Fairness in Scheduling

[Bounty13]

In the interest of getting more 6A conversations going... Take a look at this schedule, see if you notice anything:

Hayfield
Week 0 vs. Chantilly
Week 1 vs. Edison
Week 2 Bye
Week 3 @ Fairfax
Week 4 vs. South County
Week 5 @ Robinson (Thursday - short week)
Week 6 vs. Mount Vernon
Week 7 @ T.C. Williams
Week 8 vs. West Potomac
Week 9 @ Annandale
Week 10 @ Oakton

Nothing out of the ordinary right? Would you agree that South County and Robinson are probably the toughest games?



South County: Week 3 Bye / Week 4 Hayfield
Robinson: Week 4 Bye / Week 5 Hayfield
Mount Vernon: Week 5 Bye / Week 6 Hayfield

No other team plays more than two opponents coming off their bye week, certainly not in back to back weeks or against the toughest teams on their schedule.

This is a huge competitive disadvantage, all three teams have two weeks to rest and prepare and Hayfield takes the brunt of three consecutive fresh teams.

Worst part, same schedule next year...

Thoughts? Any other teams with difficult schedules?

 

[757FridayNiteZ]

Welcome to VAPreps.

To be the man you gotta beat the man. Win those games and Hayfield should be getting ready for a good playoff run, right?

 

[mbonape1]

In the interest of getting more 6A conversations going... Take a look at this schedule, see if you notice anything:

Hayfield
Week 0 vs. Chantilly
Week 1 vs. Edison
Week 2 Bye
Week 3 @ Fairfax
Week 4 vs. South County
Week 5 @ Robinson (Thursday - short week)
Week 6 vs. Mount Vernon
Week 7 @ T.C. Williams
Week 8 vs. West Potomac
Week 9 @ Annandale
Week 10 @ Oakton

Nothing out of the ordinary right? Would you agree that South County and Robinson are probably the toughest games?



South County: Week 3 Bye / Week 4 Hayfield
Robinson: Week 4 Bye / Week 5 Hayfield
Mount Vernon: Week 5 Bye / Week 6 Hayfield

No other team plays more than two opponents coming off their bye week, certainly not in back to back weeks or against the toughest teams on their schedule.

This is a huge competitive disadvantage, all three teams have two weeks to rest and prepare and Hayfield takes the brunt of three consecutive fresh teams.

Worst part, same schedule next year...

Thoughts? Any other teams with difficult schedules?

Nice observation... I think it is probably a tough break rather than an all out conspiracy. Do you think Hayfield is capable of beating those teams on any given Friday night? If the answer is No... then it doesn't matter. If the answer is yes I agree with 757Friday.

 

[1amishfootballfan]

That IS an interesting quirk that might not be immediately obvious to the schedule makers. Yep, SoCo and ROB are probably their two toughest games. I also doubt this was intentional but nothing can be done about it now.

I'll have to check around the byes as I hadn't given it much thought.

Hayfield has had a couple of decent years in a row - who is playing QB for them this year?

 

[757FridayNiteZ]

There are some arguments that a bye week can result in a decrease of focus and intensity by the players.

If any of those 3 teams play a top tier opponent after Hayfield, it's plausible that the bye week would be utilized (unwisely) to focus on them vs Hayfield.

 

[Bounty13]

I'm not implying it's a conspiracy or intentional, you can almost guarantee this wasn't factored in by whoever made the schedule. But it's something they should look at in the future.

Whether you can beat a team is beside the point, playing three consecutive teams that have an extra week of rest and an extra week to prepare is bound to have some negative impact. They don't do this in the NFL or college, and I doubt it's been done in Virginia before. It's almost a statistical improbability if you think about it, based on the number of factors that go into making the schedule.

Hayfield is young at QB. I'm not sure who is starting. SO Trevor Gleason or JR Monty Byers. There's also another JR competing. Luckily they will all benefit from throwing to UMD commit Brian Cobbs.

 

[otnorot]

Must be a feature of the formula they use for setting the district schedules. Last year Riverbend and Stonewall Jackson both played a bunch of games in a row against teams coming off byes, Riverbend won all five.

 

[otnorot]

Mountain View plays four Commonwealth District opponents coming off bye weeks this year.

 

[BlueFan]

In the interest of getting more 6A conversations going... Take a look at this schedule, see if you notice anything:

South County: Week 3 Bye / Week 4 Hayfield
Robinson: Week 4 Bye / Week 5 Hayfield
Mount Vernon: Week 5 Bye / Week 6 Hayfield

No other team plays more than two opponents coming off their bye week, certainly not in back to back weeks or against the toughest teams on their schedule.

This is a huge competitive disadvantage, all three teams have two weeks to rest and prepare and Hayfield takes the brunt of three consecutive fresh teams.

On the contrary, this may be a blessing for Hayfield, who knows. Two weeks of rest may be too much and some teams don't play well following a bye week.