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Football Mediocrity

Posted by Jerry Jones on 11/12/2019, 8:08 am

Check out the football pairings for this week. Not only do we have 2-8 and 1-9 teams in the playoffs, but now we’ve “raised” our standards where multiple 0-10 teams in postseason play. When is the madness going to end?

Re: Football Mediocrity

Posted by MLS on 11/12/2019, 3:31 pm, in reply to "Football Mediocrity "

Just wait until the UIL moves to three divisions per classification and everybody goes to the playoffs regardless of record. There's money to be made. I predict this will happen within ten years.

Re: Football Mediocrity

Posted by TomTom on 11/13/2019, 4:55 pm, in reply to "Re: Football Mediocrity "

I see a lot of games in DFW that have very poor attendance! How do they pay for that and what is the justification. Good Ole Boys are surely in charge!

Re: Football Mediocrity

Posted by Disagree on 11/12/2019, 4:11 pm, in reply to "Re: Football Mediocrity "

I don't think there's any way this can realistically happen with Texas' geography. It's already an incredible hardship in some football districts to have 200+ mile one way trips, and adding a third "stratification" to that would make this undoubtedly worse.

The other option would be to add a 7A classification for the top 64 schools in enrollment, but again, that creates significant travel issues.

Now, simply adding more playoff teams - that could happen. Have 5 or 6 teams make it per classification. Done.

Re: Football Mediocrity

Posted by reality on 11/12/2019, 8:33 am, in reply to "Football Mediocrity "

And in small town Bubba and Jenny Sue country, they don't care. As in my school. We are 3-7 and are in the playoffs. They are having tailgate parties, celebrating "our boys" giving them a special send off, etc. Yet with band, we do state every other year and now we've passed something where a band must make a 1st division to go to Area. I don't think that change is bad, but I do have to say that here in Hooterville kids and parents only see that the team is in the playoffs and the band has state every other year. So when schedules get tight, we lose kids in band if a choice has to be made. I have a kid who stands on the sidelines and never plays in a single football game. He said because of this, he wants out of football and wants to just be in band in the fall. His mom won't stand for it. She's all about football.

Re: Football Mediocrity

Posted by old guy on 11/12/2019, 8:22 am, in reply to "Football Mediocrity "

Up here in North Central Texas, there's actually a four team division where all of them are in the play-offs. I guess it's kind of like a fourth division band going to area because there are only two bands in the region.

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Re: Football Mediocrity

Posted by Young HD on 11/12/2019, 9:56 am, in reply to "Re: Football Mediocrity "

I teach in a four team district - been that way several years now - and we always make playoffs. Some years, like this one, the team is solid and definitely deserves it. They're a good team that's fun to watch.

Other years, however...

I agree the way it's setup is ridiculous, but I don't see it changing ever.

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Re: Football Mediocrity

Posted by Honest response on 11/12/2019, 8:20 am, in reply to "Football Mediocrity "

It won't. They'll keep allowing 4 teams per district into the playoffs, and dividing the conferences smaller and smaller.

Stop worrying about it and teach band.

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Re: Football Mediocrity

Posted by Jake on 11/12/2019, 11:24 am, in reply to "Re: Football Mediocrity "

While I agree that it seems insane that teams with bad won/loss records go into the playoffs, I understand with now two divisions for each classification, they have to balance the playoff schedule on the road to the championship game. In the case of four team districts, in order to complete a ten game district level schedule, these teams are having to compete with higher classification schools. I dare say that the coaches of these teams are not looking forward to the "Butt Whippin" they are about to receive. I find it interesting that there is little discussion about the excessive number of 1st division ratings given at region marching contests, or even worse the 1st division ratings given at region S/E contest only to go to state and receive IIIs and IVs. The standards in our field are not what they once were either. After all, I guess it's for the kids and I can live with that.

Re: Football Mediocrity

Posted by Me on 11/12/2019, 1:46 pm, in reply to "Re: Football Mediocrity "

There's little discussion about that because it doesn't happen. There's flat out not rating inflation at UIL marching contest. If you think there is, you're obviously not a judge.

Also, equating S&E contest state ratings to region ratings isn't comparing apples to apples. How many kids work in the on their solo during the 3 months after Regional S&E the same way they do in the month beforehand? After Region S&E, there's C&SR UIL, STAAR, AP exams, OAP, and popular spring sports like softball, baseball, track, tennis, and soccer. In January, there's sometimes an MLK parade in some areas, Area auditions (which affect many fewer kids than go to S&E contest), and ... basketball? Wrestling? Sometimes powerlifting? Non-district soccer, maybe. It's a much different animal in time commitment.

Plus, consider - there have been consistent long-standing complaints about the lack of "standards" in scoring at all S&E contests altogether. There still isn't even an official rubric like there is for C&SR or Marching.

In short - you don't know as much as you think you do here, and you need to do some research.

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Re: Football Mediocrity

Posted by wrong on 11/12/2019, 12:54 pm, in reply to "Re: Football Mediocrity "

I'm a UIL judge and I can tell you there is not an excessive amount of 1's given out. I only give 1's to bands that earn it. Our bands in Texas have gotten better over the decades and the bar has raised to extremely high performance levels. As far as football is concerned, my school is one of the smaller in it's classification and we play at least three schools in non-district that are in a higher classification than us and we beat them all. I don't think you know much about other regions or areas of the state other than your own based on your comments. Until you can say that you saw all marching contests in all regions, you can not state what you said as a fact.

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