1A Week 11 (1st Round Playoffs)

[greenandgoldhawk]

The next phase on the road to a state title has began. Having 8 regions has allowed more teams to see postseason play. Congrats to all the teams in post season play for making the playoffs. Will there be a first round upset somewhere? Will there be a road win expected that is not an upset?

 

Should football in class 1A have a different region setup than all other sports considering that there are just more non-playing football schools in this class?

 

 

North

 

Smithville at Baldwyn
Potts Camp at Falkner
Thrasher at Vardaman
Byers at Coffeeville
Ashland at Strayhorn
TCPS at West Lowndes
Okolona at Biggersville

Bye: Myrtle

 

South

 

Enterprise-Lincoln at Simmons
Stringer at Noxapater
Shaw at Lumberton
Nanih Waiya at Leake County
Ethel at Taylorsville
South Delta at East Marion
Mount Olive at Velma Jackson
Sacred Heart at West Tallahatchie

[Chunky6617]

Mount Olive hasn’t won a game all season and is in the playoffs 

[MSUDawg11]

1 hour ago, Chunky6617 said:

Mount Olive hasn’t won a game all season and is in the playoffs 

Check out Region 3

1 Strayhorn 3-6

2 Coffeeville 2-6

3 Potts Camp 1-6

YUCK!!

[Chunky6617]

Just now, MSUDawg11 said:

Check out Region 3

1 Strayhorn 3-6

2 Coffeeville 2-6

3 Potts Camp 1-6

YUCK!!

Sheesh 

[Rebel Bert]

2 hours ago, Chunky6617 said:

Mount Olive hasn’t won a game all season and is in the playoffs 

Yep Richland went 0-3 Region plays and they are the 4th seed. Result of closing Wingfield. Mt Olive is in with only 4 football schools in Region 7-1A. The other 2 are Piney Woods and MSD. Perhaps MSD should have went to Region 6 and Velma Jackson to Region 7. Similar to Ingomar and New Site splitting in Region 1-2A & Region 2-2A.

[MSSportsGuy]

From what I can find online, Mt Olive, Ashland, and Thrasher all made the "playoffs" without winning a single game. In these 1A districts with only 4 teams due to the non football members this will happen, as I predicted would when we foolishly went to 7 classes and reduced the number of teams in a region. 

 

I can recall when 1A went from 8 regions to 4, it was due to coaches complaining they couldn't find enough opponents for home games from larger schools to make a schedule. Apparently that wasn't a concern with the move back to 8 regions happening with the decision to move to 7 classes despite the fact some of those 1A schools around during that time have closed/consolidated and some of the parochial schools left the association for MAIS. 

 

If we want to keep 7 classes, then only the top 2 from a region should be in the playoffs, or 1A should move back to 4 regions of 7 to 10 schools. It's a shame that a winless team has to practice, get ready, and travel to a playoff game. I feel this way for many sports where there just isn't a lot of depth or competition among members due to lack of students, resources, personnel, facilities, or general support from the community. 

[Rebel Bert]

9 minutes ago, MSSportsGuy said:

From what I can find online, Mt Olive, Ashland, and Thrasher all made the "playoffs" without winning a single game. In these 1A districts with only 4 teams due to the non football members this will happen, as I predicted would when we foolishly went to 7 classes and reduced the number of teams in a region. 

 

I can recall when 1A went from 8 regions to 4, it was due to coaches complaining they couldn't find enough opponents for home games from larger schools to make a schedule. Apparently that wasn't a concern with the move back to 8 regions happening with the decision to move to 7 classes despite the fact some of those 1A schools around during that time have closed/consolidated and some of the parochial schools left the association for MAIS. 

 

If we want to keep 7 classes, then only the top 2 from a region should be in the playoffs, or 1A should move back to 4 regions of 7 to 10 schools. It's a shame that a winless team has to practice, get ready, and travel to a playoff game. I feel this way for many sports where there just isn't a lot of depth or competition among members due to lack of students, resources, personnel, facilities, or general support from the community. 

Ashland did consolidate football with Hickory Flat, East Union took over the football in Union County despite having 3 other small schools in the County. Covington County attempted to consolidate Mt Olive with Collins but failed on 3-2 vote. How small do you need to be before the state forces consolidation so 6 classes will be enough. You can have an PreK thru 8th grade in each town and then 1 solidified high school like Wayne County has.

[MSSportsGuy]

2 minutes ago, Rebel Bert said:

Ashland did consolidate football with Hickory Flat, East Union took over the football in Union County despite having 3 other small schools in the County. Covington County attempted to consolidate Mt Olive with Collins but failed on 3-2 vote. How small do you need to be before the state forces consolidation so 6 classes will be enough. You can have an PreK thru 8th grade in each town and then 1 solidified high school like Wayne County has.

Myrtle plays football in Union County now as well. Hickory Flat tried to play away from Ashland for a year I think but utimately dropped football with my suspicions being any boy from that area is allowed to attend Myrtle or Potts Camp outside of their district with no pushback rather than be forced to attend Ashland.

 

The state seems to stay out of school consolidation but forced district consolidation in some places,  which is still badly needed as some small counties have two or sometimes three school districts with superintendents and staff to support them when their total enrollment is less than a large high school. It makes no sense but it's how we operate. 

 

I guess it frustrates me when I know schools in many areas struggle for adequate funding yet wind up forced to spend money to support athletic teams and "playoffs" when in reality they are only there due to a lack of competition in their district. Strayhorn, Potts Camp, and Coffeville were the only 3 teams in their region after Coldwater closed and the association chose not to move another school in to even give them 4 members. That's crazy to me but again, it's how we operate. 

