Does school size really matter?

[SF Band dad]

Of course it does, we wouldn't have different classifications if it didn't. It matters less in sports with smaller teams and in those that don't require a lot of depth. But football has 22 starting positions plus special teams and depth can make a difference. The size of the talent pool to draw from matters.

The list of 5A schools that made it to the second round of the playoffs illustrates this. 13 of 16 are above the median size by enrollment. 10 of them are in the top 40%, 5 are in the middle 20%, only 1 school in the bottom 40% made it to the third round. There are of course exceptions, (Wando, Berkely, TL Hanna,...) but school size is statistically significant to the actual results.

Top 40% by Enrollment
2 – Dorman High School 3,344
3 – Summerville High School 3,012
4 – Carolina Forest High School 2,425
5 – Byrnes High School 2,368
6 – Sumter High School 2,336
10 – Fort Dorchester High School 2,280
13 – Dutch Fork High School 2,132
16 – West Ashley High School 2,060
17 – Gaffney High School 2,032
18 – Rock Hill High School 2,015

Middle 20% by Enrollment
21 – Nation Ford High School 1,962
22 – River Bluff High School 1,934
24 – Northwestern High School 1,904
27 – West Florence High School 1,833
28 – T L Hanna High School 1,829

Bottom 40% enrollment
49 – Berkeley High School 1,547

Green = still playing
Blue = eliminated in the 3rd round
Black = eliminated in the 2nd round

[Fortfor5]

To a degree .but coaching matters a whole lot more.but yeah you have to have some talent base.

[SF Band dad]

To a degree .but coaching matters a whole lot more.but yeah you have to have some talent base.

I think you need both. Still, 10 times as many top 40% schools made the 2nd round as did those from the lower 40%. There's a lot of good coaches at those smaller 26 schools, and if we think about it, there are some larger schools that are underperforming considering their talent base.

[CITYSLICKER]

IT MATTERS IN SEX, IT SHOULD MATTER IN FOOTBALL

[Rebel-Fan-74]

Ask Chesnee? They are barely in the AAA classification and had to play a team that was AAAA. Union County was slated for AAAA but filed to stay in AAA and they were denied. They appealed and they won, so a AAAA school was put in AAA and that is who Chesnee drew for the first round of the playoffs.

I'll be the first to admit, there doesn't seem to be a way to do it fairly with the way the numbers are distributed. When they went to 5 classifications, a lot of folks thought that would be the way to make it work. I was hoping they would go to 3 classifications and split like they did 4A for a while. Each of the three divisions would split come playoff time, but even that would not make it "even" so the size issue would still be there either way.

[Fortfor5]

To a degree .but coaching matters a whole lot more.but yeah you have to have some talent base.

I think you need both. Still, 10 times as many top 40% schools made the 2nd round as did those from the lower 40%. There's a lot of good coaches at those smaller 26 schools, and if we think about it, there are some larger schools that are underperforming considering their talent base.

Wandoe

[Fortfor5]

IT MATTERS IN SEX, IT SHOULD MATTER IN FOOTBALL

You cant fish with a dead worm fool.

[Deputy]

Ask Chesnee? They are barely in the AAA classification and had to play a team that was AAAA. Union County was slated for AAAA but filed to stay in AAA and they were denied. They appealed and they won, so a AAAA school was put in AAA and that is who Chesnee drew for the first round of the playoffs.

I'll be the first to admit, there doesn't seem to be a way to do it fairly with the way the numbers are distributed. When they went to 5 classifications, a lot of folks thought that would be the way to make it work. I was hoping they would go to 3 classifications and split like they did 4A for a while. Each of the three divisions would split come playoff time, but even that would not make it "even" so the size issue would still be there either way.

As far as Chesnee. They would have gotten slaughtered by a grand many 2A teams. Got handled easily by Landrum, who subsequently got drilled in the playoffs. And there is no good way to do it for schools like Union. And there are other instances like it. A school kind of off by itself makes for tremendous travel issues. And it isn't football as much as it is the volleyball team, etc., traveling on a Tuesday night.

[Fortfor5]

Ask Chesnee? They are barely in the AAA classification and had to play a team that was AAAA. Union County was slated for AAAA but filed to stay in AAA and they were denied. They appealed and they won, so a AAAA school was put in AAA and that is who Chesnee drew for the first round of the playoffs.

I'll be the first to admit, there doesn't seem to be a way to do it fairly with the way the numbers are distributed. When they went to 5 classifications, a lot of folks thought that would be the way to make it work. I was hoping they would go to 3 classifications and split like they did 4A for a while. Each of the three divisions would split come playoff time, but even that would not make it "even" so the size issue would still be there either way.

As far as Chesnee. They would have gotten slaughtered by a grand many 2A teams. Got handled easily by Landrum, who subsequently got drilled in the playoffs. And there is no good way to do it for schools like Union. And there are other instances like it. A school kind of off by itself makes for tremendous travel issues. And it isn't football as much as it is the volleyball team, etc., traveling on a Tuesday night.

I know mine in general last year did football practice changed in the car .did travel baseball practice 3 to 4 nights a week 1hr drive from football .we did a lot of late nights .we made it work.
I just dont see the issue no biggie .but I can understand people having a issue with it.its part of the sacrifice to play.
Football practice.

[northside knight]

All this does is give the coaches an EXCUSE to lose. The current gwd coach does it all the time. Very embarrassing.