NCHSAA Football Commentary

High school playoffs need major overhaul
By Ed Hardin, Greensboro News & Record
12-7-03

CHAPEL HILL -- In some states of the union they play championship football games in large stadiums in front of large crowds. Here in North Carolina we play them in largely empty stadiums in front of friends and family.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. It just looks bad.

In most states of the union they crown football champions and end all arguments according to logic. The best teams play for titles according to class size, and the rest of the state comes to watch. Here in North Carolina, we split the best teams into eight different tournaments, and almost no one comes to watch.

This is a bad thing that looks even worse.

North Carolina is in the process of crowning eight football champions this weekend, or four more than we did a few years ago and seven more than we did when we played the first of 90 annual NCHSAA football championships.

We carve up the state according to conferences and regions, and then we carve it up again to even a playing field that anyone who has ever played football knows is not even to begin with. What we sometimes end up with is a nationally recognized football power like Charlotte Independence winning four straight titles and ending any argument about the best team in the state.

But we also end up with another champion from the same classification coming out of another empty stadium with its own trophy and an empty case that will never be settled.

Sometimes we end up with a game like Saturday's here in Kenan Stadium between a legitimate power, South Point Belmont, and a road-weary contender, Northeast Guilford. South Point won a one-sided game against surprising Northeast, sending the family and friends from Belmont home with a trophy and sending the family and friends from McLeansville home with its athletics department in debt.

"You play in a game like this and you want to be able to buy your kids T-shirts and hats and plaques and things so you can reward them for a good season," Northeast coach Tommy Pursley said. "The last time we made it to the state championship game we made over $20,000. This year we spent more than that on buses. We spent so much on buses that we're in the hole. We made it to the state championship game and it cost us money."

The road to the title game was 1,600 miles long for Northeast, a result of a twisted system that seeded the Rams 11th despite coming out of what has been the best 3-A conference in the state the past five years and forced them to travel to empty stadiums miles and miles away from McLeansville.

Still, they made it to the championship game. And still, Pursley said, Northeast lost.

A day from now, a year from now, a generation from now, the kids will remember the long run. Here's hoping they have a hat or a shirt or something to remind them of what it took to get to the last game.

A day from now, South Point will be one of eight state champions. Here's hoping in the coming year the rest of the coaches around the state will recognize both the brilliant run of South Point and the withering run of Northeast Guilford.

The system is flawed on so many levels. Northeast took the brunt of it this year. Someone else will a year from now and for every year the state's coaches insist on playing games before we even begin to play the games. The system needs to be improved.

South Point coach John Devine gave grudging respect to the Northeast kids while claiming to be the coach of what he described as "about one of the best teams to ever play in this state." He also grudgingly agreed that about seven other teams could make that claim every year. Saturday's 27-10 win in the Class 3-A championship ended about two hours before the Class 3-AA game began.

As it turned out, the Class-AA champion had lost to the Class-A champion 35-7 earlier this year. The coaches need to vote again to fix a broke system. We have too many flaws in a system that rewards too many teams and leaves too many questions at the end of a long process. The payoff at the end simply doesn't equal the cost.

"I don't have all the answers," Northeast athletics director John Primm said. "But we had to come up with a lot of money. And I haven't received the gate receipts from any game we've played. Bertie County, who we played a month ago, hasn't sent us a dime. And we even got robbed down there, and we haven't heard a word."

A lot of people are getting robbed of a lot of things they should be able to take for granted at this time of the year. The union of coaches needs to speak up and let the NCHSAA go back to the way it was, back before playing for state championships became such an empty proposition.

It looks bad.

 

it needs to changed back to one champion in each classification.
this watered down version sucks

 

No way a 4th place team in a conference or a team with a losing record should be in any sort of playoff game. Some of those early games would make the lesser team wonder if playing was worthwhile.

 

Heck....the 3AA West had a 3-7 (Lake Norman) team in our bracket and we (3AA West) were the strongest bracket in the state according to the teams win/loss records. That was 1 team with a record at or below .500 when the other brackets had anywhere from 4 to 8 teams at or below .500. It was even worse last year before they tweaked it a bit. This is wrong and the current format should be scrapped altogether.

 

If you want t true determination of the quality of schedules, etc... you need to go to some sort of power rating system. There are teams in the state that load up on weaker non-conference teams to improve their won-loss records for the playoffs, or to simply meet the 4 win requirement.

 

quality of schedule...........

The football i know doesnt load up on weak non conference games and dont set goals for a 4 win season. Guess i am wondering but "what team does this"...........?

one classification one champion even if 5 are needed.

 

That would be the best thing...5 Classes would address the major concerns I believe coaches have. Ain't nothing gonna change as long as that $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ is rolling in to the NCHSAA.

 

hopefully their experiment with this split system will recieve some useful feedback to move forward with the 5th classification!

schools loss money and nchsaa making $$$$$, hopefully we learn!

 

They'll never go to 5A because of travel for teams involved. They have said that for years.


GOD BLESS AMERICA AND HER TROOPS

 

But yet Whiteville had to travel over 8 hours to play Owen and then 6 to play Shelby. They have a hard time making the travel argument when that happens.