Team Misses Playoffs by 0.1 While 5th Place Team in District Makes It

[OldSchoolLion]

In Classes 5A-8A...

5AHallandale gets the "Grab Your Ankles" award this year for missing the playoffs by 0.1 points.  Coconut Creek finished with a 1-4 district record and in 5th place in District 16, but outpointed Hallandale and Miami Jackson to make the playoffs.  Both Hallandale and Jackson, neither of whom made the playoffs, beat Coconut Creek during the regular season.  Both Hallandale and Coconut Creek lost to district champion Cardinal Gibbons, but Hallandale played them much closer, holding the Chiefs to 21 points, while CC gave up 53 points.   

Seminole(8A), Lake Nona(7A) and River Ridge(5A) all missed out by 0.2.  

8ASeminole was the team with the highest power ranking average to not to make the playoffs with 39.4. 

7AHagerty was the team with the lowest power ranking average total to make the playoffs with 35.3. 

No doubt the current system put some "better" teams in the playoffs this year, but there were some casualties as well.  Hallandale's story may be one of the worst.

[OldSchoolLion]

..an extra tidbit.  The 5 Florida teams that Coconut Creek beat had a combined record of 13-37.  They also beat an 8-2 Colorado team.  Their 4 in-state, non-district opponents had a combined record of 12-28 and none of them made the playoffs. 

Hallandale's 5 non-district opponents had a combined record of 29-21   They played played 3 playoff-bound opponents..7AMcArthur, 8AWestern and 8AMiramar.  They came within 3 of McArthur and kept the games against Western and Miramar reasonably close. Miami Jackson played non-district games against N Miami, South Dade and Northwestern

As much press as Gadsen is getting for making the playoffs, I actually think this example is more troubling.  4A lacks strong teams, so teams with poor records making it is not a shocking surprise.  In the case of Hallandale and Jackson, they beat Coconut Creek and played much tougher schedules, yet somehow a 5th place team in the district made the playoffs.   A 5th place district team making the playoffs is just as shocking to me as a winless team making it.

[DarterBlue2]

3 hours ago, OldSchoolLion said:

Seminole(8A), Lake Nona(7A) and River Ridge(5A) all missed out by 0.2.  

I feel real bad for Seminole. They are a better team than at least two of the 8a, Region 1 playoff teams. But I guess they determined their own fate when they lost to Oviedo. 

[OldSchoolLion]

Coconut Creek played an 8-2 Greeley, Colorado team and beat them 21-0.  That same team would not be 8-2 playing in south Florida.  If they were in the same district as Coconut Creek, they would likely be 5-5, at best.  I hear complaints of OOS teams coming to Florida and playing our inferior teams. 

Does the current system potentially reward FL teams for finding "good" teams in football-weak states and playing them?  Coconut Creek could not beat 4 teams in its own district, but found a powder puff in another state and that helps them make the playoffs?  Am I missing something here?  Maybe there is an assumption that OOS games are all tough, but clearly this one was not.   

 

[DarterBlue2]

4 minutes ago, OldSchoolLion said:

Does the current system potentially reward FL teams for finding "good" teams in football-weak states and playing them?  Coconut Creek could not beat 4 teams in its own district, but found a powder puff in another state and that helps them make the playoffs?  Am I missing something here?  Maybe there is an assumption that OOS games are all tough, but clearly this one was not.   

If the details can be worked out, strategically scheduling out of state competition can certainly be advantageous. The trick is to find said team that would be willing to play. 

[Trelle]

5 minutes ago, OldSchoolLion said:

Coconut Creek played an 8-2 Greeley, Colorado team and beat them 21-0.  That same team would not be 8-2 playing in south Florida.  If they were in the same district as Coconut Creek, they would likely be 5-5, at best.  I hear complaints of OOS teams coming to Florida and playing our inferior teams. 

Does the current system potentially reward FL teams for finding "good" teams in football-weak states and playing them?  Coconut Creek could not beat 4 teams in its own district, but found a powder puff in another state and that helps them make the playoffs?  Am I missing something here?  Maybe there is an assumption that OOS games are all tough, but clearly this one was not.   

 

I currently live in western CO right now in a place called Montrose. Watch them a couple times a year usually including a few years ago when they were state runner ups as well as the better teams in Grand Junction. Most competitive teams in FL would destroy most CO teams I’m certain. A guy I work with played for Cherry Creek HS out here I believe and played at one of the Disney games. He told me they pretty much know they’re going to be given  easy win teams from FL and play them for the trip to Disney, football is secondary. It was pretty sad to hear that.

[badbird]

Wow just Wow.  This shit gets more comical each day.  Can we start playing games so I can forget about this stupid system.  BTW someone has been awful quiet.    

[OldSchoolLion]

10 minutes ago, badbird said:

Wow just Wow.  This shit gets more comical each day.  Can we start playing games so I can forget about this stupid system.  BTW someone has been awful quiet.    

I have an idea badbird.  I will organize a series of games for Florida teams in Colorado.  They can spend time sightseeing in Denver and the Rockies and pick up Cat 1 wins over the worst 10-0 teams you've ever seen from the Dakotas, Wyoming, etc.  They are out there, I just need to find 'em.

[badbird]

Just now, OldSchoolLion said:

I have an idea badbird.  I will organize a series of games for Florida teams in Colorado.  They can spend time sightseeing in Denver and the Rockies and pick up Cat 1 wins over the worst 10-0 teams you've ever seen from the Dakotas, Wyoming, etc.  They are out there, I just need to find 'em.

we might even be able to make money off it.  Guarantee a school a win over a category 1 team for $1k

[OldSchoolLion]

As I mentioned above, Coconut Creek beat a Cat 1 Greeley, CO team.  Hallandale defeated a 5-5 Cat 3 Miami Jackson team that beat Creek and likely could have run rings around Greeley, CO.  That right there was the difference-maker between them.  

Teams in 6 regions in Classes 4A-8A missed the playoffs this year by 0.2 or less.  That's 30% of the regions.  Knowing things can be so tight, if I was one of those traditional "bubble" teams and wanted to game the system, I would make a point to(assuming it was feasible) hunt for Cat 1 and 2 teams that are potentially easy pickens. 

A team in the larger classes in north FL could really exploit this.  Some of the Cat 1 and Cat 2 teams in the smaller classes there who may have difficulty finding games against schools their own size might bite.  And one could easily schedule 1 or 2 games per year versus smaller, traditional Cat 1/2 teams from neighboring Southern states.  Niceville got an easy Cat 1 win over a much smaller Mississippi team this year that would be a 3A school in Florida.