Major restructuring looming for Delaware high school football

[Titanium Shadow]

Sean Greene Published Nov 5, 2020 at 3:48 pm

Facing a shortage of competitive games, and an earlier potential lawsuit from Salesianum, Delaware high school football might look a lot different next fall.

The Delaware Association of Athletic Directors unveiled a proposal to the DIAA Board of Directors that would move away from the traditional Henlopen and Blue Hen Conferences, plus a collection of other private and charter leagues, and instead place every team into one of six divisions at three levels.

Major restructuring looming for Delaware high school football

Facing a shortage of competitive games and an earlier potential lawsuit from Salesianum, Delaware high school football might look a lot different next fall.

www.wdel.com

 

[HSftballlaxFan]

I’m actually a huge fan of this!!! Should eliminate A LOT of running clocks. More competitive, something we’ve all been dying for.

 

[BackinBlack86]

I like it also.. we have been talking about this type deal for years on here. Similar to how the MIAA in Maryland does it..

 

[Titanium Shadow]

There's a huge drawback to this proposal. How would Tower Hill manipulate their schedule to make the playoffs every year?

And without knowing how the playoffs will be structured, I am withholding final judgment, but I do like it so far.

 

[Uncle Bumfuzzled]

This looks good as to the placement of teams as to their competitive abilities but how would scheduling be done?

Does this mean that Salesianum will now be in a “football conference”?

 

[First_state_gridiron]

If you see the document they posted they had laid out the schedule for all the teams. Sallies is included. If I recall the top group had 8 teams in both north and south. Each would play each other and all teams had week 1 2 and 10 open so they could play the other half of their group or go against a team in a different category. It looks better on paper than I can explain it

 

[Dback2500]

I like this idea! But going thru each division there are teams that don’t get a chance to compete within division... Appo has been destroyed by all of those teams the last 4 years minus 1 win against WP and couple close games with St George’s. Milford, CR,Tech all of those teams have been beaten up on by those other teams within AAA D2. The AAs and As are in good shape IMO. I know this is a mock up necessarily but overall great idea, glad it’s finally being brought up !!

 

[Shine bright like a diamond]

I think it is a great start. Is there still going to be a points system? There are not enough teams in each division to have 10 games.

 

[HSftballlaxFan]

Well given your concerns, Tower Hill wouldn’t be able to manipulate it. They’d have a 7 game conference schedule with A.i., Archmere, Brandywine, Concord, Friends, Howard, And Mount Pleasant. After that they can schedule whoever they’d like. To me, that’s a tough schedule for them.

And looking at the formations, I don’t see one Division in either 3A, 2A, or A, where someone has a cakewalk to a playoff bid. Smyrna maybe? Only because their Division didn’t change much except for the subtraction of Polytech and addition of Milford and they already are heavy favorites in that conference every year as is.

regarding the playoffs....Conferences 2A and A all have 16 total teams...and with 10 game schedules I would like to see a 6 team format. Both Division winners are auto bid in, and the final 4 would be at large. That would be a 37% teams in the playoffs.

looking at 3A, there’s only 12 teams. And I would love to keep format at 6 teams..but that would be 50% get in, devaluing the playoff bids. So I can see them go in a 4 team format. 2 Autos and 2 at large.

if they’d like to go 6 teams in 3A, and keep things fair, they’d have to go 8 team formats in 2A and A so all Tiers are 50% and in that case I can see a team or two with .500 or lower make playoffs

 

[HSftballlaxFan]

I like this idea! But going thru each division there are teams that don’t get a chance to compete within division... Appo has been destroyed by all of those teams the last 4 years minus 1 win against WP and couple close games with St George’s. Milford, CR,Tech all of those teams have been beaten up on by those other teams within AAA D2. The AAs and As are in good shape IMO. I know this is a mock up necessarily but overall great idea, glad it’s finally being brought up !!

In the past that might be true, but Appo was on the verge of beating Middletown last year and made the playoffs for the first time ever in Division 1. I can only see them get better.

