How's your high school football season going?

I think that's the best formula. From a selfish reporter standpoint, it's a lot easier to have all the finals in one spot than have them spread out in different towns because you might not have the manpower to cover everything. Being in one spot allows your staffers to double-up. Plus, I'm sure it's a hell of a lot easier on the administrators.

Most of the states where I've worked do it that way and it seems to work well. Most states have at least a collegiate stadium large enough to handle crowds for 4-6 schools in a given day. Scouts love it, too, because they can see a lot of ball in one place.

I can't fathom why in hell a state the size of Louisiana would need NINE classifications. Even Texas, which is five times larger, doesn't have that many.

 

Florida does its championship games at one site over two separate weekends. The four smallest classes, which have half the number of schools as the largest four classes, play the first weekend. Schedule works out well since the bracket for the four smallest classes is 16 teams each as opposed to 32 for the four largest.

Finding a host site for the championship games in Florida, however, is a challenge. They've gone from Daytona to Gainesville (UF) to Tallahassee (FSU) to Gainesville (UF) again to Miami (Landshark) to currently Orlando (Citrus Bowl). With the Citrus Bowl set for a remodel during the next three-year contract period, it might move again, although UCF is a possibility. Every game prior to the state title game is played at one of the participants, and the two state football semifinals I covered in the five full seasons I was in Florida turned out to be total clusters in terms of logistics ... they should at least move the four largest classification semifinals to neutral sites with at least 10K capacity.

 

The all games at Cowboys Stadium (okay ATT) model works okay for Texas to an extent. It's good in that all the media that wants to be there can be. In year's past we'd cover a team all year, and have pretty much no media with us, then at the state championship game, the stadium allows bloggers, websites, radio, school papers, etc...to show up and without assigned seating we could get shoved to a small seat in the pressbox if the schools agreed on certain stadiums, as amazingly a lot of stadiums have awesome facilities, and nice press boxes, but not a lot of press room.
And if you have multiple teams playing in title games, you don't have to worry about splitting your staff.

The downside is that with 10 championship games over 3-days (not counting the 6-man the week before) is the game timing. On that first day you may had a team play the 8 p.m. and the schedule gets pushed back due to longer games. Hitting deadline if the game starts at 8 is a pain, hitting if it gets pushed back is near impossible.
But I'd take the pre determined all game location model over a team selected site.

 

It's all on one ticket, right? So you don't have to empty the stadium between games? If so, four hours should be adequate time between games. Can't they go 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. to allow just enough wiggle room for unforeseen stuff?

 

It's a public/private split. It's been a huge, divisive issue in the state for years. This year, they changed the playoff structure so that there are Classes 1A through 5A (public), and Divisions I through IV (private/select admission) come playoff time. Everybody still competes in the same districts during the regular season, though.
It seems quite confusing, although I think some other states do similar things.

Mississippi has public and private schools in different associations. If you take the two associations together, there are 11 state champions crowned in football.

 

You would think. Moving it all up one hour would be great. Usually the days with 3 games go fine. But the Thursday has four games. Even with 4 hours, it can be close. They have trophy presentation between games, plus they have to allow ample time for the next teams to warm up. Add in any chance of overtime and it can get hectic. I'm not too worried this year. We only have one team with a legit shot at making the title game and they don't have an 8 p.m. kick if they do.

 

Ohio's seven divisions have publics and privates playing each other.

 

Objection noted, and I respect your opinion as someone who lives in Jackson. I just remember when we used to have to come around and enter from the west side of the stadium that the area along West Street was pretty dicey. Now that they've opened up the entrance across from UMMC (which used to be closed off to game-day traffic IIRC) I guess it's not so bad. I still think the turf is an issue, though. I've seen it not all that long ago where there was little more than sand in some spots that they'd painted over.

I'd still like to see them try it out at Ole Miss or Southern. I had a discussion with Todd Kelly a couple of years ago about the possibility of the MHSAA moving the baseball championships to Hattiesburg or Oxford or even Starkville, and he said that's been talked about as a possibility. We'll see.

 

I was sort of factoring all that in. 2 1/2 hours to play a game. 1/2 hour for trophies, photos and handshakes. Next two teams get an hour to warm up and the writers get their quotes and stuff before next game kicks off. If a game goes OT, could get a little tight... but I would still think four hours should suffice if you don't have to clear the stadium.

 

I did play HS football in Louisiana. It was a long, long, long time ago. Public schools and private schools were in the same district at that time. Maybe now there are enough schools to warrant separation.

 

My football season has one week left. The state championship game, and a team going for its second perfect record in four seasons. They've been to the state title game three of the past four years. Now I've got to find a way to blow out coverage all week leading up to the game.

 

Massachusetts expanded its playoffs this year, so they started November 1. But they also have a second regular season while the playoffs are going on, because all the teams keep their annual Thanksgiving Day game on the schedule, and teams that have been eliminated who would've played each other in the old schedules are playing today. It's very confusing. Oh, and there are even more subdivisions of tournament competition.