I don't recall Bishop Walsh ever having any troubles scheduling county schools. They played FH from the advent of the playoff system through 1996 and I believe they played Allegany even longer. I remember them playing Westmar and Beall often. They counted towards the points.
I have dealt with this on a weekly basis for the last 15 years. In a nutshell, there is not a high school coach alive at a big or small program that doesn't pucker up at the sound of higher level competition. Unless you are someone like St. Frances of course - the top of the heap. Every single football coach here and there avoids playing teams better then their team. Everybody, including FH and Martinsburg and the Dunbar's in our world. It is the nature of today's beast. Changing the system to where everyone makes the playoffs did not change this fact unfortunately. Now the excuse moved from making the playoffs to getting home field in the playoffs to getting someone injured. Trust me on this.
Yes they continued to play, but I dont think they were happy about it.I think that the problem was that if FH or Alco beat BW they weren't allotted the same amount of points that they would have received if beating another public school, and if losing to BW they were really penalized. Maybe it had to do with the size of BW at the time. I thought I remember FH and Alco having to schedule up a level to make up the difference in points. I am not positive about this but I'm sure someone on here is. I don't think it affected Beall, and Westmar the same, because they played down a level. I could be way off here, but my point was that even though the current system isn't really good, maybe some better regular season games can come of it.
So did I just hear you say that yes we probably should get better regular season games under this system, but that it probably won't ever happen. Sad we can't get it right. Thanks for helping clear that up.
My big hope with this new playoff system was to get better regular season games because there wouldn't be the stress of scheduling to ensure you make the playoffs. But as Todd stated, now people are scheduling for home field advantage, which in my opinion, doesn't mean that terribly much in HS football except for the comfort of playing at home and less travel. For the most part, in high school football, if you cant beat a team on the road, you probably aren't going to beat them at home either so I think its a weak excuse.
No doubt that’s true. I’m not sure how long FH can keep up this level of play but i would love to see them play Wise or Quince Orchard.
Hey
What about Bridgeport?. They seem to put a good product on the field each year. My dream matchup was Middletown during the Ty Johnson years. they had some great teams then also. Even Dunbar would be great., They are getting a lot of respect around the state.
The MPSSAA had it right just before COVID hit with the understanding they were never going to remove regions. Some admins and coaches attempting to change the playoff format through the years have banged their head against that proverbial brick wall for decades - trying to remove regions and go straight 1-16 seed like West Virginia does. There is, was and never will be any bend there from the MPSSAA with removing regions.
Without trying to disrespect any program, the Garrett County schools and many Washington County schools have never won a football state championship since Maryland implemented one in 1975. No matter what format was used it's just not likely. You can't all of the sudden build a system based on those teams getting a shot at a state title.
but the problem is Schools like Northern Garrett 354 or so students shouldn't be competing against schools with 600 students in the first place. Hancock 103 is that much worse. I know it wasn't long ago these same schools were playing against Schools that had 800 students in Class 1A
I do believe that’s one of the reasons why the crowds are small. I live out of town now but I always try to pick out one or two games that I can go to each year. it’s hard to get excited for Fort Hill versus Green Street. even though Green Street is winning this year and very well may beat Joppatowne tonight😂 It’s kind of funny though that we are all bitching about Fort Hill being that dominant. We may be very spoiled🤣🤣
Unfortunately 2 drubbings of Oakdale isn’t going to help the cause of getting another Frederick County team on the schedule. I can’t tell you how much heat I have taken for suggesting that Linganore beef up the non-conference schedule a bit. I always get, Frederick County is good enough, no need to go crazy by getting a decent out of county opponent. I’d rather be tested week in, week out than roll through teams and not get that much out of it come playoff time. Hopefully some teams will see the light since it doesn’t appear this playoff system is going anywhere.
