{"id":186480,"date":"2024-11-25T22:48:11","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T03:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=186480"},"modified":"2024-11-25T22:48:12","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T03:48:12","slug":"random-thoughts-hoops-and-football-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2024\/11\/25\/random-thoughts-hoops-and-football-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: hoops and football"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

The latest installment of Random Thoughts centers around the start of high school hoops, neutral sites for OHSAA playoff games, the real state title game, Fox college football broadcasts and armchair quarterbacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome hoops season<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2024-2025 girls high school basketball season tipped off over the weekend and the new boys season will follow suit this weekend. It\u2019s hard to believe it\u2019s here already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, some schools, including Columbus Grove, Bluffton, Coldwater, Delphos St. John’s, Marion Local, and Minster will be starting their respective seasons late due to the success of each school\u2019s football program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neutral sites<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you look at this Friday\u2019s football state semifinal sites, you\u2019ll notice there are many than aren\u2019t exactly halfway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One that comes to mind is in Division IV \u2013 two-time defend state champion Glenville will travel from Cleveland to Clyde, roughly 90 minutes. Meanwhile, Glenville\u2019s opponent, Perkins, will travel roughly 30 minutes to play the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I mentioned recently, neutral site doesn\u2019t mean halfway. The OHSAA can only use sites that are willing and able to host a game, which is especially difficult during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout schools being willing to host games, the OHSAA would not be able to use neutral sites,\u201d the OHSAA said. \u201cMany factors go into determining locations for each game, and rarely can a site be found that is exactly halftime between the two schools. Once a potential site is determined, the school must be available and willing to host a game on the requested night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four area teams playing in state semifinal games on Friday lucked out \u2013 they don\u2019t have to travel far and the sites are reasonably close to halfway. Wapakoneta will be the site of the Division VI semifinal game between Coldwater and Bluffton, while Spartan Stadium in Lima will host the Division VII semifinal game between Marion Local and Columbus Grove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said all of that, the OHSAA is probably going to have to up the ante \u2013 find a way to make it more appealing and financially beneficial for sites to host neutral site playoff games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cNeutral host sites receive a stipend from the OHSAA and also keep revenue from concessions, parking, 50-50 raffles and program sales,\u201d the OHSAA said. \u201cThe OHSAA selects and pays for the officiating crews.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s great but it\u2019s obviously not enough. The first thing that comes to mind is significantly increasing the stipend or rental fee to host. It’s something the OHSAA is going to have to seriously consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real state title game<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all due respect to Hillsdale and Danville, most people seem to be in agreement that Friday\u2019s Division VII state semifinal game between No. 1 Marion Local and No. 2 Columbus Grove is the real state championship game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winner will get either Hillsdale or Danville in the state finals next weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fox<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve said it before and I\u2019ll say it again. I\u2019m not at all a fan of Fox college football games. There was a point in the first half of Saturday\u2019s Ohio State-Indiana game where in the span of 12 minutes, three plays were run. Literally, three plays in 12 minutes. The four minute TV timeouts are awful, especially for those at the game and they\u2019re not much better for people watching at home. Now, I completely understand why it is that way \u2013 it\u2019s all about revenue. Got it. Don\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know many fans are tired of Ohio State being the Big Noon game. I don\u2019t necessarily have a problem with that part of it, although I think it\u2019s weird that OSU-Penn St. and OSU-Indiana were noon games. Both should have been 3:30\/4, or night games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this armchair quarterbacking? Of course it is, but why do some coaches have an aversion to a good old-fashioned quarterback sneak on third and one or less? Why line up in the shotgun or pistol? It doesn\u2019t make sense to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy Thanksgiving<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to all readers. Hopefully your holiday will be a good one!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts or comments on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports The latest installment of Random Thoughts centers around the start of high school hoops, neutral sites for OHSAA playoff games, the real state title game, Fox college football broadcasts and armchair quarterbacking. Welcome hoops season The 2024-2025 girls high school basketball season tipped off over the weekend and the new boys season […]<\/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-186480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 06:49:02","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\/186480","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=186480"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186537,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186480\/revisions\/186537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}