Analysis of Maxpreps Team Schedule Progress

[LAZ]

With only seven weeks remaining until Kick-off Classic weekend, I'm starting to get antsy about the limited amount football schedules we are seeing. Taking a look at the progress shown on Max Preps' website, I checked out Florida's 560+ teams to see what was up. This is what I've found. 

124 schools (about 1/4) have 10 game schedules with no conflicts.

45 schools show they are playing multiple opponents on the same day. Subsequently, this affects another 90 schools who are listed as opponents on those dates. 45 are correct and 45 will be incorrect.  The biggest culprits are Island Coast, Lehigh, Lafayette and Keswick Christian but there are 41 other schools also playing two teams at the same time.  

18 schools do not have any games scheduled (Some of these are new and some may not be playing 11 man football this year)

12 schools have only 1 game scheduled

29 schools have only 2 games scheduled

31 schools have only 3 games scheduled

45 schools have only 4 games scheduled 

32 schools have only 5 games scheduled

Not counting the 18 teams with no games, this leaves 149 schools with less than 5 games scheduled. 

In summary, we have a long way to go in a very short time. Schools need to get crankin' and MaxPreps needs to get their site updated and cleaned up in a hurry.

 

One would think, maybe it's time to look at this as a business, because it is. I know if my company didn't know where it was going 50 days from now, heads would roll. Including mine.    

 

 

 

      

[DarterBlue2]

Going with Maxpreps was an error. It has been years since that site had accurate, timely data on it. For the mistake of registering several years ago, I was inundated with spam in my primary email. 

As it is clear that CBS won't properly support it, they should shut it down. 

[Ray Icaza]

Don't know if blaming Maxpreps for inaccurate data as they are the messenger.  The old adage of garbage in, garbage out; so if you have coaches that are incompetent putting together a schedule, reporting their rosters, etc...  the kind of stuff you would look at Maxpreps for, then who is to blame.  I can only speak for one team that I follow closely and their info seems to be pretty accurate year in and year out.  To me that is more of a reflection on the staff.  Lots of player info is not finalized till just before the season starts as new players move in, player moved up or down from JV and transfers at the start of the new school year.  Here in our county most high schools seem to have lots of turnover in the football staff.  That affects getting accurate info also.

[SubZero]

Maxpreps sucks when trying to find schedules. It used to be good, but not anymore. 

[DarterBlue2]

1 hour ago, Ray Icaza said:

Don't know if blaming Maxpreps for inaccurate data as they are the messenger.  The old adage of garbage in, garbage out; so if you have coaches that are incompetent putting together a schedule, reporting their rosters, etc...  the kind of stuff you would look at Maxpreps for, then who is to blame.  I can only speak for one team that I follow closely and their info seems to be pretty accurate year in and year out.  To me that is more of a reflection on the staff.  Lots of player info is not finalized till just before the season starts as new players move in, player moved up or down from JV and transfers at the start of the new school year.  Here in our county most high schools seem to have lots of turnover in the football staff.  That affects getting accurate info also.

I blame them because the model they use clearly does not work. There has to be a better way of doing this. They were/are under contract to not only do the schedules but to also verify the accuracy of the RPI used to determine playoff status and seeding. I have no confidence in their ability to do this accurately. 

[LAZ]

Darter, as we discussed many times before. I’d love to take a crack at it. I have to put them all together anyway. I just don’t have the school contact clout and authority. I’m retired so I’ll take minimum wage. Just waiting for somebody to please contact me. 

[DarterBlue2]

2 minutes ago, LAZ said:

Darter, as we discussed many times before. I’d love to take a crack at it. I have to put them all together anyway. I just don’t have the school contact clout and authority. I’m retired so I’ll take minimum wage. Just waiting for somebody to please contact me. 

It is my sincere belief that you would do a much better job. You love the game and love the data. And, I am sure you would be worth more than minimum wage. 

