{"id":123733,"date":"2019-10-14T04:04:36","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T09:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=123733"},"modified":"2019-10-14T04:04:42","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T09:04:42","slug":"monday-mailbag-october-14-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2019\/10\/14\/monday-mailbag-october-14-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Mailbag: October 14, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s Monday Mailbag features questions about OHSAA\u2019s football playoff format, the effect of football playoffs on basketball and Friday night Big 10 football. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Have you ever reached out to your OHSAA contacts and asked what the downside of adopting the state of Indiana’s method of football playoffs where everyone gets in? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s this time of year where high school football starts to be hard to watch because so many teams have no chance for the post season. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are good teams that simply get punished for being in a tough conference. Outside of maybe travel expenses, what’s the downside to this? Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: I have a two part answer for this, with the first part coming from Tim Stried, OHSAA\u2019s Director of Communications. This is what he had to say:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, our member schools have not made a push for that change in the football regulations to allow every team into the playoffs. If the majority of our member schools are not asking for that kind of change, then it probably wouldn\u2019t be something we would consider.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlso note that in Ohio, our schools can play 10 regular-season games and control their schedules. In Indiana, they only play nine regular-season games. From the conversations we have had with most coaches, they would rather play 10 regular-season games and keep the playoffs as something that teams must earn their way into.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

As for the second part of the answer, Indiana has 318 football playing high schools, while Ohio has just over 700. It would probably mean OHSAA would have to start the football season a week or two earlier, play an eight game regular season schedule, or have state championship games about a week before Christmas. None of those seem to be appealing options.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Since football playoffs start on November 8 (and end on December 7), while boys\u2019 basketball practice starts November 1, I wonder what basketball coaches say about the effects that playoff football has on their preparation for the basketball season. How do the coaches deal with this situation? Name witheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: I think they deal with it the best they can and just roll with the punches and root for the football team, while doing what they need to do to prepare for their own season.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, for the majority of OHSAA schools, it\u2019s not an issue.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because 790 Ohio high schools have varsity basketball teams, and some of those don\u2019t field football teams. 224 teams qualify for the playoffs and after the first round of the postseason, 112 of those teams are done, after that, it\u2019s 56, 28, etc. So an extended playoff run is only going to affect a certain small number of basketball teams. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for the ones it does affect, especially at the smaller school level, the coaches make adjustments as needed in practices, including using junior varsity players to fill in for players on the football team. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s always the option of delaying the start of the regular season, but I\u2019ve noticed more schools trying to avoid a delay of more than a week or so if at all possible, simply because no one wants to cram a bunch of rescheduled games into January and February. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Who\u2019s bright idea was it to have Ohio State play on Friday night? Don\u2019t they know Friday night is for high school football? Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: You can thank the Big 10, Fox and ESPN.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all comes down to money, i.e. Fox and ESPN being willing to fork over a lot of cash to air some Friday Big 10 games. One can say it\u2019s all about greed, which wouldn\u2019t be wrong.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my opinion, it\u2019s an awful idea, because Friday night really is for high school football. Having said that, I doubt many people will give up going to a game this Friday, when Northwestern hosts Ohio State. That game doesn\u2019t exactly have the makings of a barnburner.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michigan has refused to play any Friday games, and Penn State refuses to host Friday night games. Good for them. I wish Ohio State would at least take Penn State\u2019s stance, or better yet, Michigan\u2019s stance. No, I\u2019m not rooting for the Wolverines, but I respect the stand the school has taken on this.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have a question for the next Monday Mailbag, email it to sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor This week\u2019s Monday Mailbag features questions about OHSAA\u2019s football playoff format, the effect of football playoffs on basketball and Friday night Big 10 football. Q: Have you ever reached out to your OHSAA contacts and asked what the downside of adopting the state of Indiana’s method of football playoffs where everyone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 07:25:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}