Projects That Matter
December 1, 2015
The white board that confronts me every day in my office lists a lot of things I’d like the MHSAA to get done. Our challenge is to choose to do those projects that are large enough to matter, yet small enough to accomplish.
Step by step, we have attempted, for example, new goals for coaches education and new initiatives for concussion care, as well as new means of communicating the message of educational athletics which I have discussed less as I’ve addressed the other projects more in recent months.
Managing the message of school-sponsored, student-centered sports in the midst of a constant blizzard of communications from youth, college and professional sports, is as important as anything we do.
We are particularly pleased with “This Week in High School Sports” which John Johnson prepares and Second Half by MHSAA which Geoff Kimmerly manages. Positive news reflecting the purpose and values of educational athletics in Michigan. These projects matter.
Eight-Player Options
March 10, 2017
Put this in the category of “No good deed goes unpunished.”
In 2011, the MHSAA provided an additional playoff for Class D schools sponsoring 8-player football. This helped save football in some schools and helped return the game of football to other schools. But now that the number of 8-player programs has expanded from two dozen in 2011 to more than 60, there are complaints:
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Some complaints come out of a sense of entitlement that all final games in both the 8-player and 11-player tournament deserve to be played at Ford Field.
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Some complaints come from Class C schools whose enrollments are too large for the 8-player tournament. Class C schools which sponsor the 8-player game have no tournament at all in which to play, regardless of where the finals might be held.
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Some complaints come from Class D schools which protest any suggestion that Class C schools – even the smallest – be allowed to play in the 8-player tournament.
There are now three scenarios emerging as the most likely future for 8-player football:
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The original plan ... A five-week, 32-team tournament for Class D schools only, with the finals at a site to be determined, but probably not Ford Field.
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Alternative #1 ... Reduce the 11-player tournament to seven divisions and make Division 8 the 8-player tournament with 32 Class D teams in a five-week tournament, ending at Ford Field.
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Alternative #2 ... Conduct the 8-player tournament in two divisions of 16 Class D teams, competing in a four-week playoff ending in a double-header at the Superior Dome on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
The pros and cons of these options are being widely discussed. Sometimes the discussions have a tone that is critical of the MHSAA, which comes from those who forget that it was the MHSAA itself which moved in 2011 to protect and promote football by adding the 8-player playoff tournament option for its smallest member schools. That Class D schools now feel entitled to the Ford Field opportunity and Class C schools want access to an 8-player tournament is not unexpected; but criticism of the MHSAA’s efforts is not deserved.