[nolebull813]

Blame the FHSAA. They should require this info in a timely manner. Georgia can do it months ago with no issue and they only have a little less teams than us so it’s no excuse. Click this link and tell me why the FHSAA cant do this 

https://www.ghsa.net/2021-2022-ghsa-football-schedule

[Perspective]

9 hours ago, nolebull813 said:

Blame the FHSAA. They should require this info in a timely manner. Georgia can do it months ago with no issue and they only have a little less teams than us so it’s no excuse. Click this link and tell me why the FHSAA cant do this 

https://www.ghsa.net/2021-2022-ghsa-football-schedule

Nolebull, sincere question for you:  Do you know if the Georgia schools handle their own scheduling or is the scheduling done by a central source (or even a district source)?   I ask because I think Hillsborough public schools schedules are done and have been out for a while. 

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it the responsibility of the member schools to post their schedules on MaxPreps (along with rosters and possibly stats)?   I'm just trying to understand where the system is breaking down.  Whose fault is it?  The schools?  The FHSAA's?  MaxPrep's?   Or do they all share the blame?

[Ray Icaza]

Osceola county coaches schedule their games, not a central administrator.  We have 8 public schools and 5 have completed schedules, one has 9 games looking for the 10th and two are at the midway point.  Both of the last 2 underwent coaching change and here is where the problems starts.  Their AD either dropped the ball as it falls back on him or they decided to wait until they fill the post to allow that person to finish drawing it up.  So I do agree with earlier comments about Maxpreps RPI system, but schedule, rosters, coaches, etc. are provided by the team.  That's why I said garbage in, garbage out - not Maxpreps fault.

[nolebull813]

The GHSA requires their member schools to submit their schedule to them by March 1st. This year and last year were the exceptions. I believe this year they had until June 1st. Teams can still find games if they need them after the deadline. They would just have to submit whatever schedule they had at that point. 
 

What’s so hard for the FHSAA to tell the member schools to submit their schedules? Why does the FHSAA pawn the responsibility off to Maxpreps who is the king of fake news. I don’t believe there are this many incompetent coaches that post this much inaccurate garbage 

[SportsNut25]

At one point - and who knows if was ever enforced - the FHSAA had it in the rules that if you didn't get it in by I think it was March 31 you got fined $50. 

 

[HornetFan]

35 minutes ago, SportsNut25 said:

At one point - and who knows if was ever enforced - the FHSAA had it in the rules that if you didn't get it in by I think it was March 31 you got fined $50. 

 

A whole $50????  You can see how well that would work.

[SportsNut25]

11 hours ago, HornetFan said:

A whole $50????  You can see how well that would work.

"Sorry guys, no mini bottles of Gatorades today, we didn't submit our schedule until mid-April" 

[LAZ]

8/4/21 Update:

Not much progress- I'm about 20% through my second pass of Maxpreps and the schedules are still a cluster@#%$.

Check this one out: 

Central Florida Christian Academy

27-Aug	Oasis
27-Aug	Mount Dora Christian Academy
27-Aug	St. Petersburg Catholic
3-Sep	Victory Charter School
3-Sep	St. Petersburg Catholic
10-Sep	Cornerstone Charter Academy
24-Sep	Bishop McLaughlin Catholic
24-Sep	St. Joseph Academy
1-Oct	Bishop McLaughlin Catholic
1-Oct	St. Edward's
1-Oct	Gateway Charter
8-Oct	Cocoa Beach
8-Oct	Cedar Creek Christian
15-Oct	Bell Creek Academy
15-Oct	Cedar Creek Christian
15-Oct	Santa Fe Catholic
22-Oct	Bell Creek Academy

   Seriously?

Yes I do complain a lot. Back in my day, one of two things happened when we had complainers such as myself:

1) The "squeaky" wheel got the oil. And Management resolved the problem.

or

2) The "complainer" was assigned the task of resolving the problem. 

 

Unfortunately, in today's world, this "problem" will go unsolved because:

 The lack of accurate schedules is not viewed as a "problem" because no one has assigned an associated monetary impact to this issue. Does anyone want to take a shot at estimating lost revenue due to faulty schedules?    

 

 

 

                                       

 

[KeemD321]

Maxpreps doesn't even have annual rivalry games on schedules including the BBQ Bowl between Rockledge and Cocoa 

[HornetFan]

6 hours ago, LAZ said:

8/4/21 Update:

Not much progress- I'm about 20% through my second pass of Maxpreps and the schedules are still a cluster@#%$.

