| Another Confusing Cody Column |
It Shouldn't Matter Who
You Face
You Face
High School Football's “Christmas” Has Turned Into
Unneeded Mass Hysteria ...
Unneeded Mass Hysteria ...
C o d y' s
o
r
n
e
r
C o l u m n s
o
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n
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C o l u m n s
| Those Who Know Northern Illinois High School Sports Know about NISB! |
| Northern Illinois Sports Beat http://www.northernillinoissportsbeat.com |
The Saturday after Week 9 of the high school football season is a special occasion.
Radio stations and some television outlets take time out of their programming
schedules to announce who is playing who in the first round of the IHSA Football
Playoffs. It's that big of a deal, even though there are only about 270 teams really
paying attention to it: 256 of them get in and the remaining few get the bad news.
High school football fans compare this particular day to Christmas, or their
birthdays. That's because they eagerly wait for who is playing who and what is
going to happen. The difference between the two days is this: when it comes out,
we don't make a big deal about who we face in the first round. We simply see who
it is and go, “oh, okay.”
Other times, “oh, okay” is followed by “hey, WAIT A MINUTE!!!!” This is when our
first round opponent is a conference foe, or some other weird situation.
There is little or no joy in what high school football fans consider their Christmas.
It's not Christmas, it's now a day that is dreaded.
It doesn't need to be this way.
And it's not the IHSA that needs to lighten up.
It's the casual high school football fan.
We forget what high school sports is really all about. It's about the kids. It's not
about the fans that follow them, or even the sportswriters that write about them. If
the fans are disappointed, the IHSA shouldn't have to tweak its way of doing things
to accommodate them. The IHSA doesn't serve the fans, it serves the high school
athletes, coaches, teams and schools in Illinois.
Fans and the members of the football team (the players and coaches) do not think
alike. The fans are the ones looking at the entire bracket and studying it for long
periods of time. Smart coaches will tell their players not to look at these things.
Regardless of who a team faces in the first round, they have to win their next five
games in order to achieve the next goal.
Orangeville at East Dubuque? Forreston at Lena-Winslow? Amboy at Newman?
These are the area's first-round playoff games pitting teams that have played each
other already this season. These matches were made possible through the
seeding of teams via playoff points. In rare cases, conference or division teams
facing each other in the first round is unavoidable.
These six teams shouldn't be complaining about the fact that they have to play
each other once more in the season. Rather, they should be concentrating on
winning the game. Their fans should be supporting them regardless. In addition,
there should be no blame for a loss on the fact that the pairings were the way they
were. That has nothing to do with what happens on the playing field.
But there will still be fans that will claim that the playoffs are supposed to mean
pitting teams against each other from different walks of life.
The thought of the Upstate Illini teams all eating up each other and getting tipped
over by the central Illinois teams in Class 1A isn't absolute. Since the playoffs
expanded to eight teams in 2001, the Upstate Illini (we are including South Beloit
even though they were in a spin-off of the conference) has been represented in
the Class 1A championship game five years out of nine, but only once in the last
four. That's why there's gripe. It could easily be changed.
Webster's New World College Dictionary (the one endorsed by the Associated
Press) defines play-off as: “a series of contests played after the end of the regular
season to determine a championship.” There is no stipulation that dictates that the
teams have to be foreign to each other.
The World Series is coming up between the Texas Rangers and San Francisco
Giants. They have not faced each other during the regular season. Still,
Interleague Play makes it possible to have a World Series rematch between teams
that played each other already. The Divisional and League Championship games
often pit teams that have played each other before.
Even in the NBA, NHL, and yes, even the NFL do you see playoff games pitting
teams that have played each other before in the regular season. Even in most
high school sports do you see early postseason games between teams that have
played each other before. It is even possible in the NCAA College Basketball
tournaments to see conference teams face each other in the early rounds.
The more gripe fans have, the more it will rub against the players playing these
games. It's a trend that needs to stop.
It starts with the various playoff pairings shows.
Having heard a variety of playoff pairings shows in the past few years, I have
noticed that the buzz is mostly about how good or bad the IHSA pairs the teams.
There is little, or no, analysis about the upcoming games outside of the telling of
notes after looking at a road map. The shows have become more about the
process rather than the information.
