All-in format has parents up in arms

I've heard other states have already adopted this format, but Oregon just went to a "play-in" round at the end of the regular season allowing every team a chance at the state playoff bracket, which is already flooded with 2/3 of the state qualifying for the postseason.

Now, I'm getting irate parents calling me wondering how we could miss their team's "playoff" game.

Really? If you just went 1-8 you have no business being anywhere near the bracket...I'm insisting on referencing these games at "play-in" qualifiers, but to parents these are can't miss "big-game" showdowns. Ughh.

Last weekend is typically our busiest of the year with soccer and volleyball playoffs coinciding along with state cross country and the first round of football. I end up hitting five events Saturday, then wake up Monday morning to hear about an irate "cancel my subscription" volleyball parent who has called the publisher and my editor. I try to explain the decision process for our weekend coverage and get called "lazy and disinterested".

The team in question here finished third in a six-team league (read middle of the pack). The state's governing body hands out so many trophies anymore it's silly. And winning state means you were the best out of about 40 schools — it's so watered down.

 

I saw an e-mail today from parents of a girl who doesn't play on her school's field hockey team criticizing our paper for not at all mentioning that, after a 13-5 season, the team qualified for the state tournament for the first time in 16 years.

That's all fine and well, but when you're 13-5 in the weakest division in the weakest conference in the area - and you didn't beat a team that finished with a winning record - it's hard to take you seriously.

Moral of the story: Damned if you do...

 

Parents think the participation ribbon is all that matters. That's why so many parents take photos of their kids holding a fifth-place trophy at the end of the tournament, oblivious to the fact that the kids only care about winning a title.

 

Indiana calls this phenomenon ... "every season".

 

Minnesota football teams do too... high school that is.

 

It's exciting for the parents of the No. 8 seeds in the section playoffs watch their kids get killed.

 

Central Section (southern San Joaquin Valley) of the CIF allows anyone who pays the entry fee into the playoffs, but ya only get a trophy for winning the title. Fortunately, many school districts require a team to have a .500 season mark in order to travel to playoff games on the district's dime. Otherwise, they have to fund-raise. Waiting to see what happens when they release football brackets on Saturday, since one of the selling points of the latest realignment was full 16-team brackets.

 

In our state, in every sport except football, every team makes the district tournament. I've honestly seen basketball teams with an 0-24 record "make the tournament."

The real factor in this, of course, is putting the last place team against the conference champ is it's another gate the state gets to take 50% of off the top.

 

Maryland is all-in for every sport except football, and they don't even properly seed teams. They use a point index for the top four teams in each region, and then draw out of a hat for 5 through 16, which is ridiculous. I remember an 0-20 softball team hosting a playoff game one year. Terrible.

 

In my state, it depends on the section. The big sections require .500 records, or will take a certain number of teams, leaving off the 1-16 teams. But the smaller sections take everyone.

 

That hat tries hard.

 

Not sure it requires a ticker-tape parade down Main Street or anything, but even if they play in a crappy conference and their record is inflated by playing tomato cans, it's probably worth a mention somewhere that they're going to the state tournament for the first time in 16 years. Even if they're not going all the way or even close, that's still their best team in a generation.