Check this one out: 

Central Florida Christian Academy

27-Aug	Oasis
27-Aug	Mount Dora Christian Academy
27-Aug	St. Petersburg Catholic
3-Sep	Victory Charter School
3-Sep	St. Petersburg Catholic
10-Sep	Cornerstone Charter Academy
24-Sep	Bishop McLaughlin Catholic
24-Sep	St. Joseph Academy
1-Oct	Bishop McLaughlin Catholic
1-Oct	St. Edward's
1-Oct	Gateway Charter
8-Oct	Cocoa Beach
8-Oct	Cedar Creek Christian
15-Oct	Bell Creek Academy
15-Oct	Cedar Creek Christian
15-Oct	Santa Fe Catholic
22-Oct	Bell Creek Academy

   Seriously?

Yes I do complain a lot. Back in my day, one of two things happened when we had complainers such as myself:

1) The "squeaky" wheel got the oil. And Management resolved the problem.

or

2) The "complainer" was assigned the task of resolving the problem. 

 

Unfortunately, in today's world, this "problem" will go unsolved because:

 The lack of accurate schedules is not viewed as a "problem" because no one has assigned an associated monetary impact to this issue. Does anyone want to take a shot at estimating lost revenue due to faulty schedules?    

 

 

 

                                       

 

 

 

Hudl has Central Florida Christian Academy schedule for 2021 as:

@ Northside Christian School  Friday, 20 Aug. at 7:00 p.m.

 vs Mount Dora Christian Academy    Friday, 27 Aug. at 7:00 p.m.

vs St. Petersburg Catholic High School   Friday, 3 Sept. at 7:00 p.m.

 @ Trinity Prep     Friday, 10 Sept. at 7:00 p.m

 @ Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School    Friday, 24 Sept. at 7:00 p.m

 vs St Edwards    Friday, 1 Oct. at 7:00 p.m

 vs Cedar Creek     Friday, 8 Oct. at 7:00 p.m

 vs GDS Christian     Friday, 15 Oct. at 7:00 p.m

 @ Bell Creek Academy    Friday, 22 Oct. at 7:00 p.m.

[HornetFan]

3 hours ago, KeemD321 said:

Maxpreps doesn't even have annual rivalry games on schedules including the BBQ Bowl between Rockledge and Cocoa 

Hudl has Rockledge schedule:

vs Cocoa High School   Wednesday, 3 Nov. at 7:00 p.m.

[LAZ]

No Schedule at all for Blanche Ely.

One would think someone in So Fla has blown a gasket by now. 

 

 

[LAZ]

In the end, who's responsible for bringing the heat and making this happen?  

I'd like to get them one at a time in the batter's box without a helmet and unload some serious chin music on 'em.

Heck, I might even don my imitation Ryne Duren goggles just to see how they like not knowing what's coming their way.  

[LAZ]

In all seriousness. This is how the scheduling process “appears” to be set up with Maxpreps. It appears that each school has designated individual(s) that have access to MaxPreps scheduling web pages. That means over 550 people can input Florida schedules and schedule changes. It doesn’t take Einstein to figure out that this can lead to nothing but disaster and inaccuracies. There needs to be a single source of input who has the capability to audit for accuracy before schedules are entered. This will ensure errors and conflicts are identified and resolved prior to entering the schedules into the site. Again….only 1 input source.

And yes, I want the job. 

 

 

 

[Ray Icaza]

30 minutes ago, LAZ said:

In all seriousness. This is how the scheduling process “appears” to be set up with Maxpreps. It appears that each school has designated individual(s) that have access to MaxPreps scheduling web pages. That means over 550 people can input Florida schedules and schedule changes. It doesn’t take Einstein to figure out that this can lead to nothing but disaster and inaccuracies. There needs to be a single source of input who has the capability to audit for accuracy before schedules are entered. This will ensure errors and conflicts are identified and resolved prior to entering the schedules into the site. Again….only 1 input source.

And yes, I want the job. 

