Maybe playoffs could use a little more tweaking
By Terry Hersomthersom@siouxcityjournal.com | Posted: Thursday, November 06, 2008
I heard all the complaints months ago and wasn't sure how I honestly felt.
Now that Iowa's expanded high school football playoffs have already slashed their expanded field from 192 to 48 teams, I'm pretty much sold on this being a good idea.
And, I'm not just leaning that way because I know this is simply how it's going to be -- this isn't the sort of change the Iowa High School Athletic Association tries for a year or two and then drops.
Which is fine and dandy.
Elsewhere in America, there are prep football teams playing 14 or 15 regular season games. That's possible, of course, because other parts of the country don't have to deal with wintry weather as early in the year as we do, if ever.
So, even if the expanded playoffs in Iowa allowed more than half the state's high school teams to advance into the postseason, all it meant was that all of these teams got to play at least 10 games this fall instead of nine.
There are, nonetheless, three things I'd like to see the IHSAA consider:
First, let's ditch the idea of labeling those first postseason contests as "substate'' games. If your team played a game Wednesday, Oct. 29, it was a playoff game every bit as much as those Monday, Nov. 3 contests that were officially labeled "first-round playoff games.''
Even though the substate label was the IHSAA's way of avoiding the expense of plaques for the losing teams -- losers in all subsequent rounds receive plaques -- there probably wasn't a TV or radio station in Iowa that didn't loosely refer to these contests as playoff games. So, why not just call them that?
Secondly, the IHSAA shouldn't wait until the final night of the regular season to determine which districts will be paired up on the postseason brackets. The entire tournament trail in basketball is mapped out several weeks in advance. Football shouldn't have to be any different.
Finally, let's put a little more muscle behind the football playoff seeding. Teams should be rewarded more for their regular season success. And, if you're a No. 1 seed, you shouldn't have to be traveling in the second round like Bishop Heelan did Monday, playing on the home turf of Sergeant Bluff-Luton, a team the Crusaders defeated 35-7 just 10 nights earlier.
Clearly, SB-L had an outstanding team and gave Heelan plenty of trouble in a game that was tied when the host Warriors failed to punch home a go-ahead touchdown from one yard away midway through the third quarter.
Still, when one team goes through its nine-game schedule and another loses three times, the unbeaten team has earned an advantage. And, our football playoffs seem to be the only tournament in Iowa where that doesn't hold true.
One more thought on the football playoffs: Let's just cross our fingers and hope we miss out on that "wintry mixture'' predicted for our part of the country on Friday, the last round of playoff games before they move inside the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
Sorry to learn that Chuck Obye, the head basketball coach at Morningside College from 1957 through 1973, has passed away at the age of 86 (see obituary on page C4).
Obye, christened Charles H. Obye, Jr., had lived in Sun City, Ariz., since 1986, but I came to know him prior to that through his dedicated work with the Greater Siouxland Athletic Association Hall of Fame.
Basically, it was Chuck who ramrodded the hall of fame for many years, then made sure the tradition lived on when he retired to Arizona, turning all the attendant materials over to a small committee of people who shared his respect and admiration for our local sports heroes.
I happened to be one of those committee members and still am. And, I'll be nominating Chuck as a hall of fame candidate not only for his contributions to the GSAA and Morningside basketball but also for his achievements during 20 years in national Senior Olympics competition.
And, if all of those reasons weren't enough, I'd nominate him for being one of the nicest gentlemen I've ever met.
Now that Iowa's expanded high school football playoffs have already slashed their expanded field from 192 to 48 teams, I'm pretty much sold on this being a good idea.
And, I'm not just leaning that way because I know this is simply how it's going to be -- this isn't the sort of change the Iowa High School Athletic Association tries for a year or two and then drops.
Which is fine and dandy.
Elsewhere in America, there are prep football teams playing 14 or 15 regular season games. That's possible, of course, because other parts of the country don't have to deal with wintry weather as early in the year as we do, if ever.
So, even if the expanded playoffs in Iowa allowed more than half the state's high school teams to advance into the postseason, all it meant was that all of these teams got to play at least 10 games this fall instead of nine.
There are, nonetheless, three things I'd like to see the IHSAA consider:
First, let's ditch the idea of labeling those first postseason contests as "substate'' games. If your team played a game Wednesday, Oct. 29, it was a playoff game every bit as much as those Monday, Nov. 3 contests that were officially labeled "first-round playoff games.''
Even though the substate label was the IHSAA's way of avoiding the expense of plaques for the losing teams -- losers in all subsequent rounds receive plaques -- there probably wasn't a TV or radio station in Iowa that didn't loosely refer to these contests as playoff games. So, why not just call them that?
Secondly, the IHSAA shouldn't wait until the final night of the regular season to determine which districts will be paired up on the postseason brackets. The entire tournament trail in basketball is mapped out several weeks in advance. Football shouldn't have to be any different.
Finally, let's put a little more muscle behind the football playoff seeding. Teams should be rewarded more for their regular season success. And, if you're a No. 1 seed, you shouldn't have to be traveling in the second round like Bishop Heelan did Monday, playing on the home turf of Sergeant Bluff-Luton, a team the Crusaders defeated 35-7 just 10 nights earlier.
Clearly, SB-L had an outstanding team and gave Heelan plenty of trouble in a game that was tied when the host Warriors failed to punch home a go-ahead touchdown from one yard away midway through the third quarter.
Still, when one team goes through its nine-game schedule and another loses three times, the unbeaten team has earned an advantage. And, our football playoffs seem to be the only tournament in Iowa where that doesn't hold true.
One more thought on the football playoffs: Let's just cross our fingers and hope we miss out on that "wintry mixture'' predicted for our part of the country on Friday, the last round of playoff games before they move inside the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
Sorry to learn that Chuck Obye, the head basketball coach at Morningside College from 1957 through 1973, has passed away at the age of 86 (see obituary on page C4).
Obye, christened Charles H. Obye, Jr., had lived in Sun City, Ariz., since 1986, but I came to know him prior to that through his dedicated work with the Greater Siouxland Athletic Association Hall of Fame.
Basically, it was Chuck who ramrodded the hall of fame for many years, then made sure the tradition lived on when he retired to Arizona, turning all the attendant materials over to a small committee of people who shared his respect and admiration for our local sports heroes.
I happened to be one of those committee members and still am. And, I'll be nominating Chuck as a hall of fame candidate not only for his contributions to the GSAA and Morningside basketball but also for his achievements during 20 years in national Senior Olympics competition.
And, if all of those reasons weren't enough, I'd nominate him for being one of the nicest gentlemen I've ever met.
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