Post by CC_Varmints on Nov 8, 2012 10:42:45 GMT -6
Tepper's Take 2012-11-08
By Greg Tepper
DCTF Associate Editor
[Editor’s note: This is Tepper’s Take, the weekly column from associate editor Greg Tepper. It’s a blend of football and non-football topics. All opinions are Greg Tepper’s alone. Enjoy.]
It’s the November 8 edition of Tepper’s Take, two men stand, one’s gotta go, one falls down to the ground, one walks down to the road.
First Word
Make no mistake about it: for a number of high school teams across Texas, the high school football playoffs begin this week.
Look across the high school football playoff landscape. I know it’s hard to figure out what’s going on in each district, but don’t worry: we’ve denoted which teams are in and which teams are out on our standings page, and our high school previews on Friday morning will be nothing but explaining each district’s playoff scenario in depth.
But in spending all week – no, seriously, it takes all week, we kind of cover every district in the state – breaking down playoff situations, there’s one thing that stands out:
We need a universal tiebreaker.
You see, each district determines its own tiebreaker in the case of a three-or-more-way tie – that is, Team A beat Team B, Team B beat Team C, and Team C beat Team A. Many districts use a point differential system – that is, what was the point differential of the games each team played against the other two tied squads? – but the variations on those are wide. And some districts use other methods, like District 2-5A’s notorious coin flip.
But it’s always difficult to track down district tiebreakers. We generally end up calling one of the coaches to find out, but that makes it so that many fans are in the dark as to their team’s playoff fate.
So why not institute a universal tiebreaker, something like a point differential capped at 14 points per game (to remove the incentive to run up the score)? That way, every fan can have a much clearer picture of where their team stands.
And maybe I can get a little sleep this time of year.
By Greg Tepper
DCTF Associate Editor
[Editor’s note: This is Tepper’s Take, the weekly column from associate editor Greg Tepper. It’s a blend of football and non-football topics. All opinions are Greg Tepper’s alone. Enjoy.]
It’s the November 8 edition of Tepper’s Take, two men stand, one’s gotta go, one falls down to the ground, one walks down to the road.
First Word
Make no mistake about it: for a number of high school teams across Texas, the high school football playoffs begin this week.
Look across the high school football playoff landscape. I know it’s hard to figure out what’s going on in each district, but don’t worry: we’ve denoted which teams are in and which teams are out on our standings page, and our high school previews on Friday morning will be nothing but explaining each district’s playoff scenario in depth.
But in spending all week – no, seriously, it takes all week, we kind of cover every district in the state – breaking down playoff situations, there’s one thing that stands out:
We need a universal tiebreaker.
You see, each district determines its own tiebreaker in the case of a three-or-more-way tie – that is, Team A beat Team B, Team B beat Team C, and Team C beat Team A. Many districts use a point differential system – that is, what was the point differential of the games each team played against the other two tied squads? – but the variations on those are wide. And some districts use other methods, like District 2-5A’s notorious coin flip.
But it’s always difficult to track down district tiebreakers. We generally end up calling one of the coaches to find out, but that makes it so that many fans are in the dark as to their team’s playoff fate.
So why not institute a universal tiebreaker, something like a point differential capped at 14 points per game (to remove the incentive to run up the score)? That way, every fan can have a much clearer picture of where their team stands.
And maybe I can get a little sleep this time of year.