 

[HSftballlaxFan]

I think it is a great start. Is there still going to be a points system? There are not enough teams in each division to have 10 games.

you’d play your conference and then schedule your non conference games just like every year to fill your 10 games. It opens the door for more north vs. south matchups

 

[BackinBlack86]

My guess is point system something like this

vs 3A 6 win 2 play
vs2A 5 win 1 play
vs1A 4win 0 play

OOS will go by enrollment whether 1A, 2A or 3A
Bonus the same.. 1 pt vs 7-8 win 2pt vs 9 win

I am on the fence with autobids. If autobid then only games vs division teams count for division crown
or go div crown based on points so no autobids will be needed

6 per class get in.. 1 and 2 seeds get 1st round bye

I would also throw in ( like in PA) that teams that don't make the play-offs may set up 1 extra game ( turkey bowl or just play a old rivalry etc...) vs another team not in..

*based on 2019 enrollment numbers

3A North
Appoquinimink
Middletown
Salesianum
Hodgson
William Penn
St. Georges

3A South
Caesar Rodney
Dover
Milford
Smyrna
Sussex Central
Sussex Tech



2A North
A.I. duPont
Archmere
Brandywine
Concord
Friends
Howard
Mount Pleasant
Tower Hill

2A South
Cape Henlopen
Caravel
DMA
Delmar
Lake Forest
Polytech
St. Mark's
Woodbridge




1A North
Wilmington Charter
Christiana
Conrad
Delcastle
Dickinson
McKean
St. Elizabeth
Tatnall

1A South
Glasgow
Indian River
Laurel
Newark
Red Lion
Seaford
St. Andrew's
FSMA

 

[HSftballlaxFan]

My guess is point system something like this

vs 3A 6 win 2 play
vs2A 5 win 1 play
vs1A 4win 0 play

OOS will go by enrollment whether 1A, 2A or 3A
Bonus the same.. 1 pt vs 7-8 win 2pt vs 9 win

I am on the fence with autobids. If autobid then only games vs division teams count for division crown
or go div crown based on points so no autobids will be needed

6 per class get in.. 1 and 2 seeds get 1st round bye

I would also throw in ( like n PA) that teams that don't make the play-offs may set up 1 extra game ( turkey bowl or just play a old rivalry etc...) vs another team not in..

*based on 2019 enrollment numbers

3A North
Appoquinimink
Middletown
Salesianum
Hodgson
William Penn
St. Georges

3A South
Caesar Rodney
Dover
Milford
Smyrna
Sussex Central
Sussex Tech



2A North
A.I. duPont
Archmere
Brandywine
Concord
Friends
Howard
Mount Pleasant
Tower Hill

2A South
Cape Henlopen
Caravel
DMA
Delmar
Lake Forest
Polytech
St. Mark's
Woodbridge




1A North
Wilmington Charter
Christiana
Conrad
Delcastle
Dickinson
McKean
St. Elizabeth
Tatnall

1A South
Glasgow
Indian River
Laurel
Newark
Red Lion
Seaford
St. Andrew's
FSMA

yeah I like that. I can get going on all that. Let’s get the ball rolling in this

 

[Titanium Shadow]

If you understand a persons/organizations incentives you can predict their actions fairly accurately. In my opinion, a points system provides perverse incentives to teams and allows unscrupulous organizations to easily game the system to skew the results in their favor.

With a points system, an organization not in the top tier is rewarded for scheduling the easiest teams of the highest tier they can get, and then scheduling less games than their competitors so their index is higher. Note this is exactly what Tower Hill does.

Without penalizing teams for this strategy by decreasing the points earned by playing the low win, higher tier teams, a point system will continue to be abused. It also disincentives a team from playing better teams that they might lose to with their OOC games.

I propose the following:

1) Auto bids for conference winners. Conferences should mean something like they do in college and pro ball.
2) All playoff bids are based exclusively on conference schedule. Tie breaker would be total wins/losses so the OOC games count for something.
3) The top 8 in A and AA make it to the playoffs, top 6 in AAA. It is good for programs to make the playoffs once in a while even if they lose in the first round (Maryland made a similar change last year).