No high school athlete will talk about process. Nor should they, or we for that
matter.
Cody Cutter is the Publisher of Northern Illinois Sports Beat, and writes columns
about Illinois high school sports. He can be reached at
Northernillinoissportsbeat@yahoo.com. --- Talk about what's written on our
Message Boards!
Radio stations and some television outlets take time out of their programming
schedules to announce who is playing who in the first round of the IHSA Football
Playoffs. It's that big of a deal, even though there are only about 270 teams really
paying attention to it: 256 of them get in and the remaining few get the bad news.
High school football fans compare this particular day to Christmas, or their
birthdays. That's because they eagerly wait for who is playing who and what is
going to happen. The difference between the two days is this: when it comes out,
we don't make a big deal about who we face in the first round. We simply see who
it is and go, “oh, okay.”
Other times, “oh, okay” is followed by “hey, WAIT A MINUTE!!!!” This is when our
first round opponent is a conference foe, or some other weird situation.
There is little or no joy in what high school football fans consider their Christmas.
It's not Christmas, it's now a day that is dreaded.
It doesn't need to be this way.
And it's not the IHSA that needs to lighten up.
It's the casual high school football fan.
We forget what high school sports is really all about. It's about the kids. It's not
about the fans that follow them, or even the sportswriters that write about them. If
the fans are disappointed, the IHSA shouldn't have to tweak its way of doing things
to accommodate them. The IHSA doesn't serve the fans, it serves the high school
athletes, coaches, teams and schools in Illinois.
Fans and the members of the football team (the players and coaches) do not think
alike. The fans are the ones looking at the entire bracket and studying it for long
periods of time. Smart coaches will tell their players not to look at these things.
Regardless of who a team faces in the first round, they have to win their next five
games in order to achieve the next goal.
Orangeville at East Dubuque? Forreston at Lena-Winslow? Amboy at Newman?
These are the area's first-round playoff games pitting teams that have played each
other already this season. These matches were made possible through the
seeding of teams via playoff points. In rare cases, conference or division teams
facing each other in the first round is unavoidable.
These six teams shouldn't be complaining about the fact that they have to play
each other once more in the season. Rather, they should be concentrating on
winning the game. Their fans should be supporting them regardless. In addition,
there should be no blame for a loss on the fact that the pairings were the way they
were. That has nothing to do with what happens on the playing field.
But there will still be fans that will claim that the playoffs are supposed to mean
pitting teams against each other from different walks of life.
The thought of the Upstate Illini teams all eating up each other and getting tipped
over by the central Illinois teams in Class 1A isn't absolute. Since the playoffs
expanded to eight teams in 2001, the Upstate Illini (we are including South Beloit
even though they were in a spin-off of the conference) has been represented in
the Class 1A championship game five years out of nine, but only once in the last
four. That's why there's gripe. It could easily be changed.
Webster's New World College Dictionary (the one endorsed by the Associated
Press) defines play-off as: “a series of contests played after the end of the regular
season to determine a championship.” There is no stipulation that dictates that the
teams have to be foreign to each other.
The World Series is coming up between the Texas Rangers and San Francisco
Giants. They have not faced each other during the regular season. Still,
Interleague Play makes it possible to have a World Series rematch between teams
that played each other already. The Divisional and League Championship games
often pit teams that have played each other before.
Even in the NBA, NHL, and yes, even the NFL do you see playoff games pitting
teams that have played each other before in the regular season. Even in most
high school sports do you see early postseason games between teams that have
played each other before. It is even possible in the NCAA College Basketball
tournaments to see conference teams face each other in the early rounds.
The more gripe fans have, the more it will rub against the players playing these
games. It's a trend that needs to stop.
It starts with the various playoff pairings shows.
Having heard a variety of playoff pairings shows in the past few years, I have
noticed that the buzz is mostly about how good or bad the IHSA pairs the teams.
There is little, or no, analysis about the upcoming games outside of the telling of
notes after looking at a road map. The shows have become more about the
process rather than the information.
No high school athlete will talk about process. Nor should they, or we for that
matter.
Cody Cutter is the Publisher of Northern Illinois Sports Beat, and writes columns
about Illinois high school sports. He can be reached at
Northernillinoissportsbeat@yahoo.com. --- Talk about what's written on our
Message Boards!