Playoff Question

[Rebel-Fan-74]

Not just the AAAA Playoffs, but NCAA as well...

Comparing it to the excitement of the AAAA Brackets, how do you think it will work out? Will it be exciting? Is four enough? Should it be more?

Personally, I think 16 in Division 1 and 16 Division 2 brackets the SCHSL puts together is one round too many, but as a compromise, I'd rather see 12 with the top four getting a BYE in week one of the playoffs in High School.

#8 -vs- #9 winner advance to face #1
#5 -vs- #12 winner advance to face #4

#7 -vs- #10 winner advance to face #2
#6 -vs- #11 winner advance to face #3

What I'd like to see is 16 team brackets with this change: I think we should have Class A, Class AA, and Class AAA for regular season and then divide them for the playoffs. We have seven state champs right now.... Six I can agree with, 7 seems like too many.... Plus, having only three classes would give more flexibility in drawing out the Regions. You'd end up with about 64 in each class. That would be 12 more than the current AAAA.

The thing that I don't like more than anything is Region VIII has only 5 members. All you have to do to get an automatic berth in win two Region games????


For the NCAA, I think 4 is the right number. Yeah there could be years when the #5 team is just about as good as the #3 or maybe even the #2 team, and some one is going to complain.... "I can't believe they put 2 teams from the SEC" or "I can't believe they didn't put two SEC teams in". I guess there will always be complaints, I mean 68 make it in to March Madness and folks complain!

This year, Florida State seems to be on every one's list and they are on mine. After that, it gets more diluted, even though almost every iist I've seen has Alabama.... but that's another one that just about has to make it don't they? Michigan State (now that Braxton Miller is out for the year for Ohio State) seems to be the favorite for the Big Ten {There are 14 schools in the BIG TEN...which ones are the little four? } UCLA/Oregon/Stanford getting lots of love out west and Oklahoma is mentioned once in a while, too.

My four:
Florida State
Alabama
UCLA
Michigan State

Dark horse: Auburn

[Rebel-Fan-74]

Now that I read that, Dark Horse may not the right term for Auburn, they are the team that finished as runner up last year (even theough it took a miracle against Georgia and another one against Alabama in back to back games). South Carolina could play for the SEC Championship but could just as easily be third in the SEC East... I think their year comes down to the Defensive Line. Yes, I'm biased, but we all are biased, some of us are just willing to admit it!

PS: Where are all our posters?

[racincowboy02]

I think 4 teams is to little. I think there should be atleast 8 that gives you good match ups and you can use the bowl games as playoff games

[NA Jacket Fan]

First I would like to see the number of teams in each region even up as much as possible, add a few from region seven to region eight then pull from nearest area ( Florence or Columbia) to play the remaining Charleston schools. Eliminate either region five or six (probably five) then group some of the Columbia and Florence schools together to form a region and maybe group aiken area schools with Greenwood, Laurens and some Columbia area schools to make up another region. With seven region take only top two in each region and have two at-large berths determined by either points or whatever you guys think works best. Then divide top eight enrollments into one bracket with the remainder in the other. I believe it puts more value on region games and eliminates what is usually mostly round one blowouts.

[Rebel-Fan-74]

Now that I read that, Dark Horse may not the right term for Auburn, they are the team that finished as runner up last year (even theough it took a miracle against Georgia and another one against Alabama in back to back games). South Carolina could play for the SEC Championship but could just as easily be third in the SEC East... I think their year comes down to the Defensive Line. Yes, I'm biased, but we all are biased, some of us are just willing to admit it!

PS: Where are all our posters?

Well, one question was answered.....

[Rebel-Fan-74]

First I would like to see the number of teams in each region even up as much as possible, add a few from region seven to region eight then pull from nearest area ( Florence or Columbia) to play the remaining Charleston schools. Eliminate either region five or six (probably five) then group some of the Columbia and Florence schools together to form a region and maybe group aiken area schools with Greenwood, Laurens and some Columbia area schools to make up another region. With seven region take only top two in each region and have two at-large berths determined by either points or whatever you guys think works best. Then divide top eight enrollments into one bracket with the remainder in the other. I believe it puts more value on region games and eliminates what is usually mostly round one blowouts.

Evening up the Regions has always been an issue with four classes as there are always a couple of areas that are hard to balance without a lot of travel. Football is tough, but the "non-revenue" sports are even worse. That said, there have been teams in one region for football only and another region for other sports. That may be the best answer to balance regions. Football Regions and All Other Sports Regions.

Maybe you have A, AA and AAA in Football and end up with 6 Regions with 12 teams each for football and 8 or 10 regions for other sports.

The biggest issue that I see in football is the fact that beating a 6-5 Mauldin earns you more points than beating a 10-1 Northwestern. If I were in charge, that would be the first change made.... Beating a AAAA School with a winning Record would earn you bonus points regardless if they were Big 16 or #52 in size.

I'm not as big on "region games" meaning more since winning a region is not always a big deal. Some Regions are tougher than others. Finishing Second in Region Two is more impressive to me than winning some Regions. I'm not a betting man, mainly because I don't have money to lose, but if I had to put $20 on picking a Region Champion today, I'd have to go with Dutch Fork. I think the only question for that Region is who finishes second and third. If we all voted on Region Champs right now, I would be willing to say that Dutch Fork gets more votes than anyone else. That is because we all think they are that good and the rest of the Region is not impressive to us at this time. That is why Spring Valley got little respect last year. Region IV was not impressive.

Winning Region SHOULD mean something and SHOULD earn you something when the brackets are set up. I'd give Region Champs 2.5 bonus points and Runner Up 1.5 bonus points, then everyone is seeded together. I don't think a 3-8 Region Champ should automatically get home field over a 10-1 runner up. “That Can’t Happen!” might be your first thought…

Let’s just say, Colleton County loses all their non-region games and goes 3-1 in Region. They could be Region Champs and if they beat the other team that was 3-1 in the head to head game, would be Region Champs and 3-8 for the year. If North Augusta goes 10-1 and the one loss is a Region Loss to Lexington, who goes undefeated in the Region, you could be on the road to Colleton County, because they won their Region. Far fetched? Yes, it is, but we came close to a 5-6 Region Champion just a few years ago and they would have had home field in rounds one and two.

[Rebel-Fan-74]

One thing I do hope the 4 team playoff and selection committee gives us in the future is less of these Alabama-vs-Florida Internation, Oklahoma-vs-Tulsa, Clemson-vs-SC State, type match ups. Look at some of the schedules:

LSU plays Wisconsin, but Sam Houston State, La-Monroe, and New Mexico State?? Not picking on LSU as there are many other such matchups this weekend especially.... not too many good games this week...