Making the OOC games only count for tie breakers frees teams to schedule games based on rivalries, prestige, playing a team with a vastly different offensive/defensive scheme than is normally encountered, and/or allows a team to test out new offensives/defenses, or for many other reasons without materially hurting their chances to get in the playoffs.

 

[HSftballlaxFan]

If you understand a persons/organizations incentives you can predict their actions fairly accurately. In my opinion, a points system provides perverse incentives to teams and allows unscrupulous organizations to easily game the system to skew the results in their favor.

With a points system, an organization not in the top tier is rewarded for scheduling the easiest teams of the highest tier they can get, and then scheduling less games than their competitors so their index is higher. Note this is exactly what Tower Hill does.

Without penalizing teams for this strategy by decreasing the points earned by playing the low win, higher tier teams, a point system will continue to be abused. It also disincentives a team from playing better teams that they might lose to with their OOC games.

I propose the following:

1) Auto bids for conference winners. Conferences should mean something like they do in college and pro ball.
2) All playoff bids are based exclusively on conference schedule. Tie breaker would be total wins/losses so the OOC games count for something.
3) The top 8 in A and AA make it to the playoffs, top 6 in AAA. It is good for programs to make the playoffs once in a while even if they lose in the first round (Maryland made a similar change last year).

Making the OOC games only count for tie breakers frees teams to schedule games based on rivalries, prestige, playing a team with a vastly different offensive/defensive scheme than is normally encountered, and/or allows a team to test out new offensives/defenses, or for many other reasons without materially hurting their chances to get in the playoffs.

that’s not a bad proposition either.

regarding tower hill though, their 7 game proposed conference schedule is 10x harder than the last 10 years combined. If they wanted to manipulate anything it would be their OOC.And with BiBs proposed plan for points, of Tower Hill wanted to dip down to tier A for easy wins the points would be reduced, much like today’s point system when a D1 plays a D2

 

[Titanium Shadow]

if Tower Hill wanted to dip down to tier A for easy wins the points would be reduced, much like today’s point system when a D1 plays a D2

It's not dipping down for easy wins, it's aiming up for easy wins against weak, higher tier schools for the extra points. If you're not in the top tier (this doesn't work for DI or AAA) that is your incentive for any system based on points.

 

[delawarenole]

I would like to see two options - the 3 tier and what a 2 tier with say T1 - 20 and T2 - being the rest.

I think it gets really thin at 3 levels. But in general I am ALL for redoing this and also adding in win % and not just attendance. Also I think this should be run by a DIAA committee - teams should not have the ability to ask to move up/down or stay it should be done with the stats and an oversight committee.

 

[84rider]

This should of been implemented years ago imo

 

[fanoffootball123]

It’s about time.

 

[HSftballlaxFan]

It's not dipping down for easy wins, it's aiming up for easy wins against weak, higher tier schools for the extra points. If you're not in the top tier (this doesn't work for DI or AAA) that is your incentive for any system based on points.

like I’m trying to say. Tower Hill is in 2A, there isn’t a single team in 3A for them to move up for easy playoff points. Every team in 3A should and I would predict to blow Tower Hill out by 40.

Their “easy wins” in this scenario would be to go down to “A”. Therefore hurting their playoff chances.

unless you and I just aren’t seeing eye to eye on this and that’s fine. I could be confused on what you’re trying to say or prove. Wouldn’t be the first time nor the last

 

[BackinBlack86]

like I’m trying to say. Tower Hill is in 2A, there isn’t a single team in 3A for them to move up for easy playoff points. Every team in 3A should and I would predict to blow Tower Hill out by 40.

