I'm positive many readers went to the polls today to cast a vote for our next president. Here at the Varsity Letters, we don't care what your political affiliation is (unless you start to push politics on this board) or who you voted for.
What we want to know is, if you were the WPIAL Executive Director, what would you attempt to change?
For me, I would cut the football playoffs from 16 teams per classification to 12 teams and allow the top four seeds to receive a first-round bye and a quarterfinal home game.
I would also add the games non-revenue sports teams as well as boys and girls basketball teams lost.
In addition, the football championships would no longer be played at Heinz Field.
13 comments:
i could agree with that except for the WPIAL championships at Heinz. Thats become the tradition: "Highway to Heinz". I beleive Heinz should lay down field turf and then it would be alot better
The WPIAL needs to get officials who know what sport they are looking at. Concerning the playoffs, I am content that round one should be a home game, and every game after should be neutral. I would make it a rule that every school had turf, or played on a field that had turf. The quality of grass for high school fields is not any better than the famous Heinz field. I would also make the championship games at certain high school fields. I think that West Mifflin North Hills, Cannon Mac, Upper St. Clair, and a few other schools are capable of hosting WPIAL championships (stadium wise). Schools should improve their stadiums, and bid for the championship games. And last but not least, make me Executive Director!!!!
Canon-McMillan's stadium is nowhere near capable of hosting a WPIAL championship (foranother couple years at least. If you haven't noticed there isn't a visitors side and there, but I do agree with the rest though. You have to take into consideration the seating capacity, which I think you could add Bethel into the mix.
I'd love to see a 3 game series for WPIAL baseball championship.
Too many teams make state playoffs for basketball. These games are also far too expensive for students, especially when you consider fuel costs.
Actually, almost all WPIAL playoff events are over priced.
I'd like to see an experiment involving the use of a shot clock for basketball.
...just a few things off the top of my head
How about a requirement to have at least a 4-5 record to get into the playoffs (2-7 mt. lebo).
How about not giving a home game to a #2 seed in a conference just because they were a #2 seed in a conference (keystone conference).
How about not limiting conferences to only sending 4 teams if the 5th team in that conference is better than some of the other 4th teams in other conferences (west allegheny).
How about home field advantage being used for 2 rounds of the playoffs instead of just one? If you are seeded 1-4 you earned your playoff home games.
How about an injuction to prevent the WPIAL from putting the screws to USC year in and year out?
How about picking officials to work games that dont have obvious biases towards teams and/or schools (or at least officials that know the rules, what are and what arent penalties and so on)?
And you have to leave the championship games at Heinz, its a tradition. I will say though, to help save and/or repair the field a little, maybe do 2 on a friday and 2 on a saturday.
I will take Brian's suggestion a bit further: a double-elimination baseball playoff. Baseball is the only sport where a team could be strong one game and weak the next because you cannot pitch the same pitcher in every game. A double elimination tournament would force a team to have more than 1 pitcher and it would certainly give teams a chance that just played a poor game or ran into an incredible pitcher.
I look at the Allderdice-CM playoff game last year. If Allderdice would have pulled that one out, there is little chance that they would have beaten Peters. But Allderdice had one stud pitcher and he was able to hold the Big Macs down enough so that his team had a chance to win. Obviously CM went on to win the state title, but they almost lost to an inferior opponent that just happened to have a pretty good pitcher on the mound that day.
Here are my few cents.
Add a 35 second shot clock to all basketball games. New York and other states already have a shot clock for HS games.
For all sports, reduce the number of teams that qualify for the play offs to only two and ties. Mt Lebo had about as much chance of beating Gateway as Pitt winning
The BCS.
Extend Basketball and Baseball play-offs to two out of three games. With only 2 teams, 3 at the most, qualifying for play-offs, there would not be any need to prolong the season past where they currently ends.
Increase the number of basketball & baseball games that are played. Our neighboring states High schools baseball teams play as many as 30 games a year
Just a few thoughts.
"How about not giving a home game to a #2 seed in a conference just because they were a #2 seed in a conference (keystone conference).
How about not limiting conferences to only sending 4 teams if the 5th team in that conference is better than some of the other 4th teams in other conferences (west allegheny)."
That would turn high school football into the biggest game of politics.Biases everywhere, and it would turn into College Football Polls. Tradition would rule.
so let me get this straight...you think it was "fair" to exclude West Allegheny from the playoffs at 6-3 and put in Laurel Highlands at 4-5? What did they do to deserve a trip to the playoffs other than be fortunate enough to be lumped into the worst conference in the WPIAL? Or what about Mt. Lebo at 2-7 making it over a 4-5 Seneca Valley team? The list can go on. You had 7-2 Hopewell travel to 5-4 Greensburg Salem. Why did Salem get to host a playoff game? Because they were a good team? No, because again, they were fortunate enough to be in a horrible conference. I dont think bias would come into it when you would be staring at a 7-2 team having to travel to a 5-4 team to play a playoff game. Or, for that matter, does politics really play a role when you would send a 4-5 Seneca Valley team over a 2-7 Mt. Lebo team? Would it be political to send a 6-3 WA team over a 4-5 LH team? I dont think so. Those seem to be pretty easy to justify. Now granted I'm sure in other years it would be more complicated than this and this is just a "hypothetical" situation we are talking about...but a case could be made for this.
Would a 4-5 Seneca Valley be selected over another 4-5 team?
well like i said mike a case COULD be made for this...i dont profess to have all the answers. I mean when you come down to tie breakers you go head to head and then into the points system so you could go that route to determine the participants if it were a tie. If i had all the answers Im sure i would be in a different line of work. No system is perfect...this was more for fun and to see responses. There would be pro's and con's for everything.
I'm gonna disagree with you anon,
Picking "wild card" teams for the playoffs isn't a good idea. Each team has games it must win, and if you win them you are in. Having to rely on other teams and someone's opinion is bad for high school sports. Bad for all sports in my opinion.
Too many excuses and arguments can be made for losses in high school sports.
you may be right. It may be a bad idea. But having a 2-7 team in the playoffs is also a bad idea. having a 6-3 team sit at home while a 4-5 team gets in from the same class is also a bad idea. I dont think there is ever a "pefect" system...This is probably as good as it gets.
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