"Mr. High School Sports" - Quick Outs: No Easy Solution to Perennial Playoff Puzzle
By Matt Popchock
I'd like to extend a hearty congratulations to first-year head coach T.J. Wiley and the Northgate Flames on reaching the 2011 WPIAL Football Playoffs. What a tremendous turnaround for a fledgling program.
Whoa, whoa, wait a second...strike that. Never mind. They lost their tiebreaker.
No, no...wait a minute...no they didn't...Gardner Points. Northagte is in.
Right?
No...I mean...hang on...
I...could've sworn...
$&@*! I thought I had it!
Hang on, hang on...add the six, subtract the two, carry the one...
Okay, okay, yeah, we're cool. So, uh...yeah. Congratulations, guys.
That was the gist of the conversation I heard during the "MSA Sports Scoreboard Show" on our airwaves Friday night.
Full disclosure: I used to work for them. Those people are, on the whole, tremendous individuals. I know many of them well, and I know for a fact that Don Rebel, their operations manager, kills himself to give these kids coverage they couldn't get otherwise.
So when those people are utterly confused, you know something is seriously amiss. They weren't alone in their confusion, either.
According to MSA Sports/93.7 The Fan's Justin McKim, many Northgate fans who attended the Flames' regular season finale left visibly upset, genuinely believing their team had missed the playoffs...and nothing could have been further from the truth.
I hope I'm not the only one disturbed by this. Granted, the Flames' First Round opponent is Rochester, a team that loses First Round games about as often as Northgate wins them, so more likely than not, any celebration will be short-lived. But that's beside the point.
As long as we're re-examining Northgate's place in the standings, the WPIAL's system of determining football playoff participants as a whole should be re-examined as well.
In fairness, there are photo finishes settled by mind-numbing mathematics in the WPIAL every football season. A look at the history of high school football in these parts suggests, if anything, that the system is less convoluted than ever.
Northgate is basically in because it beat North Catholic in tiebreakers (despite losing to the Trojans). In years past, head-to-head competition would not be a factor. The playoff spot would be decided first by Gardner Points, then by WPIAL tiebreaker points, if necessary.
And you thought your head was spinning now...
Unlike other media outlets, I'm not even going to go into detail explaining either system. I had to re-read them multiple times to understand them, and I still couldn't quote them to you. That should tell you all you need to know, and elevate your level of respect for those who are paid to understand them.
But think about this...
Once upon a time, there was so much thing as the WPIAL Football Championships. Well, there was, and there wasn't.
The WPIAL used to award football championships to teams in each classification that had the most Gardner Points. That's how Joe Namath got his at Beaver Falls, just to give an example. Let's count our blessings championships are now decided the way they should be: on the field.
Enough from me--my favorite high school football raconteur is the Post-Gazette's Mike White. One of the most fascinating stories he ever told was of a situation in the 1970s in which teams ended the season tied for a playoff spot. The WPIAL let the principals of the playoff-bound schools get together and vote on who should qualify.
Okay, so we've come a long way from the days of an abacus or people in expensive suits deciding the best teams in high school football. What the WPIAL has in place today beats the alternative. But is there another alternative?
Those who don't reach the postseason are given the option of playing a tenth regular season game. Fewer schools are exercising that option these days, for varying reasons. Perhaps the WPIAL could water down the possibility of end-of-the-season ties by expanding the season to ten games for all teams?
Nah, that wouldn't work. The season is, on many occasions, too long in the first place. Last year the PIAA Football Championships weren't played until the week before Christmas, which is both rare and unnecessary, and can create manpower problems for winter sports. This year the PIAA voted to begin future seasons earlier and end them earlier without drastic cuts (in the future, WPIAL champions will automatically advance to the PIAA Semifinals). There's no turning back.
Then again, what if the WPIAL simply expanded the 64-team playoff field? It could happen if the district believes there is enough money to be made off these teams to make it worthwhile (see: "Madness, March"), and it would lessen the need for confusing tiebreakers.
However, that would probably require starting the season even sooner. Some states play non-conference games the third week of August, so it's not uncommon. But it would cut into training camp time, which, in turn, could raise issues about health and quality of play. Besides, in this era of population decline and widespread economic downturn, when even some successful programs struggle to make ends meet, any expansion seems unwise.
Oh well, at least the current playoff tiebreaker system is objective. If you wish not to get stuck in its labyrinth, then, in the immortal words of Al Davis, "just win, baby."
Sleep tight, graphics calculator from senior year. I'll see you in 11 months.
(Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/mpopchock)
