MHSAA 7A Playoffs are Set
- Thread starter 615dawg
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It absolutely is all about money. Not many years ago they changed it from the top 2 teams from every district going to the playoffs to the top 4. Now think about that change across the board in every sport. Then include the extra classification with another whole set of playoffs and another state championship in every sport. It’s all about money.
As for 7A schools playing 6A schools and kids getting hurt ect, that’s not something to be worrying about. Maybe there should be a cap in the size of a school? You could easily spit up Tupelo for example into three different schools ect. But regardless there will always be big schools and small schools, but that doesn’t justify Mississippi having 7 different classifications. Besides most of the time, there are several smaller schools that can whoop much bigger schools for sure.
Seems like everyone wants to consolidate nowadays. No idea on the max size.
Columbus is an example of why they should go back to 6 classes. I’m ok with reducing the top class to 24. But that should still be 6A. 5A should be the current 6A and the top half of 5A. Columbus district would be Columbus, West Point, New Hope, Grenada, Cleveland & Greenville.
The D coordinator from that 2018 HL team is the head coach at lewisburg now. They’ve had 2 coaching changes
If it is about money, then it only benefits the Misshsa because playoffs cost the schools money. They aren’t playing for Bowl revenue. They are playing for a trophy and only 1 team in each class gets that. High Schools send their Team, Band, Dance Team and Cheerleaders. That ain’t cheap. There was a time when there were only 5 classes and 2100 student Tupelo High played 800 student schools. Made no sense.
But even when they went to 6A they still had a spread of 1900 to 1100. Even so, the 1100 student schools could dress 60 plus players 10-12. The problem was quality depth. 15 to 16 players were playing snaps on both sides of the ball.
Guess what? Still happens with 75 players. 15 to 18 play nearly all plays. That is where the changes have to come in Mississippi High Schools. The middle school and junior high programs have to get better at developing players. It is getting better. There were several starting QBs this year who are sophomores. Many of them either started or played a lot last year as freshmen.
Pearl’s QB started as a Freshman last year when they went 2-9. This year, as a Soph, he led them to 3rd in the district at 7-3 (2-3) and beat Meridian 21-0 last night to make the playoffs. Had Meridian won, the cats would have been 3 and NWR 4 and Pearl would have been out instead of NWR, who is out even though they beat Pearl.
But even when they went to 6A they still had a spread of 1900 to 1100. Even so, the 1100 student schools could dress 60 plus players 10-12. The problem was quality depth. 15 to 16 players were playing snaps on both sides of the ball.
Guess what? Still happens with 75 players. 15 to 18 play nearly all plays. That is where the changes have to come in Mississippi High Schools. The middle school and junior high programs have to get better at developing players. It is getting better. There were several starting QBs this year who are sophomores. Many of them either started or played a lot last year as freshmen.
Pearl’s QB started as a Freshman last year when they went 2-9. This year, as a Soph, he led them to 3rd in the district at 7-3 (2-3) and beat Meridian 21-0 last night to make the playoffs. Had Meridian won, the cats would have been 3 and NWR 4 and Pearl would have been out instead of NWR, who is out even though they beat Pearl.
You said it, monetarily it mostly and mainly benefits the MHSAA. A portion of all gate fees from every sports playoff games goes to the MHSAA, not to mention all the state championship gates go to them. Of course the home teams during playoffs get a portion of the gate, but the travel team band ect is paid by us the taxpayers. You want to talk about what’s not cheap, how many teams the past few years have gotten those stadium lights that blink and put on a light show? How much do they cost? Also how many teams are going with astro turf fields as well. Plus many are getting extra basketball gyms built, all the while those same districts school buses still don’t have air conditioning. But that’s beside the point, the point is that its all about money solely for the state organization, guised and sold that more schools will get to feel better by going to the playoffs and more winning district and state championships.
also, every other school and all sports teams across the board shouldn’t be affected negatively, IMO, just becuse there are a small handful of extremely large populated schools. Makes no sense as a whole.
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Ripley is already out. They were beaten last night in the first round by 4 seed Caledonia, 14-10. Their wheels ran off the track after they beat Amory two weeks ago. Just go ahead and give the trophy to Louisville. There's your 4A champ. In 3A go ahead and give it to Noxubee.
2023 Mississippi (MHSAA) 4A Football Championships Varsity Football
View the entire high school Football brackets. Follow your favorite school's scores, schedules, rankings, video highlights, articles and more at sblivesports.com and scorebooklive.comscorebooklive.com
Looks like it will be Ripley vs Louisville and Houston vs Amory in the North Half. Louisville will probably come out of that bracket. Ripley could surprise with getting their QB back in the last 2 weeks. I'm not familiar enough with the South to predict
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Picayune has shown us the blueprint to be able to maximize and play 'up'. That whole place is unified and they teach those kids early on exactly their high school system. They also don't have new coaches coming in or out constantly job hopping. Their current coach played and coached for the previous coach who had been there for 20-something years. Of course, I don't know if this system just develops the best players and encourages others to quit, or what. It's definitely like travel ball, the funnel develops quickly.
Compare that to 7A Brandon, who does it the opposite. Their youth programs are not unified and are essentially run by the parents who compete against each other, and the school isn't involved until 7th grade. They basically just throw money at the program, and kids transfer in when possible. But a ton of kids are still playing by 7th grade and there is a lot of interest from a lot of people, i.e. a wider funnel. Coaches come and go, and I think anyone would agree that they have underachieved throughout history.
Well - Picayune beat Brandon. I'm still not prepared to say Picayune's way is best though, because a lot of middling players get left out that way. But Brandon is just so dysfunctional and discombobulated. Perhaps the truth is in the middle.
Why doesn’t the top seed get home field advantage thru the entire MHSAA playoffs? That seems asinine. Shouldn’t the #1 team be rewarded?
I heard years ago that smaller schools out-voted the traditional powers so that they could have some home playoff games (and that “gate”), even if they’re a lower seed. That’s dumb.
I thought it had changed but reading this summary, it seems like some higher seeds may have to play a road game.
I heard years ago that smaller schools out-voted the traditional powers so that they could have some home playoff games (and that “gate”), even if they’re a lower seed. That’s dumb.
I thought it had changed but reading this summary, it seems like some higher seeds may have to play a road game.
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