Expanded playoffs

[DoItWrite]

The DIAA football committee met tonight and approved an open tournament for the biggest class, 3A, 16 teams for class 2A and 8 teams for 1A. The discussion about point systems went nowhere, and after about 3 hours of a meeting, they bailed and decided to tackle that later. All told, 35 teams would make the postseason, which would have to run at least 4 weeks.

It was brought up that winter sports athletes whose football teams advance far into the tournament would miss the beginnings of their winter sports seasons.

 

[delawarenole]

Was crazy, at one point I thought all 42 teams would be in an open playoff across the three divisions.

 

[Huskerman7]

Makes perfect sense. Go 2-8 or 0-10. Doesn’t matter. You too still have a chance at a state title’

 

[nomorenonstop]

when 76% of the 2a class makes the playoffs, your regular season doesn't matter. 16 teams in 2a is 8 too many

same in 3A with 72% of their teams making the playoffs. 6 teams should make the playoffs with 1 and 2 seeds getting a bye. 1 seed plays the lowest remaining seed in second round, 2 seed plays the highest remaining seed in second round. 3rd round is state title

makes too much sense, the committee will never buy it

 

[Titanium Shadow]

It's good for programs when their teams make the playoffs. I agree that 16 teams in a 21 team class is probably a little too many, but 8 is too few. And if you are going to have more than 8, you are going to need 4 rounds in the playoffs anyway, so just fill out the card with a full 16 teams.

 

[nomorenonstop]

i agree that making the playoffs is good for programs. however, when the playoff field is this diluted then the perceived "benefit" of being a playoff team is also equally diluted

 

[BackinBlack86]

i agree that making the playoffs is good for programs. however, when the playoff field is this diluted then the perceived "benefit" of being a playoff team is also equally diluted

I agree it dilutes the being a play-off team badge as well as devalues the regular season games some but it is the trend these days and all the extra play-off games will certainly benefit the DIAA coffers.. The focus of achievement will just change and maybe the value is making the final 4 like in basketball..

 

[Uncle Bumfuzzled]

Not to be a contrarian but I think it can do a couple of good things for 3A.

One, there is no reason to duck another Delaware 3A team because a loss won't eliminate you from the playoffs.

Two, there is no reason not to step up and play a Bergen Catholic or a Malvern Prep (especially early) because you are going to get into the tournament anyway.

Three, it won't hurt Hodgson for playing a Howard as the point system would not impact on 3A teams getting into the tournament.

Four, if you really stink, you can opt out of the tournament.

Five, start the damn season in late August and start practice lightly and politely like August 1st. Then it might have a lesser impact on winter sports.

I believe the DIAA football committee has done good by 3A. Did I miss another positive aspect of this?

 

[BackinBlack86]

Five, start the damn season in late August and start practice lightly and politely like August 1st. Then it might have a lesser impact on winter sports.

This!

 

[Titanium Shadow]

i agree that making the playoffs is good for programs. however, when the playoff field is this diluted then the perceived "benefit" of being a playoff team is also equally diluted

The benefit is only diluted for the teams that perennially make the playoffs, and those teams will almost always make it to at least the second round anyway. For teams that don't perennially make the playoffs, it will be a big benefit in terms of intangibles like: Making more kids want to go out for football, giving the players a boost of confidence, giving them bragging rights, etc.

Kids don't want to play for a team that is looked upon as being a perpetual loser.

 

[nomorenonstop]

 

[Huskerman7]

Essentially they took the class 3 regular season and turned it into a 9-10 game exhibition season. This will end up having several negative unexpected consequences.

 

[Uncle Bumfuzzled]

Essentially they took the class 3 regular season and turned it into a 9-10 game exhibition season. This will end up having several negative unexpected consequences.

You have a good point. Let's see how it plays out in each division. My sense is that some of the 1A teams may not even be fielding teams at year's end.

3A is weird but I'd like to give it a shot...

 

[BackinBlack86]

You have a good point. Let's see how it plays out in each division. My sense is that some of the 1A teams may not even be fielding teams at year's end.

3A is weird but I'd like to give it a shot...

Seeding will be important particularly for home playoff games and the top 4 or 5 seeds would likely get walkover first round games or a bye so the points will matter.

 

[BackinBlack86]

If they were going to this then it even makes more sense they should have split the classifications.. 14,14,14, use the formula to place the teams in classification and everyone plays in the tournament.

The two division winners in each classification get the 1st round byes and the rest get seeded on points or you could eliminate points altogether and seed the playoffs by division place in a bracket tournament.. like this. I will use North and South but you can call the divisions whatever

Same set up for each classification

round 1- Div winners bye

1 North 2 vs South 7
2 North 3 vs South 6
3 North 4 vs South 5

4 South 4 vs North 5
5 South 3 vs North 6
6 South 2 vs North 7

round 2

7 winner of game 3 vs North #1
8 winner of game 2 vs winner game 3

9 winner of game 4 vs South #1
10 winner of game 5 vs winner game 6

round 3 semi's

11 winner of game 7 vs winner game 8
12 winner of game 9 vs winner game 10

championship

13 winner game 11 vs winner game 12

 

[Uncle Bumfuzzled]

BinB ...great formatting but it took ages to go through a process of naming what teams are at what level.....so for 2 years we have what we have. Your 14, 14, 14 idea is mathematically precise....DE HS FB ain’t mathematically inclined....

 

[BackinBlack86]

BinB ...great formatting but it took ages to go through a process of naming what teams are at what level.....so for 2 years we have what we have. Your 14, 14, 14 idea is mathematically precise....DE HS FB ain’t mathematically inclined....

The best part about it is you get 6 division games scheduled and you can schedule the other 4 vs whomever and being only division games count for playoff seeding you don't have to worry about points, enrollments, etc... Heck being everyone is guaranteed a 10th game you could do a 9 game reg season and only have 3 games to fill and you wouldn't have to extend the playoffs later into the other sports

 

[HSftballlaxFan]

Not sure if anyone is following but the committee members voted this past week to change the 2A playoffs from 16 teams to 12 teams.
John Wilson said 85% of the head coaches thought it was a bad idea.

 

[Huskerman7]

Not sure if anyone is following but the committee members voted this past week to change the 2A playoffs from 16 teams to 12 teams.
John Wilson said 85% of the head coaches thought it was a bad idea.

We’re gonna be talking about that, as well as the mask issue on this week’s Delaware Sports Debate podcast. Episode should be out tomorrow night.

 

[HSftballlaxFan]

The only issue I have with this is that they still haven’t decided how tournaments are gonna be SEEDED. Like get the ball rolling or give it up and let someone who wants to get it done on the board