe this thread was named "First Round Playoff Talk" to talk about the teams that actually made into the playoffs. If you wanna complain about the rules than make your own thread. Now who does everyone got winning in round 1?

Audubon at Harris-Lake Park
Newell-Fonda at Ar-We-Va
Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton at Bedford
Lenox at Fremont-Mills
Don Bosco at Turkey Valley
AGWSR at Central Elkader
HLV at Midland
Iowa Valley at Twin Cedars
 
District 5 is gonna get exposed in the first round I bet... Wouldn't surprise me if HLV and Twin Cedars got blown out.. That district is ridiculous.. Guess time will tell.
 
Hey long time reader first time poster. Mustang you may be right but thats why they play the games. Is the Mustang nation from your name reference Murray? If so didn't a team from your conference win the state title in baseball a few years ago? No offense meant to your conference but they were not made up of the greatest of teams. Yet that did not stop that school from winning it all. I realize I am comparing apples to oranges as far as sports go but hey you never know.

Good luck to all the playoff teams around the state this weekend!
 
I wish Twin Cedars and HLV best of luck. I hope one of them does win it all but both of them teams haven't played a team even close to what they'll see in first round of playoffs. Also you are correct Twin Cedars did win the 1A state title in baseball a few years ago. All I was stating is I feel district 5 will get exposed do to that district being extremely weak. Guess I'm not able to voice my opinion? I really hope HLV or Twin Cedars advance and one of them wins it all honestly. If they advance after this week I'll be eating some crow.
 
I actually agree with you that their district is sub par in comparison to the rest. Just saying don't count anyone out. Thats why sports are so great.
 
Lonetreehawk said:
Who gives a sh*t if the 4A play-offs were watered down? In baseball and basketball, everyone makes it in. Who says you've got to operate each division the same, where play-offs are concerned? Newsflash! It's unlikely schools with 100-200 students are gonna fit into the same cookie-cutter world as the schools with 10 times that enrollment.
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In your rush to be a dick head. you proved my point. Going from 32 to 16 in 8 man was forcing that division to fit into cookie cutter format developed for 4 A. If we had all been so wishy/washy when we set up 8 man, it would never have gotten off the ground.
 
Voicefromthestands said:
In your rush to be a dick head. you proved my point. Going from 32 to 16 in 8 man was forcing that division to fit into cookie cutter format developed for 4 A. If we had all been so wishy/washy when we set up 8 man, it would never have gotten off the ground.
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Sorry, if that was unclear. I was supporting your position, not calling you out. The D*ckhead part is residual frustration from seeing my kid's 8-1 team get left out, regardless of the criteria. I know the CR Gazette is not the Iowa High School Football Holy Grail, but their final 8man Top 10 features 3 teams that combined for 4 losses and were all omitted from the 16-team field. Slice it however you want, that ain't right.
 
Believe it or not I bet Lone Tree and GT/RA aren't the first teams in Iowa postseason history that probably could've made a run at a state championship and didn't make the playoffs. I'm also willing to bet they won't be the last. But it all comes down to beating the teams in front of you and taking care of business in regular season play. No disrespect at all to Iowa Valley but I don't think they're as talented as a team as Lone Tree was but it sounds like they went out and took care of business on a night where their backs were against the wall and performed at a high level. Is it possible the mighty Lions weren't prepared for Iowa Valley and may have been peaking ahead to Midland? I don't know the whole story, wasn't at LT/IV but I've seen both teams and I think Lone Tree was way more talented.

This pity party for Lone Tree is getting old, yeah you guys finished 8-1 and you also stomped HLV who made the playoffs but please don't knock HLV or Twin Cedars for playing who they had scheduled in front of them. They don't determine the districts obviously. I'm sure a lot of you are Iowa fans and didn't mind their cupcake schedule to get to the Rose Bowl last season but they did what they needed to do to advance and so did Twin Cedars and HLV. Maybe Lone Tree should've stayed in that southeast district of the state in Class A, which in recent memory has been pretty mediocre, and maybe they would've won that district or at least got a wild card berth instead of making the switch to 8-man and trying to pull a fast one to get to the Dome.
 
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BCMoore point spread for each 1st round game

Audubon at Harris-Lake Park - HLP +11.44
Newell-Fonda at Ar-We-Va - NF +5.07
Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton at Bedford - EEHK +0.42
Lenox at Fremont-Mills - FM +34.13
Don Bosco at Turkey Valley - TV +10.27
AGWSR at Central Elkader - CE +14.30
HLV at Midland, Wyoming - MW +32.56
Iowa Valley at Twin Cedars - IV +3.87
 
SICL Cares said:
Believe it or not I bet Lone Tree and GT/RA aren't the first teams in Iowa postseason history that probably could've made a run at a state championship and didn't make the playoffs. I'm also willing to bet they won't be the last. But it all comes down to beating the teams in front of you and taking care of business in regular season play. No disrespect at all to Iowa Valley but I don't think they're as talented as a team as Lone Tree was but it sounds like they went out and took care of business on a night where their backs were against the wall and performed at a high level. Is it possible the mighty Lions weren't prepared for Iowa Valley and may have been peaking ahead to Midland? I don't know the whole story, wasn't at LT/IV but I've seen both teams and I think Lone Tree was way more talented.

