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Dwindling attendance at high school playoff events

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by MTM, Feb 1, 2019.

  1. MTM

    MTM Well-Known Member

    It’s all performance based in California high school football. A six-team league could have teams in six different divisions. One of our local leagues had four teams reach the semifinals in three divisions.
     
    MileHigh likes this.
  2. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    Yup. And you are realigned by division depending on how you did the previous season. My brother's school won a cheese Division 8 title and will move up to Division 4 or 3 next season, but losing everyone and will not be very good.
     
  3. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    I think relegation for high schools in urban areas makes a lot of sense. The demographics of various high schools support some sports more than others. A school with a lot of Hispanics or Asian kids generally is not going to have as good a football team for a variety of reasons. Instead of seeing those schools get smashed every week let them play each other. And an afluent school will generally have a good golf and tennis team. Get those schools in the same conference.
     
  4. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    That's what they did along the Central Coast area (Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties) for football this past season. They threw out geography and realigned according to strength of program. Five to six game league schedule, and if your traditional rival is in another league, you can always play them OOC. Made for more competitive football, that's for sure. Stronger teams got properly challenged all year instead of having to play a series of running-clock games and it showed during the playoffs.
     
  5. Spartan Squad

    Spartan Squad Well-Known Member

    This was nuts when they announced the merger between the three leagues. The Salinas schools along with Gilroy, Hollister and Watsonville schools already had a competitive balance league with 3 divisions. Now it's basically the entire southern chunk of the CCS in a massive league with 5(?) divisions. This was great for schools like Aptos who was a serious contender to make a run at playing for a state title.
     
  6. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    The SCCAL was totally of whack for football. Aptos was the only school fielding frosh and JV teams, while a school like Harbor was barely putting together one team. Something needed to be done.
    What I like about the relegation system is it doesn't force a football solution on all sports. You could be in the uppermost league in football, for example, but if your basketball or baseball team isn't at that level, it gets to compete at a lower level.
     
  7. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    I think if you do not relegate then the imbalances become even bigger. The schools getting smashed don't get as many kids coming out which hurts their programs. The talented kids seem to wind up at the better programs because they do not want to play on a team that gets its ass kicked a lot. So the poor get poorer and the rich richer.
     
  8. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    maumann and Spartan Squad like this.
  9. Spartan Squad

    Spartan Squad Well-Known Member

    maumann and HanSenSE like this.
  10. Twirling Time

    Twirling Time Well-Known Member

    Maybe the CIF could address some of that by sacking up and asserting itself as a true statewide governing body, instead of leaving the sections to their own devices. If rules are being broken, there’s a mechanism in Sacramento. Or oughta be.
     
    maumann likes this.
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