Does Maryland need a competitive-balance rule?

[westernMD]

"In a move coach Mike Warfield called déjà vu, the PIAA has notified Aliquippa that its football team will be forced up another classification before next season.

The Quips won the Class 4A state title this fall and were runners-up in 2022, and the PIAA now plans to move them up to 5A under its competitive-balance rule, Warfield said Thursday. The school already has appealed the decision, he said.

What makes the situation frustrating for Aliquippa is that the school had an enrollment the past two years that qualified for Class A football and was forced to face opponents three classifications larger. Now, they’re going up again."

Let's say FH wins 5, 6, 7 consecutive state championships in the new 1A (6 classes in football only), could Maryland implement something like this?

 

[cumbfanatic]

The rule is when the team has 2 years of post season success and added 3 or more transfers during those years.

 

[TDHelmick]

MPSSAA would be better off dropping down to 5 or maybe back to 4 classes first.

 

[ravemwp]

The problem is that you are being moved up because of past performance, not current roster. For instance FH graduates a big chunk of this years team. Some nice pieces coming back, but lots of actual varsity snaps will be missing.

 

[Waggle Pass]

Could say the same for Dunbar.

 

[Waggle Pass]

Southern Columbia has been in every PA 2A Championship game since 2015 and has won seven in a row, but no "competitive-balance" issues there?

 

[FHHSAHS]

Like Todd said this issue has more to do with the classifications than the teams. Back to 4 classes and we see more parity. 6 classes is stupid. Period.

 

[glamourbyjim]

If it isn't broke don't fix it ...

 

[cumbfanatic]

Southern Columbia has been in every PA 2A Championship game since 2015 and has won seven in a row, but no "competitive-balance" issues there?

Maybe they did not have 3 or more transfers during those years, which is a requirement for the league to move them up.

 

[4inarowtopthat]

Is any other school or fan base besides FH complaining about the 6 classifications? When FH was beating people, prior to this year, very badly and looking like they were running up the score nobody from FH complained, often saying if you don't want to get beat 60-0 get better. Wouldn't those people be now saying if you don't want FH to win the title every year get better. What is wrong with FH or Dunbar winning the title every year. Does it really mean we should go back to four or should other teams just start playing better competition like FH does and get better. I'm not a fan of the MPSSAA but since the 70's nobody has been with the MPSSAA no matter what they do. If I'm wrong please tell me but not one of the people complaining about this has ever said the MPSSAA does a good job. Maybe those that don't like any system the MPSSAA has come up with will just never be happy.

 

[Waggle Pass]

Is any other school or fan base besides FH complaining about the 6 classifications? When FH was beating people, prior to this year, very badly and looking like they were running up the score nobody from FH complained, often saying if you don't want to get beat 60-0 get better. Wouldn't those people be now saying if you don't want FH to win the title every year get better. What is wrong with FH or Dunbar winning the title every year. Does it really mean we should go back to four or should other teams just start playing better competition like FH does and get better. I'm not a fan of the MPSSAA but since the 70's nobody has been with the MPSSAA no matter what they do. If I'm wrong please tell me but not one of the people complaining about this has ever said the MPSSAA does a good job. Maybe those that don't like any system the MPSSAA has come up with will just never be happy.

When the subject has come up on the MOCO board, most are definitely against it.

 

[CrickRat23]

When the subject has come up on the MOCO board, most are definitely against it.

What forum thread on the MOCO board is it under. I can't seem to find it. Also I saw on there a thread about Fort Hill and Dunbar playing next fall.

 

[Waggle Pass]

What forum thread on the MOCO board is it under. I can't seem to find it. Also I saw on there a thread about Fort Hill and Dunbar playing next fall.

I don't think it was in the title of any thread, but included in one about the MOCO schools around mid season.

I saw the post about FH-Dunbar. First, consider the source on that. Not the most reliable, why would they just post it in the Baltimore area section and not western Md? And what's with 95% done?

 

[CrickRat23]

I don't think it was in the title of any thread, but included in one about the MOCO schools around mid season.

I saw the post about FH-Dunbar. First, consider the source on that. Not the most reliable, why would they just post it in the Baltimore area section and not western Md? And what's with 95% done?

Thanks for the reply Waggle.
I agree with you about the Fort Hill vs Dunbar post. I am pretty sure that we up here would know about it first. There are several on the MOCO board who like to stir the pot. Lol

 

[Bleedred4life]

The only thing that a "competitive balance rule" does is punish those who work hard and encourage those that don't put in the work by giving them the advantage of not playing these teams. To me, this falls in the line of thinking that everybody gets a trophy.