This pity party for Lone Tree is getting old, yeah you guys finished 8-1 and you also stomped HLV who made the playoffs but please don't knock HLV or Twin Cedars for playing who they had scheduled in front of them. They don't determine the districts obviously. I'm sure a lot of you are Iowa fans and didn't mind their cupcake schedule to get to the Rose Bowl last season but they did what they needed to do to advance and so did Twin Cedars and HLV. Maybe Lone Tree should've stayed in that southeast district of the state in Class A, which in recent memory has been pretty mediocre, and maybe they would've won that district or at least got a wild card berth instead of making the switch to 8-man and trying to pull a fast one to get to the Dome.
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First of all we did not make the switch to 8 man to get a fast track to the Dome, yes it is too bad we did not make the play-offs because we had an outstanding team. The switch to 8 man was for the future of the program so we could keep our own team and not have to share down the road. It had nothing to do with the idea that if we switch to 8 man we would automatically win a State title.
 
I think what hurt Lone Tree was the weakness of their non-district schedule. If they'd invited DB instead of Central City down week zero, they might have lost that game, but would have made them a better.
 
Lonetreehawk said:
Sorry, if that was unclear. I was supporting your position, not calling you out. The D*ckhead part is residual frustration from seeing my kid's 8-1 team get left out, regardless of the criteria. I know the CR Gazette is not the Iowa High School Football Holy Grail, but their final 8man Top 10 features 3 teams that combined for 4 losses and were all omitted from the 16-team field. Slice it however you want, that ain't right.
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Now I am the dick. Sorry I misunderstood. It never makes sense to tell a team to take care of business and win the games assigned to them. And then when they do. You pull the rug out from underneath them. Been there and had that done to us. Your sons team should have made the playoffs.
 
Glanced thru A-3A and I think there was only one 3-way tie for first, and not many for 2nd either. 8-player had a fluke year of getting 2 3-way ties for first. 7 districts & 2 wildcards and everything would have been fine. As districts get more teams the odds of 3-way ties for 1st goes down.

4A really needs less districts, 6 districts of 8 with 4 wildcards makes more since for them. 7D & 2 WC would have worked better for them, they had 1 3-way tie for first to take one of the WC other would have went to a some one tied for 2. And more district games less ties are going to happen.
 
What's done is done. Was a great season. Now we move on to Hoops & the Mat. Good luck to all qualifiers, especially D4!
 
PNation said:
Can't wait to see who wins the State Title game in Jackson Junction Friday.
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I wouldn't say that's the title game, yes Bosco is good and turkey Valley is excellent. Bosco handled Midland, lost to elkader who Midland and TV beat... imo the title game will be between fm n tv
 
Audubon at Harris-Lake Park
Newell-Fonda at Ar-We-Va
Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton at Bedford
Lenox at Fremont-Mills
Don Bosco at Turkey Valley
AGWSR at Central Elkader
HLV at Midland
Iowa Valley at Twin Cedars
 
I think Harris/Lake Park is being overlooked. Have seen them twice this year and I think they are dangerous.
 
BTB138 said:
I wouldn't say that's the title game, yes Bosco is good and turkey Valley is excellent. Bosco handled Midland, lost to elkader who Midland and TV beat... imo the title game will be between fm n tv
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Too bad Turkey Valley won't make it that far buddy.
 
grindit said:
I think Harris/Lake Park is being overlooked. Have seen them twice this year and I think they are dangerous.
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I disagree. I have seen HLP play once this year and wasn't impressed. I believe they will be knocked out of playoffs early, but only time will tell.
 
GoHawks2016 said:
I disagree. I have seen HLP play once this year and wasn't impressed. I believe they will be knocked out of playoffs early, but only time will tell.
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H-LP is strong, not sure what game you saw where they weren't impressive. The last game of the season they played without their QB. The GT/RA game was played in a wind tunnel and was not as close as the final score. H-LP dominated TOP, yards, etc. but couldn't score points in the red zone that night. Credit GT/RA, they hung in and almost pulled it out.

Will be a great game tonight vs Ar-We-Va, but I think H-LPs D is a little stronger and will prevail. Good luck to all the 8 man teams left!
 
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