VHSL supposedly changing Group A FB playoff format

There is a post on Virginia Preps stating the VHSL is instituting "big changes" in the Group A football playoff format, but you can only get the details it if you have the VIP membership.

Allegedly the divisional cutoff is going to be at the state level and not regional. If this is true, all I have to say is...

IT'S ABOUT TIME!

Anyone here have any info?

I dont understand what you mean by cut-off at the state level instead of regional.

Could you expand on that?

MY GUESS is that there will be a strict number of students and over or under will determin Div 1 or Div2 so that when a team from here plays for state we will be playing schools our own size. as it sits now a lot of the time a Div 1 school "up there" would be D2 or D3 here.

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Originally Posted by Biggin

I dont understand what you mean by cut-off at the state level instead of regional.

Could you expand on that?

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Click on this link and you will see what I mean:

http://www.vhsl.org/files/fb-divisions-2009-10.pdf

Each of the VHSL's four Group A regions is divided in half into Division 2 (larger schools) and Division 1 (smaller schools). There is one exception, commonly referred to as the "Rye Cove Rule", where any school with less than half of the enrollment of the region's largest school can choose to play Division 1 (which is the case in Region D as Clintwood and Haysi have less than half of Lee's enrollment).

There are so many large schools in Region B, that region ends up with schools with 500 and even 600 kids playing in the "small" division. This would not happen if you took all the state's Group A schools (ignoring regions) and put the largest in Division 2 and smallest in Division 1.

Most of the Region B Division 1 schools would be Division 2 if they were in any of the other three regions.

What happens is come state playoff time you end up with a situation like in 2007 when Buffalo Gap (enrollment 600) plays Clintwood (enrollment just over 300) in the Div 1 championship. Buffalo Gap is in the largest 50% of Group A schools in enrollment and would be Div. 2 if it were in Region A, C, or D, yet still gets to play in Div. 1 under the VHSL's screwed up system.

Back in 2000 when Honaker played King William for the Div. 2 football title, those two schools were actually SMALLER than the Div. 1 champ, Riverheads.

VHSL is not about being fair. Never has and never will be. Sorta like the NCAA.:snickerpup:

thanks, i know what you are talking about now, and its absolutely insane some situations that the VHSL has allowed to happen

i understand it for teams like Rye Cove or Clintwood, but when Riverheads, with 600+ kids gets to play teams like JIB, with under 250 kids, its nuts

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Originally Posted by Biggin

I dont understand what you mean by cut-off at the state level instead of regional.

Could you expand on that?

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In plain English, it means the divisions within the classifications will be equal halves amongst all teams in the classification in the state instead of equal halves in each region. That's how the discrepancy in school sizes at the state level was achieved.

Still has to go through the final vote in May by the executive committee...

PREP SPORTS: VHSL football playoffs to undergo major change | TriCities

I'm not so sure equal halves is the plan ... hearing that a set number is the idea.

Let's all hope they fix this for the shake of high school football in all of Virginia.