Football Playoffs Need Revamping

Next year will be the next revised conferences under the every four year NCHSAA  restructuring plan.  It is a good plan because the world we live in today schools  grow almost over night and if there is not some attempt  to keep like schools with the same size together you could find a school with 1,500 students playing in the same league as someone who has dropped below a 1,000 in about three years.

Looking at every playoff held this fall, Volleyball, soccer and tennis all played with only first or second place teams making the playoffs and every now and then a third place team to fill out the bracket.   If it works so well in these sports why then will that same format not work in football?

Rocky Mount's tennis team lost two games all season and yet they traveled to a #1 seed in the first round.  Football's first two rounds Tarboro has had to re win their own conference in which they went undefeated in and after two playoff games still are.  Was that really necessary???.  I don't even want to talk about Southern Nash the #2 in the Big East starting out at #1 in the Big East Hunt.

The all mighty dollar has consumed the NCHSAA just like it has consumed college sports and the NFL and don't try to get me started on the NHL. I would truly like the high school football schedule start as it did this year on the third Friday night in August and play 10 straight weeks.  Then four rounds of playoffs would have football over by the fourth week in November and leave December to basketball.

I understand that college football is not over until the fourth Saturday in November but not every team in North Carolina plays a home game the last week.  What's  wrong with playing a State Championship at ECU or Panther Stadium.  Every college football team in the country knows who, where and when they play for the next five years.

I could see  the 1-A  played in Grenville one year while the 2-A played at Appalachian State.  There are plenty of stadiums in North Carolina worthy to host state Championships. A remodeled Wallace Wade with the history of having a Rose Bowl  Having played there is not bad either.

I do want to see a better quality of playoffs and 2nd place teams having to play the 1st place team from your own conference is not quality playoffs.  No conference foe should have to play another until the third round or later.  Just remember this past basketball season two of the best girls teams met in the third round when Northern Nash met Rocky Mount for the sectional finals.  Both teams had to earn to get that far.  Can you imagine if that had been a first game in the sectional.