Their “easy wins” in this scenario would be to go down to “A”. Therefore hurting their playoff chances.

unless you and I just aren’t seeing eye to eye on this and that’s fine. I could be confused on what you’re trying to say or prove. Wouldn’t be the first time nor the last

I believe he may be thinking going OOS for teams that have 3A enrollment but aren't good. There really isn't many around that would qualify as 3A and are cream puffs.. You have the Eastern Shore Maryland teams that Delmar has been playing and scoring D1 wins on but any of those teams could be decent any given year and is no guarantee for the 2A teams .. The cream puffs like George School and the like that TH likes to schedule would be 1A..like you said. There may be a few real soft OOS teams with 3A enrollment but they are few and far between and still a North East or Oxford could be tough for a 2A any given year,

My view is if they can find a Delcastle or Charter OOS on the dates they have open then more power to them... They aren' t going to find two though.. just saying

 

[HSftballlaxFan]

Ohhh okay. I think I’m on the same page now.

 

[Titanium Shadow]

My point is about the perverse incentives of a points system and I used Tower Hill as an extreme example of an unscrupulous organization that takes advantage of those perverse incentives.

Obviously when all teams are in conferences, it reduces the ability of unscrupulous organizations like Tower Hill, who is currently not in a conference and can schedule any games they want, to game the system as all teams have the same opportunity to schedule OOC games. Now enough about Tower Hill.

In a points system, to maximize your chances of getting a playoff bid, you work to maximize your points index at the end of the year. To do this you have to pick the highest rank teams for your OOC games that you can win against. This applies to every team.

A team who does not play the the highest rank teams in their OOC games that they can win against is essentially penalizing themselves for doing so.

For instance, with the current system proposed by DIAA and with the divisions listed in the original article, Delmar would be punished for playing their historical rival Laurel as Laurel would be in the A division and Delmar would be in the AA division, thus netting Delmar less points than if they scheduled a higher tier team. Same would go for the Sallies (AAA) playing St. Marks (AA), or any other team playing an OOC game against a lower tier team.

Making the OOC games only count as tie breakers frees teams from the perverse incentives of a points system and allows them to schedule OOC games without being punished by the mathematics of the points system and makes the season about winning games and not about how well you can schedule opponents.

 

[BackinBlack86]

My point is about the perverse incentives of a points system and I used Tower Hill as an extreme example of an unscrupulous organization that takes advantage of those perverse incentives.

Obviously when all teams are in conferences, it reduces the ability of unscrupulous organizations like Tower Hill, who is currently not in a conference and can schedule any games they want, to game the system as all teams have the same opportunity to schedule OOC games. Now enough about Tower Hill.

In a points system, to maximize your chances of getting a playoff bid, you work to maximize your points index at the end of the year. To do this you have to pick the highest rank teams for your OOC games that you can win against. This applies to every team.

A team who does not play the the highest rank teams in their OOC games that they can win against is essentially penalizing themselves for doing so.

For instance, with the current system proposed by DIAA and with the divisions listed in the original article, Delmar would be punished for playing their historical rival Laurel as Laurel would be in the A division and Delmar would be in the AA division, thus netting Delmar less points than if they scheduled a higher tier team. Same would go for the Sallies (AAA) playing St. Marks (AA), or any other team playing an OOC game against a lower tier team.

Making the OOC games only count as tie breakers frees teams from the perverse incentives of a points system and allows them to schedule OOC games without being punished by the mathematics of the points system and makes the season about winning games and not about how well you can schedule opponents.

 

[Uncle Bumfuzzled]

No matter what, I kind of like the term “perverse incentives.”

 

[HSftballlaxFan]

See your point, but the rivalry between Sallies and st. Marks died years ago and should have been stopped. Not a rivalry anymore when the last time you beat them has been longer than a decade.
Don’t know the Delmar/laurel history but Delmar has somewhat dominated that one too. Might be time to actually go find a new rivalry.

I’ll use the example in closest too. Appo can consider its game against Mtown a rivalry or “their championship” game but until they show they can beat them, it will never be a rivalry. Rivalry is where you forget about the talent on the field, records, and stadium it’s being played in and both teams have a legit 50/50 chance of winning. Much like a Sallies-Middletown, Smyrna-Central, Caesar Rodney-Dover

just saying it might be time to let some old rivalries die, and start new!

