Wolverine247 Board

For those of you that don't know, each state runs its high school football playoff system differently, and there are a wide variety of different systems.

In some states, such as Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, there is a minimum number of wins (typically six in a nine-game season) that you need in order to automatically qualify. Then some teams with one less win can qualify if there are still spots available.

In Kansas, (this could be wrong, but this is what I've gathered), it all comes down to your district. Each school is placed into a four-team district before the season starts. You play a full regular season schedule, and then your last three games are a round-robin against the other three teams in your district. The team that emerges with the best record in those three games makes the playoffs. So, theoretically, you could be 0-6 or 0-7, but if you get hot against your district opponents, you make the playoffs. I think that's crazy, but it also keeps every team's hopes alive for the full season.

In both Iowa and Minnesota, there's also a minimum number of wins required. In order to fit in all the games, they cut down on rest time between games. For instance, the last regular season game in Minnesota was played on Friday, and the first round of playoff games are tonight (Tuesday). The second round games are played on Saturday, and then the third round games the following Friday. After that, there is a regular week-long interval between games. It's a similar format in Iowa, but the playoffs start tomorrow night (Wednesday) instead. With less recovery time, it really rewards the great teams that are able to blow out their first three opponents and sit the starters in the second half of each game.

In Ohio, it all comes down to computer rankings. There are six divisions, with division one being the biggest schools, and there are four regions within each division. Each region contains 32 teams. Eight teams in each region make the playoffs, and it all comes down to the computers. You get points for the strength of each win. In other words, if you beat a division one team, you get a certain amount of points, if you beat a division two team, you get a slightly lower amount of points, and so on. And you also get second-level points - whenever a team you beat wins a game, you get a certain amount of points for that. So strength of schedule is paramount, and margin of victory is completely irrelevant. So based on who you beat and who THOSE teams beat, a 7-3 team could be ahead of a 10-0 team in the computer rankings.

Having grown up with the Ohio system, I'm partial to that. Until the 1999 season, only four teams in each region made the playoffs, and everything else was the same. I liked that better, because it was a major accomplishment just to make the playoffs, let alone to do any damage. It's still a great accomplishment to make the playoffs, but it's a little easier to do so now. Under the old system, you'd regularly have 10-0 teams that didn't make the playoffs because they didn't play a tough enough schedule. For those of you that remember Scott McMullen, the former quarterback at Ohio State who came in with Craig Krenzel (and actually played a lot in Ann Arbor in the 2003 game), he went to Granville High School. They were stacked his senior year (my roommate freshman year in college was actually McMullen's number one receiver, and they had a bunch of other very good players as well) and went 10-0, but didn't get in. Theoretically, you could still go 10-0 and not make it, but it's not as common now with eight teams making it. Another drawback is that the regions are predetermined and largely geographical, so you'll sometimes see two powerhouse teams facing off before the state semifinals or finals, so you're liable to see some blowouts in the state finals, depending on the matchups.

Anyway, feel free to chime in regarding the playoff systems in other states, which ones you like the best, etc. Figured it'd make for an interesting discussion.