Football In MS

So the way they broke the 3 way tie wasn’t carried out the same completely through all 3 schools? There’s certainly space for ambiguity here…

Interesting. Certainly looks that way. But that’s not how it’s written in the list of tie-breakers. The way the tiebreaker is written, the only reason you’d need to go on to the next step (a head-to-head determination) is if at the previous step you’ve still got a tie. But using the “how’d they fare vs the #1 seed” there is no longer a tie among any of the groups. Petal won, then NWR and Brandon each lost to OG by different point spreads. So there would’ve been no need to progress on to a head-to-head… which is why NWR needed up at 4th instead of 2nd even though they beat Petal in the head-to-head. Did somebody mess up here?? Was Brandon supposed to have played Gulfport last week instead of NWR???? ETA: According to these 2 things I found, it really looks like somebody screwed up & didn’t follow each step through to completion. https://oxchargersports.weebly.com/mhsaa-tiebreaker-procedure.html

Dawned on me this morning … Dialing back to the tiebreaker thing for 7A R3… it was stated that the 3-way tie for 2nd place among Petal, Brandon and NWR was broken using the “how did they fare vs the #1 seed” tiebreaker. So let’s look back: Petal was the only one of the 3 to beat OG, so they’re automatically the #2 using that tiebreaker. Continuing on, NWR only lost to OG by 3 pts on the last second FG. Brandon lost to OG 20-7. So carrying out the tiebreaker scenario (that we were told they used) would’ve still put Petal at #2 BUT would’ve put NWR at #3 at Brandon #4. So my question is: Why was the tiebreaker scenario not followed all the way through for R3? I get that Brandon beat NWR in the head to head. But head-to head is not what we were told was the tie-breaker scenario being used, to sort out the 3-school pile up in 7A R3. @s1nglewing @Vott @Rebel Bert@Dubaction y’all got any insight here?

Questionable officiating too. Lots of calls against BHS that greatly benefit OSHS

Really surprised at the low crowd for Ocean Springs at home. This should be a packed house & it’s not at all

Brandon has a widely-known penchant for doing what they want (at all costs to win = thus the BOE mantra). Even when it involves athletes who should not be taking part in competition. They reversed an initial decision last fall and let some students caught drinking at school ((or maybe even drunk )) compete with the rest of their team at a competition after it was determined the team could not win without them. Athletics trumps just about everything else down there. A very sad standard to set for students. But unfortunately, nothing new. Granted, the admin who made that choice is no longer present at BHS as of July 1 of this year (which likely has a lot to do with the lawsuit announced a year ago dating back to the 2022 tragedy) but the culture of “BOE” lives on in infamy…

My upset pick for 7A South this week would be NWR over Gulfport For 7A North, I’ll take Madison Central over Horn Lake (which is “technically” an upset based on seeding, but a 2-3 can always go either way).

I’ve been surprised in recent years how many great teams have virtually NO backup in key spots - like QB or kickers. If those guys get injured, it’s a dumpster fire

Will be interested to see how this plays out for some of the higher classification teams who chose to play tougher out-of-district schedules before the district games began. Will those additional games of added difficulty prove to have been useful in preparing to run the gauntlet in Nov-Dec? Or were they just games that contributed towards losses and injuries

The “top tier” (largest classification of schools) will always feature a huge disparity. The schools at the bottom of that heap (currently 7A) will statistically fit better and compete more strongly with the classification under them. But, I don’t know that there is a good solution. MS is not large enough for 7 classifications.

I’ve been to games there in years past - not since the blue field. It doesn’t feel like a safe area after dark. Especially for kids. Was actually told not to hang out and talk after a game - get in the car & LEAVE. That’s hard to overcome

Yep. OG is one of the harder venues to play in for an opponent. That home field advantage is substantial

Odds are not in favor of 2 R4 teams making it to South State. If it could happen any year, this would be it. However, if I were a betting man (I’m not), I wouldn’t make that bet. R4 will be doing good to get 1 team to South State. But if those 2 are the last 2 standing for the 7A South, Gulfport would play host since they’re the #1 seed in R4.

Meridian has issues top to bottom. If they can get the head coach right & admin/district support, the other things could fall into place. But there’s gonna have to be an ideological shift for that area to experience sustained success.

Marcus Broyles did & took them to playoffs and a road win vs #1 Ocean Springs. Granted that was with Hill under center. But still… Meridian was a dumpster fire before MB and returned to one immediately after he left. And now he’s back at Petal and Petal is back to relevance. An up & coming coach who wants to prove himself could do a lot, but it’ll take someone with the power to change hearts and change culture. When kids don’t even come to practice because it’s “fall break” that’s a coaching issue and something school admin needs to address.

We’re seeing scores like this in more than just this Heidelberg game. Teams who make playoffs should not be getting drilled like that (outside some crazy fluke). Running clocks in playoffs tell us that too many teams are making playoffs. There should be more than 6 teams in a division where the top 4 make playoffs. MS needs to go back to at most 6 classifications, if not 5. Make championships mean something.

Jefferson Co down 8-33 to PCS Halftime

Playoff scores like this perfectly demonstrate why MS doesn’t need 7 classifications

Gotta agree. If I were Gport, that’s not who I’d wanna see in round 1. NWR has looked really good down the stretch. A last second field goal away from being the 1 seed.

So the MHSAA as an entity doesn’t govern itself? A county court can mandate how the MHSAA operates & how rules are interpreted & implemented?

The way this all played out is indicative of how these teams seasons are going. OG on the rise, Petal struggled down the stretch. Pretty consistent with recent history. Would be fun to see another OG-Petal matchup with everyone healthy. Could definitely happen. 7A South feels more wide open this year than in the past. North is Tupelo all day - unless G’town works some magic.

It’s been talked about extensively in the MAIS power point thread. And the bigwigs in the MAIS who didn’t see this coming must be blind as some of these refs this year. Come on.

That’s actually a gift to Petal with how things shake out. As I see it, their side of the bracket provides a much easier path to South State than having to go back through OS, + beat OG or/Brandon again.

So the head-to-head between NWR and Petal means nothing??

Interesting.