[Rebel Bert]

2 hours ago, MSSportsGuy said:

Myrtle plays football in Union County now as well. Hickory Flat tried to play away from Ashland for a year I think but utimately dropped football with my suspicions being any boy from that area is allowed to attend Myrtle or Potts Camp outside of their district with no pushback rather than be forced to attend Ashland.

 

The state seems to stay out of school consolidation but forced district consolidation in some places,  which is still badly needed as some small counties have two or sometimes three school districts with superintendents and staff to support them when their total enrollment is less than a large high school. It makes no sense but it's how we operate. 

 

I guess it frustrates me when I know schools in many areas struggle for adequate funding yet wind up forced to spend money to support athletic teams and "playoffs" when in reality they are only there due to a lack of competition in their district. Strayhorn, Potts Camp, and Coffeville were the only 3 teams in their region after Coldwater closed and the association chose not to move another school in to even give them 4 members. That's crazy to me but again, it's how we operate. 

Ingomar is in that district i believe as non football. 

[Rebel Bert]

9 hours ago, Chunky6617 said:

Sheesh 

1A needs to go back to 4 regions for football. If New Site and Ingomar are not going to play football then put them in 1A instead of 2A. If you have over 150 kids in 9 -11th grades you should be playing football. NE Ms has to have few jobs and few businesses to support these towns like Wheeler, etc.

[MSSportsGuy]

12 hours ago, Rebel Bert said:

Ingomar is in that district i believe as non football. 

Ingomar and West Union are both in Union County along with Myrtle and East Union.

 

New Site fielded a football team for a few years but dropped it, likely due to lack of interest. Basketball has long been the sport of choice for the northeast corner of the state in those small schools. I would be surprised if Ingomar or West Union ever attempted to play football. 

 

Agreed 1A football needs 4 regions. 

[Doc]

Agreed taking all the teams to playoffs is not good. School are not earning their way in anymore, so its nothing to play for because you are automaticaly get in. I remeber when you had to fight to get in. But now money and false hope is what we are selling. If you are going to do so many division take only the top 2 teams and it means more.

[MSSportsGuy]

3 hours ago, Doc said:

Agreed taking all the teams to playoffs is not good. School are not earning their way in anymore, so its nothing to play for because you are automaticaly get in. I remeber when you had to fight to get in. But now money and false hope is what we are selling. If you are going to do so many division take only the top 2 teams and it means more.

Posted before and sound like an old man but:

 

When I was a sophomore or junior in HS (early 90s) we were 7-3 or 8-2 but lost two division games and finished third, left out of the playoffs of a 8 team division. It hurt but we knew we had to play each week. Taking the top 4 if there are 7 or 8 teams in a region/district is fine. However, as we added 6A and now 7A, plus the consolidation of many small schools, there just aren't as many member schools playing so many districts have 5 or 6 teams with 1A football having 4 team divisions by default with the non football schools taking part in basketball.

 

If this remains the case the association should either only take the top 2 or at most 3 with division champs getting a first round bye. However, it would cut into "playoff" revenue. Of course 7A was to "increase excitement" which basically means to extract as much money as possible from the public and that includes school systems. 

[Rebel Bert]

For Scheduling purposes alone combined the basketball regions into 4 football regions. Top 8 go to playoffs from each region.

Region 1 8 football 3 non-football

Region 2 7 football 4 non-football

Region 3 12 football

Region 4 10 football 2 non football 

Region 1 is Region 1 and 2 from basketball,  etc.

[Former Coach]

10 hours ago, Rebel Bert said:

For Scheduling purposes alone combined the basketball regions into 4 football regions. Top 8 go to playoffs from each region.

Region 1 8 football 3 non-football

Region 2 7 football 4 non-football

Region 3 12 football

Region 4 10 football 2 non football 

Region 1 is Region 1 and 2 from basketball,  etc.

An issue here is that a lot of these teams don't bring many people to away games. Most 1A schools rely on gate receipts to fund there programs. I've seen games where the visiting team didn't have 20 people attend. Now I agree 4 team regions are not good but it does allow teams more opportunities to schedule games against teams that travel better.  I would put 6 or 7 football playing schools in each region and then add all non football schools accordingly. That still allows for 3 to 4 non region games.

[greenandgoldhawk]

Tonight I think Nanih Waiya should get a road win over Leake County. 

[greenandgoldhawk]

Scores

 

North

 

Smithville 0 at Baldwyn 49
Potts Camp 0 at Falkner 49
Thrasher 22 at Vardaman 42
Byers 6 at Coffeeville 20
Ashland 0 at Strayhorn 35
TCPS 9 at West Lowndes 52
Okolona 16 at Biggersville 56

Bye: Myrtle

 

South

 

Enterprise-Lincoln 14 at Simmons 58
Stringer 36 at Noxapater 28
Shaw 12 at Lumberton 42
Nanih Waiya 28 at Leake County 6
Ethel 0 at Taylorsville 46
South Delta 20 at East Marion 37
Mount Olive 6 at Velma Jackson 62
Sacred Heart 14 at West Tallahatchie 36

[MSSportsGuy]

Several of the blowouts demonstrate why winless teams don't need to be in the "playoffs" by default just because of a 4 team region. 1A should go back to 4 regions between 7 and 10 schools the next cycle and be on the same playoff schedule at 7A - 5A. It would also help with scheduling for the schools.