 

[Titanium Shadow]

See your point, but the rivalry between Sallies and st. Marks died years ago and should have been stopped. Not a rivalry anymore when the last time you beat them has been longer than a decade.
Don’t know the Delmar/laurel history but Delmar has somewhat dominated that one too. Might be time to actually go find a new rivalry.

I’ll use the example in closest too. Appo can consider its game against Mtown a rivalry or “their championship” game but until they show they can beat them, it will never be a rivalry. Rivalry is where you forget about the talent on the field, records, and stadium it’s being played in and both teams have a legit 50/50 chance of winning. Much like a Sallies-Middletown, Smyrna-Central, Caesar Rodney-Dover

just saying it might be time to let some old rivalries die, and start new!

Rivalries are just one example. Another example is Middletown playing IMG Academy in 2018. Middletown earned 2 points for that game, which was a great opportunity for their program. They could have earned 6 points from playing Delcastle for instance, which was 4 points they lost out on to play a prestige game.

Really BiB? Play lower tier teams and win, get fewer points. Play higher tier teams and win get more points. Lower points bad, higher points good. Seems pretty simple.

 

[Uncle Bumfuzzled]

For the record Sparty whipped the Sals in 2014. I sat next to my then future son in law
who went into a deep funk. You are correct. That FB game has been meaningless ever since..

 

[Shine bright like a diamond]

Why leave it up to the coaches and teams to fill the schedule. There is too much discretion and too much room for manipulation. I think there should just be three divisions and each year there will be a few teams that do not play each other within that division. The excuse about traveling does not make sense and seems like a smoke screen. Looking at Bib's division by enrollment numbers, there seems to be some discrepancy between the divisions, IMO. The South has Delmar, Woodbridge, which are really good every year. Caravel and DMA have opportunities to grab players. St. Marks will be a force in this division every year. They have a whole new marketing plan and new admins. Cape should be very competitive with these teams. To keep Caravel, DMA, and St. Marks out of this division, a boundary has been drawn.
Looking at the North, it is Howard and Friends. Archmere will be competitive but not really. I just do not see anyone else. DMA, Caravel, and St. Marks have to visit Cape, Lake, Delmar and vice versa. That is not fair and equitable at all. Someone is trying to stack the deck in their favor. Just like the BHC D2. Who is the piece that is involved in both?
The football committee is unequtiable by having 4 members from the BHC D2. Plus there is not equal representation from all the various divisions and public/private schools. Not sure how this committee can give recommendations in a fair and equitable manner.

I say put all these teams in one conference and schedule 10 games a year on a rotating basis.
In the 1A, Sallies, Hodgson, and Middletown are still going to have to find 5 teams every year outside of the conference. This will probably lead to more problems. So, eliminate the north/south and have three divisions. Everyone will just play instate games and the schedule will not be a problem.

2A North
A.I. duPont
Archmere
Brandywine
Concord
Friends
Howard
Mount Pleasant
Tower Hill

2A South
Cape Henlopen
Caravel
DMA
Delmar
Lake Forest
Polytech
St. Mark's
Woodbridge

 

[HSftballlaxFan]

Why leave it up to the coaches and teams to fill the schedule. There is too much discretion and too much room for manipulation. I think there should just be three divisions and each year there will be a few teams that do not play each other within that division. The excuse about traveling does not make sense and seems like a smoke screen. Looking at Bib's division by enrollment numbers, there seems to be some discrepancy between the divisions, IMO. The South has Delmar, Woodbridge, which are really good every year. Caravel and DMA have opportunities to grab players. St. Marks will be a force in this division every year. They have a whole new marketing plan and new admins. Cape should be very competitive with these teams. To keep Caravel, DMA, and St. Marks out of this division, a boundary has been drawn.
Looking at the North, it is Howard and Friends. Archmere will be competitive but not really. I just do not see anyone else. DMA, Caravel, and St. Marks have to visit Cape, Lake, Delmar and vice versa. That is not fair and equitable at all. Someone is trying to stack the deck in their favor. Just like the BHC D2. Who is the piece that is involved in both?
The football committee is unequtiable by having 4 members from the BHC D2. Plus there is not equal representation from all the various divisions and public/private schools. Not sure how this committee can give recommendations in a fair and equitable manner.

