Some high school football playoff leftovers

I couldn’t stay away from the high school football season, so forgive me for one more look back.

It’s a glance at the postseason, and my back-and-forth feelings with the MPSSAA’s all-inclusive playoff format that just finished its second full season. It was expanded to the max – in 2019, the top four teams in eight regions (across four classifications) qualified for the playoffs. Last year, the state went from four classifications to six, and did away with the old formula.

The regular season went from 10 games to nine, which added a playoff round in the old Week 10. And instead of teams vying for that final spot based on the MPSSAA’s playoff point system, everyone got to experience a postseason (teams could opt out of the playoffs also).

I liked the idea at first, when the state approved the proposal amid the COVID-19 pandemic that forced a shortened and modified 2020 fall season (played in the spring of 2021, with no playoffs). That 10th game of the football season would now be a playoff game whether you were 0-9 or 9-0. 

I could live with it. Until I couldn’t. And since then I admit I’ve been a waffler on the issue. Listeners of our podcast, The Score & More, have heard Michael Duffy and I talk about it more than once since last season.

One could argue the expanded format and additional classifications benefitted a team such as South Carroll in last year’s run to the Class 2A-1A final. Had the Cavaliers been in 2A, like they were in prior seasons, perhaps their playoff journey would have been shorter. Alas, we’ll never know for sure.

When I first started covering high school sports in Carroll, the county was finishing the decade of the 1990s with a grand total of ZERO playoff appearances. And not too many before that, to be fair. Francis Scott Key became the first county program to make the playoffs in 12 years when the Eagles advanced in 2000.

More teams followed here and there. Some finished with 10-0 regular seasons, advanced to state tournament games. Carroll had two teams in state championships on the same day in 2005.

Now, everyone gets a chance to make a run.

But is that what’s best for all involved?

My colleague Bob Blubaugh put in some work and broke down the opening round of this year’s football playoffs, just to see how lopsided some of the regional matchups were in that first week of the postseason.

The numbers don’t lie, and they’re not pretty for those in favor of the expanded playoffs being fair and balanced. I’ll leave it here for now, because I know the MPSSAA’s expanded playoffs are here to stay.

Check out the crunched numbers, and you be the judge as to whether it’s fair.

OVERALL

Avg Score: 40-9

Lower seeds: 12-64 (seven 5 seeds, three 6 seeds, two 7 seeds won)

--Overall, 13 games were decided by one score or fewer. Meanwhile, 15 games were decided by 48 points or more. 

--37 of 76 games -- 48.6% -- finished with at least a 35-point spread (running clock)

--In 3A, only 1 game (Man Valley-Franklin) was decided by fewer than 10 points (with 7 of 12 ending with running clock)

--32 percent of teams ended their season by being shut out

BY SEED

--The No. 1 seeds were 9-0 winning by an average of 56-2

--The No. 2 seeds were 19-2 winning by an average of 42-8

--The No. 3 seeds were 23-3 winning by an average of 37-10

--The No. 4 seeds were 19-7 winning by an average of 29-19

BY CLASSIFICATION

1A

Avg Score: 43-10

Lower seeds: 1-11 (5 seed)

2A-1A

Avg. Score: 34-10

Lower seeds: 2-10 (5, 6 seeds)

2A

Avg Score: 43-10

Lower seeds: 2-12 (5, 7 seeds)

3A

Avg score: 40-7

Lower seeds: 1-11 (5 seed)

3A-4A

Avg. Score: 37-9

Lower seeds: 5-8 (5, 5, 5, 6, 6 seeds)

4A

Avg Score: 44-11

Lower seeds: 1-12 (7 seed)