 

[LHSlancerFAN]

Is any other school or fan base besides FH complaining about the 6 classifications? When FH was beating people, prior to this year, very badly and looking like they were running up the score nobody from FH complained, often saying if you don't want to get beat 60-0 get better. Wouldn't those people be now saying if you don't want FH to win the title every year get better. What is wrong with FH or Dunbar winning the title every year. Does it really mean we should go back to four or should other teams just start playing better competition like FH does and get better. I'm not a fan of the MPSSAA but since the 70's nobody has been with the MPSSAA no matter what they do. If I'm wrong please tell me but not one of the people complaining about this has ever said the MPSSAA does a good job. Maybe those that don't like any system the MPSSAA has come up with will just never be happy.

I don't like the 6 classes because I just don't think we have the number of schools to support it; however, my biggest issue is why just football? If the MPSSAA wants 6 classes, all fine and good, but then each of the other sports should be divided into 6 classes as well (except field hockey since there are barely enough schools to sustain 4). Why should 12 schools in football be afforded the opportunity to play for a state title but only 8 in others, especially when there are a larger number of schools participating in those other sports?

 

[FHHSAHS]

My problem with moving teams into a higher classification based on performance is that you are then assigning a power value to a classification system that is only defined by enrollment.

If you move teams up because they do well, do you move teams down who don't? No. So not only have you assigned a strength value to an enrollment classification system, you have assigned it with no clear definition. No boundaries.

And like someone else pointed out it's merely a punitive-like reaction to schools who put focus on their football teams and succeed. There's no incentive for other teams to do better. And I do take note of the "transfer" caveat which is basically trying to prevent public schools from recruiting or being like a private school with enrollment policies...and that does make some sense. I believe, if MD had this rule in place, FH and Ridge wouldn't be affected anyway, nor would Dunbar. I'm pretty sure none of them are getting 3 transfers a year. So it's probably moot, regardless. I know FH and MR aren't.

 

[TDHelmick]

I don't like the 6 classes because I just don't think we have the number of schools to support it; however, my biggest issue is why just football? If the MPSSAA wants 6 classes, all fine and good, but then each of the other sports should be divided into 6 classes as well (except field hockey since there are barely enough schools to sustain 4). Why should 12 schools in football be afforded the opportunity to play for a state title but only 8 in others, especially when there are a larger number of schools participating in those other sports?

Football is the only sport where you play one game per week. A playoff that "includes everyone" with four classes would take months. All other sports, everyone already makes the playoffs with just four classes. In fact, football was the only sport where not everyone made the playoffs.

The whole concept behind moving from four to six classes in 2021 was purely based on COVID. We have discussed this here a few times. At that time there was no way to implement a fair point system if some teams only played like four games due to COVID. So they let everyone in the playoffs and to do that moved to six classes. I applauded the move at the time given the situation. Unfortunately, I believe the MPSSAA found out how much money they could make in the postseason with six classes seeing they keep all the postseason gate. So they didn't move back from six classes, which was one of the worst decisions in the history of the MPSSAA. That and how they named the six classifications.

 

[westernMD]

I like how professional soccer does relegation. Teams can move up or down a division based on performance. I believe the Mountain West is kicking around the idea of spitting into two divisions, an upper and a lower, and using the soccer relegation model. It always seemed to me that classifying teams purely by enrollment is outdated because it used to be that it took an act of Congress for a kid to play ball for a team outside his district. When I was in school, you rarely had out of district permits approved by the BOE. Now, kids can basically play for whatever school they want, so enrollment is irrelevant if a team has a great football program that kids want to play for (i.e. Dunbar for all those years).

I don't have the answer but I think the current system is broke. As a fan, I hate all the mercy rule blowouts in the playoffs. Winning a state title should not be a walk in the park. When is the last time we had a great playoff game at Greenway? In the 70's, 80's, 90's, and early 2000's the list is almost endless of great one score contests. Sometimes the home team won, sometimes they lost, and the loses were heart-breaking, but at least it was exciting.

 

[LHSlancerFAN]

Football is the only sport where you play one game per week. A playoff that "includes everyone" with four classes would take months. All other sports, everyone already makes the playoffs with just four classes. In fact, football was the only sport where not everyone made the playoffs.

There are 180 football playing schools in the state. For 4 classes, that's 45 per class. At most, teams that don't receive a bye would need to win 6 games to win a state title, meaning we would need to add 1 additional week to the schedule. We already start football later than most states, moving the start of practice and games up 1 week really shouldn't be much of an issue.