I say put all these teams in one conference and schedule 10 games a year on a rotating basis.
In the 1A, Sallies, Hodgson, and Middletown are still going to have to find 5 teams every year outside of the conference. This will probably lead to more problems. So, eliminate the north/south and have three divisions. Everyone will just play instate games and the schedule will not be a problem.

2A North
A.I. duPont
Archmere
Brandywine
Concord
Friends
Howard
Mount Pleasant
Tower Hill

2A South
Cape Henlopen
Caravel
DMA
Delmar
Lake Forest
Polytech
St. Mark's
Woodbridge

in the 1A, you’ll have a 5 game conference schedule and you may think it would be difficult to find games but I don’t. we’re gonna see more north vs south matchups than we ever have. Games like Central/Sallies, Middletown/Tech, Hodgson/Central. Games we don’t normally see unless it’s playoffs.

i also think Middletown, Sallies, and Hodgson would probably have Smyrna on their schedules, those 4 pretty much seem to the Power 4 and they know the championship on any year would normally go through one of them so why not play them and see what they have before it comes to the finals.

That leaves 4 more open dates...Then you’d have to expect Dover, CR, Central, Tech to step up and play those big 3, just like you’d expect Appo, Penn, St. George’s to step up and play Smyrna Dover, CR. Because they also have to fill their schedules out, and any idea of going down a Division like some usually would, would hurt them as we all know. Many years, Cape has played 3-4 cream puffs to start the season and miss playoffs because of strength of schedule. You’ll longer be able to do such a thing if you want to prolong your season.

 

[BackinBlack86]

just Fyi.. those aren't my divisions.. It was from Greene's article as to what was being proposed.. They are an example based on 2019 enrolment numbers and math (2020 enrolment numbers aren't posted yet)... If it goes though it will be based on 2020 enrolments and so forth to the rest of the formula..

 

[Shine bright like a diamond]

Sorry BiB. Thanks for the clarification.

HSftballlaxFan,

I just do not think the teams like Tech, CR, and Milford are in any hurry to schedule any of the big 4. I just do not want to see the Sallies situation again with any school. Place them in three divisions, each school plays 10 games in division. The schedule is set in a revolving order. In D1 6 teams make playoffs, D2 and D3, 8 teams make playoffs. No point system and have tie breakers within each divsion based on like opponents, total points etc. No manipulation. Like a RONCO, Just set it and forget it

D1
Appoquinimink
Middletown
Salesianum
Hodgson
William Penn
St. Georges
Caesar Rodney
Dover
Milford
Smyrna
Sussex Central
Sussex Tech

D2
A.I. duPont
Archmere
Brandywine
Concord
Friends
Howard
Mount Pleasant
Tower Hill
Cape Henlopen
Caravel
DMA
Delmar
Lake Forest
Polytech
St. Mark's
Woodbridge

D3
Wilmington Charter
Christiana
Conrad
Delcastle
Dickinson
McKean
St. Elizabeth
Tatnall
Glasgow
Indian River
Laurel
Newark
Red Lion
Seaford
St. Andrew's
FSMA

 

[Titanium Shadow]

After thinking about this proposal for a couple of days, I have come to the conclusion that it penalizes the currenly good D2 teams, and rewards the currently poor D1 teams and poor D2 teams.

The poor D1 teams (Concord and Cape in this scenario) are rewarded by being moved into divisions with good D2 teams that have around half or less of their enrollment (Woodbridge, Delmar, Howard, Friends, etc.).

The poor D2 teams are rewarded by having the good D2 teams moved out of their divisions, thus making them the best teams in the division.

I don't have a solution to this, just pointing it out.

 

[MightyMik]

One thing this will do is “now Division 1 is truly the best”. Unlike now where some arguments occur that on some years the best DII could be beat the best DI.