 

 

 

I would be genuinely interested to see how much better that would work as you would replace MaxPreps as the one and only input source.  FHSAA has 748 member schools and you are still dependent on someone from each of those schools that they designate to give you the data.  If 200 of those schools are negligent in doing so in a timely manner, how would you go about getting it.  Believe me, I am not schilling for MaxPreps as I have no dog in this fight.  However, it seems easy to make them the scapegoat when from the outside looking in it appears that individuals at each school really are the problem, especially with turnover in coaches every year.  HUDL does schedules on their site but accuracy is still a reflection of each school designee.

[LAZ]

Ray,

Very valid questions. And I do agree, this may not be MaxPreps fault at all. It may very much be just a procedural issue. But it's obvious just looking at the schedules, that people are not seeking resolution. As I've said earlier, I do this stuff anyway. Each year I maintain a matrix of the schedules for all the teams which allows me to immediately identify conflicts. I can generate a list of conflicts/questions for each affected school within minutes. I just need the authority to make contact with a designated person from each school to discuss/resolve the discrepancies and to somehow be allowed to get the changes entered into MaxPreps.     

 

[Perspective]

1 hour ago, Ray Icaza said:

I would be genuinely interested to see how much better that would work as you would replace MaxPreps as the one and only input source.  FHSAA has 748 member schools and you are still dependent on someone from each of those schools that they designate to give you the data.  If 200 of those schools are negligent in doing so in a timely manner, how would you go about getting it.  Believe me, I am not schilling for MaxPreps as I have no dog in this fight.  However, it seems easy to make them the scapegoat when from the outside looking in it appears that individuals at each school really are the problem, especially with turnover in coaches every year.  HUDL does schedules on their site but accuracy is still a reflection of each school designee.

You raise some good questions, Ray.  But . . .  what if the FHSAA simply told the schools they have to have their schedules turned in (to someone like Laz) or posted (on a site like MaxPreps) by a certain date.  And if they didn't, they wouldn't be able to play that season (or they would get penalized a certain number of games - starting with the first game of the season).  Yes, there might be a few lingering issues that would have to be accounted for and perhaps a need for a forgiving scheduling czar that could excuse unavoidable issues.   But, if one or two seasons (or even games) got cancelled,  I'm guessing it wouldn't take long for the schools to get the message that they need to get their schedules turned in on time. 

That said (and just playing a little Devil's Advocate), who really needs to know which teams are playing which a month before the season starts?  Yeah, I know we're all very curious and want to see who's playing who.  And there may be a handful of people (journalists?  website operators? fans?) who would really benefit by having more notice, but other than this 'handful of people,' who really gets penalized by not knowing who Miami Central is playing in Week 2 or who Madison is playing in Week 6?  In other words, give me the reason why schedules need to be finalized more than a month out.  Open question for anyone who wants to supply an answer. 

[Ray Icaza]

1 hour ago, Perspective said:

You raise some good questions, Ray.  But . . .  what if the FHSAA simply told the schools they have to have their schedules turned in (to someone like Laz) or posted (on a site like MaxPreps) by a certain date.  And if they didn't, they wouldn't be able to play that season (or they would get penalized a certain number of games - starting with the first game of the season).  Yes, there might be a few lingering issues that would have to be accounted for and perhaps a need for a forgiving scheduling czar that could excuse unavoidable issues.   But, if one or two seasons (or even games) got cancelled,  I'm guessing it wouldn't take long for the schools to get the message that they need to get their schedules turned in on time. 

That said (and just playing a little Devil's Advocate), who really needs to know which teams are playing which a month before the season starts?  Yeah, I know we're all very curious and want to see who's playing who.  And there may be a handful of people (journalists?  website operators? fans?) who would really benefit by having more notice, but other than this 'handful of people,' who really gets penalized by not knowing who Miami Central is playing in Week 2 or who Madison is playing in Week 6?  In other words, give me the reason why schedules need to be finalized more than a month out.  Open question for anyone who wants to supply an answer. 

Obviously, I support a change as usually that leads to different hopefully better results.  And with LAZ's passion for doing it my guess is it would definitely improve.  As you stated, some mechanism needs to be in place to light a fire under those schools that are not upholding their end of the bargain.