Bracket 5 a

[Penguin]

A "point" system leads to unbalanced scheduling and unfair advantages to teams who play other teams who load up on cupcakes to attain a winning record. Because most school districts have put a high priority on restricting travel, statewide schedules are almost impossible. Then you have to take into consideration those teams who refuse to give "home & home" games.

Because of the gross disparity in enrollments across the state, placing those 2000+ student schools into their own class was necessary. The SCHSL definitely got that right.

As travel is only an issue when all other sports are considered, High School Football should be able to create their own, individual Regions unfettered by geography. Since travel would only be on an every-other-year basis, it surely wouldn't become an issue.

Just because there aren't 48 schools of that size, perhaps the best option is to divide them up evenly into 6 Regions. The top 36 would work out surprisingly well according to my "old school" math. Take the top 3 from each Region, plus 6 at-large schools. There has to be some sort of benefit to winning the games that you "must" play. With 5 Region games per year, every team would have 5 wild card games to schedule against whomever they choose. Rivalries would not be lost, and schedules could be used to somehow pick those 8 wildcards. This would keep the larger schools trying to play larger schools instead of playing down 2 or 3 classifications.

Since there is no perfect option, the SCHSL has opted for the full 32 team playoff formula. This is tantamount to giving everyone a trophy. Earning the right to compete for titles is no more. You give me a playoff bracket of the largest schools in the state, and I see a 2 win Boiling Springs, Berkeley, Stratford, Rock Hill, and a 3 win Chapin, in that bracket, and I say that bracket is garbage. While none of those teams will go anywhere, there are at least 5 teams playing first round games where only something bad can happen.

When there was only a 16 team bracket, there was no such nonsense. Perhaps some deserving teams didn't make it, but those who did, at least earned it.

[Penguin]

Totally agree that only the top two in regions are deserving of the playoffs. But that ship has passed. That Rock Hill and Chapin somehow got included in the playoffs is absurd. I would say they same about Boiling Springs, but in their defense, they aren't a bad team and would have easily made the playoffs in most any other region on their own. But we have entered an era where we won't to include everyone so nobody gets their feelings hurt, and every coach can claim they are great because they won 3 games, but are a playoff team. But the root of it is money. Wouldn't shock me if somewhere along the line, the geniuses over at the SCHSL just include everyone in the playoffs. More games and more money. And you know some of these kids that are a 4 seed, don't have any desire to travel to some 1 seed that is going to beat them by 40.

Yep, and for those who a whining about "tough" Regions, break them up. Put the top 36 into a blender and hit the mix button a few times. Stop all of the talking and start doing some walking. Make football it's own entity. Allow teams to travel to play. It would only be once every other year. I only hear moaning about 5A. South Florence is every bit as good as 99% of 5A schools this year. Searching for the "perfect" scenario is impossible. And having all of those 2 and 3 win teams in the 5A bracket really makes it watered down.

[Rebel-Fan-74]

Here is something that I think would be a good compromise:

24 teams with a point system
Region Champs seeded first and get a BYE in week one of the playoffs
Region Runner ups seeded second (highest point winner gets the final BYE since there are only 7 Regions)
At large seeded next

Now I didn't break any ties in the points and I counted all the games they played. I would guess if they used a point system, they would only use 8 of the 10 games or something like that. Since this is just my example, I didn't drop any games; but I would like to see something that you could drop only NON-REGION games since folks who want games dropped usually say they are needed for "rivalry games" that could hurt you in points but are good for the gate $$$$.