Reduce teams that qualify for playoffs??

Response to Ranking/Polls comment

Of the Final Top Ten from the Coaches poll, 35 of the 40 teams are playing in Round 2.

 

Agree

This was discussed last year as well as the first two rounds had a high percentage of blowouts! There is some money for the schools having playoff games but usually not enough to pay expenses. The AC's, Butler, Providence, North Davidson, Central Davidson, Central and others draw big crowds so money to be made. Before some of other schools come after me, I am more familiar with 4-A as my kids attended Butler!

 

That just means that 93 teams that weren't ranked are also going to Round 2.

 

Point?

Ok with the teams, but that is not what you said in the first post. You said the rankings weren't worth the paper they were printed on. The ranked teams will need to play somebody. The only way most of the ranked teams will be knocked out of the playoff hunt is by playing each other in rounds 3 and 4. I just don't understand your logic with the polls question. I plan to be in Raleigh to see the Championships played out. I figure there will be a large number of teams from that final poll there as well.

 

It has turned into politically correct sports...lets make all teams feel good about themselves and let the 3 - 18 teams play...doesn't matter how hard the 24 - 2 teams work throughout the year, lets let everyone play in the state tourney and after the game sit around and sing coombya !!!!!

 

look here

I'm all for non-conference games. I went to SWR. How bout that team over ND and AC this yr..Hummmm. I don't care if the #1 4A team plays the bottom 1A team in non-conference and the 1A team wins. Well that's the price you pay. But inside your conference if you win it you move on. A team could loose all their non-conf games and go undefeated inside conf play and move on to the states. No more 25-0 score in the playoffs, your team had better be ready to play from the start to the end or you go home early. Kids don't understand that today. In the real world today a kid needs to know what NO means and you can't be a slacker. You'll be found out. There will always be underdogs, just "good" underdogs... Remember APP ST.

 

I'm just saying that there is too much emphasis put on the ranking polls. It is what it is which is some coaches ranking teams many of which they have never even seen play, so really what is that worth? I agree that alot of the ranked teams will be knocked out by other ranked teams later in the playoffs, but we have only gone one round and 5 out of 40 have already been knocked out by unranked teams. Just an example TC Roberson, a very good team has lost 2 games both to Enka (TCR beat Enka in the MAC tournament). Enka lost 5 games three to 2A teams and one of those was an unranked 2A team. TCR is going to the second round Enka is not. Enka has not dropped past number 3 in the state since preseason and TCR has remained unranked all season. I also do not understand the logic. No disrespect to anyone but in my opinion that shows me that the polls are really not worth much more than the paper they are printed on.

 

One of the problems with the conference you mention is that it is actually a split conference with 4 4A teams of which 3 qualify. In a situation where one team (Garinger) does not field a team all 4A teams make the playoffs and that is not right and should be addressed by the state association. The brackets are drawn up long after the schools not fielding teams are known.

For the next four years the 4a version of the same conference will have at least three competitive teams (West Meck, Olympic, and East Gaston) with Garinger (if they have a team) probably left out.

 

In honor of the comeback player, the underdog, and the girls who just love the game..

I'd be in favor of supporting less teams in the STATES, but only if we keep the Conference Tournaments and make them count for something bigger. Recognize regular season conference champs and then use the conference records as seatings for the conference championship tourney's (CCT). Then use the CCT as placement for STATE seatings. Take the top two to three from each CCT. That gives a team with injuries a shot at a late season surge, someone gets hot....the underdogs. But on the other side of the coin despite the blowouts and the not so recent success of the lower seeds, is the answer to take the games away from the girls who are just excited to have a chance and not take it for granted? If you do not do it for your team, how about doing it for the sport? It's bigger to more girls than you think. JMHO : )

 

Lets not look at the forest and only see trees. The fact is that with a 32 team playoff, strong conferences and split conferences will very likely see teams that truly deserve to be there are not able to go because of the numbers game. This happened all the time with 32 teams. Its one of the reasons they went to 64. Who cares if some of the first round games are blow outs. So get ahead early and put in your subs and some of those JVs you bring along so they can get some playoff game time.

In 2A, only 7 of the 32 first round games were blow outs (10 runs or more). Also, a 32 team format will never eliminate all the blow outs.