{"id":195970,"date":"2025-08-17T20:38:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T01:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=195970"},"modified":"2025-08-17T20:39:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T01:39:21","slug":"monday-mailbag-returns-all-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/08\/17\/monday-mailbag-returns-all-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Mailbag returns: all football"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

The first edition of the 2025 Monday Mailbag includes questions about Michigan and the NCAA, Van Wert and Crestview football, a preseason ranking, Crestview vs. Marion Local, and the OHSAA football playoffs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What a joke of a penalty against Michigan. They should have been forced to forfeit all of the games they cheated in and should be made to give back the national championship trophy. Maybe it\u2019s time to disband the NCAA? Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: I had a feeling Ohio State fans wouldn\u2019t like the NCAA\u2019s punishment. The only real part of the penalty that hurts is the fine, which will exceed $20 million. The show cause penalties, probation, additional one game suspension for Sherrone Moore etc. are meaningless.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio State and USC fans are still fuming because of what their programs had to give up (vacated wins, etc.) after previous investigations. I\u2019m not defending the NCAA, but when those punishments were handed down, it was a different time. The things those schools did were directly against NCAA rules at the time. Yes, the argument can be made that OSU players did nothing wrong by selling their own memorabilia for cash and tattoos because it was their property, but I\u2019m not going to get into that now. I will say this \u2013 if this was 25-30 years ago, Michigan probably would be staring at the NCAA\u2019s death penalty, especially given the information that was contained in the NCAA\u2019s report.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless, had the NCAA levied a postseason ban, vacated wins etc., you can bet the entire thing would have wound up in court, and the NCAA doesn\u2019t seem to do very well in court. As it is, Michigan is appealing, which makes very little sense.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for forfeiting or vacating wins, that doesn\u2019t really mean anything at this point and since the national championship wasn\u2019t handled by the NCAA (it\u2019s run by the College Football Playoff), the NCAA couldn\u2019t force Michigan to relinquish the title. In terms of the NCAA, that organization has quite obviously lost much of its power but even if it disbanded (it won\u2019t), there\u2019s still a need for a governing organization.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Athletic\u2019s Stewart Mandel said it best \u2013 the stain of all of this is something that will be tough for the University of Michigan to overcome.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: After seeing Van Wert and Crestview at Friday\u2019s scrimmage, what are your thoughts on both teams? Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A:<\/em> I agree with both coaches \u2013 there\u2019s some work to be done before their respective season openers. Having said that, I think both teams will enjoy some success this season.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

As I said in my preseason poll, the key for Van Wert will be improving on defense. For Crestview, there are some fairly minor things to tweak, but the Knights will be fine. I\u2019ll have more on both teams in their respective season preview stories on Wednesday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Once again, you give Van Wert no credit. Your prediction of fifth in your preseason rankings is far too low. How about showing some support? Name withheld upon request.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: Sometimes, it\u2019s not just about one team, it about the other teams as well. Example \u2013 literally all WBL coaches agree that Wapakoneta is the favorite to repeat as champions and for good reason \u2013 the Redskins are loaded, again. So we should be able to agree on that.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bath is improving by leaps and bounds under head coach Frank Russell and St. Marys Memorial is, well, St. Marys \u2013 very tough to beat. As I stated in my poll, things start to get jumbled pretty quickly when you get to the No. 4 spot.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d be interested to see what your predicted order of finish is \u2013 who knows, perhaps yours will be more accurate than mine.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: I\u2019m curious \u2013 how did the Crestview-Marion Local matchup in Week No. 2 come to be? Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: It\u2019s pretty simple \u2013 both schools needed a Week No. 2 opponent, so they agreed to play. Crestview played McComb in Week No. 2 the previous two seasons, but the Panthers backed out. Marion Local played Franklin, a Division III program out of Warren County the previous two season and after losing 63-7 and 49-0, the Wildcats didn\u2019t want any more of that. So, after examining all of their options, Crestview and Marion Local agreed to play in 2025. It\u2019s just a one year deal. Minster comes on Crestview\u2019s schedule next year.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What are your thoughts on OHSAA reducing the playoffs to 12 teams per region? Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: I\u2019m still surprised. Usually, when you expand any playoff it\u2019s almost unheard of to reduce the field. Personally, I think 12 is kind of a weird number. Not all coaches like the idea of a bye if you\u2019re one of the top four seeds, but it can be nice if you\u2019re trying to heal up. Yes, the NCAA does 12 teams per region and I still think that\u2019s strange.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said that, the playoff field shouldn\u2019t have been expanded in the first place. There were very few calls to expand and when the OHSAA did it, they and the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association agreed to 12 teams per region, then the OHSAA made the unilateral decision to go to 16 teams. The end result was predictable \u2013 a lot of blowouts in the first and second rounds, plus an unhappy Coaches Association. Yes, there have been been exceptions \u2013 very few exceptions, including the exciting playoff run by Delphos St. John\u2019s last year.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, 12 teams is better than 16, but one can easily argue eight teams is best.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have a question or comment for the next Monday Mailbag, please email it to sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>. Please indicate if you want your name and town included or withheld.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports The first edition of the 2025 Monday Mailbag includes questions about Michigan and the NCAA, Van Wert and Crestview football, a preseason ranking, Crestview vs. Marion Local, and the OHSAA football playoffs.  Q: What a joke of a penalty against Michigan. They should have been forced to forfeit all of the games […]<\/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-195970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 10:05:58","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\/195970","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=195970"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196004,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195970\/revisions\/196004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}