Today's bizarre high school football score

I like power points because it rewards strength of league, strength of schedule and quality losses. Leagues got ranked based on playoff success over time, so there was some fairness. I’ve covered teams where top three get AQ spots which led to 2-8 teams qualifying with no business being in the playoffs.

The one issue with power points I saw was a private school league gets bonus points because they typically roll the public schools in the playoffs so they got extra bonus points. Schools got points for wins, a half point for playing a “B League” team (out of A+, A, B and C rankings), 1 for A league teams, points for being league champion, and bonus points for playing a league champion. The result was because those teams all played each other, they got something like 1.5 bonus points rather than the 1 bonus point for simply being an “A league” school. This led to a 1-9 team making it because they get an extra 3.5 points for playing their league opponents. So a team with a better record missed because the private school was rewarded for being a private school. I think they did away with the extra half point, but that was the only shenanigans in the system.

 

From my experience in covering the Central Section, a sub- 500 team getting into the playoffs generally involves someone cutting a check. Most schools require their teams to be .500 or better in league or I really to be eligible. This is something the recently-hired commissioner should address, unless the schools are in love with the system.

 

Since this is the high school football thread, I have a rules question from the game I covered last night.
Team A had the ball around Team B's 18-yard line, and the QB took a sack back to the 28. On the play, they called a targeting penalty on Team B and moved the ball half the distance to the goal, to the 14. The yardage did not give Team A a first down, and the officials left it as fourth-and-2 (or whatever it was).
Shouldn't the targeting penalty have been a personal foul and an automatic first down?
This has been baffling me since it happened.

 

There are no automatic first downs in high school. You have to get the yardage

 

I cannot conceive of a high school with a larger enrollment than the university I attended. Only five Kansas high schools have an enrollment over 2,000 and the largest (Wichita East) has 2,371.

Andover has two high schools. Total combined enrollment: 2,818. And supposedly, Lawrence was told it had to open a second high school or the state was going to withdraw some funding. If Lawrence still had one high school, it would have 1,100 more students than Wichita East.

 

I’m trying to remember which they are, is it defensive holding and unsportsmanlike conduct? PI isn’t. Targeting isn’t.

 

Damn, I knew I was getting holding mixed up with the NFL.

As for being a ref, I wish I had gone through ref training while I still covered preps. Probably would have seen the game better. For now, being a middle school teacher is as close as I’m going to get at officiating.