 

[BackinBlack86]

With High School football the strength of teams will go up and down through the years. Teams that are strong today may not be 2 or 3 years from now. With the restructuring every two years being based partly on performance in the sport it will keep the competition closer in the divisions but it never will be equal top to bottom. There will always be a couple teams each year that will struggle or win big and folks will say they belong a div up or down.. There is no way around that but I think its better than today where there are multiple teams not able to compete in their conference.

There still will be the occasional year where a division 2A team will perform well enough for folks to think they could have competed or won 3A... If you take the HVT teams that won D2 right before they moved to D1 many thought they could compete in D1 and were right obviously. HVT is sort of an outlier though because they had upper D1 numbers as far as football participation while being just under D1 in enrollment. I don't recall many years where folks thought the D2 winner could beat the D1 but there have been a couple in the last 12 years or so that might be able to make that claim

There is enrollment and then there is football participation. Enrollment is an indicator of a school being able to field more competitive teams but not always and most times they are better in one sport than another.

I believe adding in the performance factor and going sport by sport won't make everything perfectly equal (nothing will) but it will close a lot of the gaps and I am certain we would see far less running clocks but there will still be some teams getting clocked just not near as many

 

[Uncle Bumfuzzled]

With High School football the strength of teams will go up and down through the years. Teams that are strong today may not be 2 or 3 years from now. With the restructuring every two years being based partly on performance in the sport it will keep the competition closer in the divisions but it never will be equal top to bottom. There will always be a couple teams each year that will struggle and folks will say the belong a div up or down.. There is no way around that but I think its better than today where there are multiple teams not able to compete if their conference.

There still will be the occasional year where a division 2A team will perform well enough for folks to think they could have competed or won 3A... If you take the HVT teams that won D2 right before they moved to D1 many thought they could compete in D1 and were right obviously. HVT is sort of an outlier though because they had upper D1 numbers as far as football participation while being just under D1 in enrollment. I don't recall many years where folks thought the D2 winner could beat the D1 but there have been a couple in the last 12 years or so that might be able to make that claim

There is enrollment and then there is football participation. Enrollment is an indicator of a school being able to field more competitive teams but not always and most times they are better in one sport than another.

I believe adding in the performance factor and going sport by sport won't make everything perfectly equal (nothing will) but it will close a lot of the gaps and I am certain we would see far less running clocks but there will still be some teams getting clocked just not as many

BiB, Nice Piece of Analysis.

 

[MightyMik]

It could also hurt perspective too if you have a young team and lose and get realigned only for there junior and senior year and be nasty. Got to remember before the Judy and the Knights/Henderson got to Smyrna, they were bottom feeders and over night (no pun intended) state champs.

 

[BackinBlack86]

It could also hurt perspective too if you have a young team and lose and get realigned only for there junior and senior year and be nasty. Got to remember before the Judy and the Knights/Henderson got to Smyrna, they were bottom feeders and over night (no pun intended) state champs.

True you will have that when a team gets hyper better in any system but it will self correct in this system. Take Red Lion, If this was the system this year Red Lion would walk away with the 1A title no question but next year they may be put up in 2A or the year after. So a situation like this would be short lived 1 or 2 years max and not last a decade or whatever.

 

[HSftballlaxFan]

You have to put into account that Smyrna was booming in town population right before they won’t their titles. More kids came out, played and they got better. Judy put in a remarkable offense and defense strategies to where you knew it was coming. I believe me and another poster....Bummy perhaps called years ago.

same thing happened to MOT...they started booming and Middletown was consistently good. Appo came and took some athletes and now Appo is D1. Curious to see what Odessa High is going to do with Appo and Mtown down the stretch cause the lines are moving. You could see one or two move down to 2A before long.

 

[Shine bright like a diamond]

With Smyrna being the only high school in that district helps tremendously. Very similar to WP. Just too many other choices for students in Colonial School District.
It will be interesting to see the impact from Odessa. Could it change enrollment numbers for not only the Appo district schools but St. George’s and Hodgson?
If so, that top tier in football could look different possibly smaller.