I placed a call to the VHSL last week to get final confirmation on everything, but need to call them back this week in order to write an article about the playoff structureWill it be fair the West plays one more game than the East ? Is this the way it works or am I wrong ?
In 1A it's not the worst idea..... beyond the top 5-6 teams on each side the bottom half is putrid. It's not like 2A 3A 4A etc
8. There should only be 8 West qualifiers and 8 East qualifiers. There are 48 teams in 1A by my count. 16 total playoff qualifiers represents a nice and neat top 1/3. We can all agree no one from the bottom 1/3 should qualify. With 32 total qualifiers, that means the middle (median) 1/3 also make the playoffs. Let's not reward "average".
As for 12, that requires awarding a bye which I feel gives too much of an advantage. There's no way to fairly assign seeds, particularly the ones that earn a bye, when the competition level between conferences are so different.
1A & 2 A still run 16 teams, I am pretty sure only 1 class is going to 12 teams with byes. Since this playoff structure each season has had the upsets, I personally like the 16 teams, why not give the lower seeds a chance.
Every class should play same format, and that with 16 teams. I cannot express in words how dumb and stupid it is to give any team a bye in VHSL football.
Tom Hale for President16 teams in most cases is too many, as someone said bottom half of 1A is ridiculously awful. A bye isn't the worst thing in the world as hr6 says; NFL and MLB seem to be doing just fine. Reward the teams that do the best.
He gets all worked up over this, neutral site games, Siegel center, vhsl etc. but the vhsl would lose more money if they didn't have higher seeds host.