I realize that no system is perfect, and every once is a while you will have an exception to the rule, and I'm not even being critical of the Harbin System, but I couldn't help but notice the following results after one week of the 2009 football playoffs.

There are four #1 seeds per division times 24 regions equals 24 #1 seeds who have earned the right to play the #8 seed in their region on their home field in week 11 of the playoffs.

This year 7 #8 seeds upset the #1 seed in round 1 or nearly one third of the top seeds are already gone. The following #1's are now breaking out basketballs:

DI, Reg 2 6-4 Canton McKinley over 9-1 Toledo Whitmer
DII, Reg 7 8-2 Cols Marion-Frnklin over 10-0 Louisville
DIII, Reg 12 7-3 Springfield Shawnee over 8-2 Goshen
DIV, Reg 14 8-2 Eastwood over 10-0 Galion
DV, Reg 20 7-3 St Henry over 10-0 North Union
DVI, Reg 21 8-2 Hopewell-Loudon over 10-0 McDonald
DVI, Reg 24 7-3 Cortland over 10-0 Ansonia

Five of the #1's were 10-0.
23 undefeated 11-0 squads remain alive. They are:

Cleve St Ignatius
Solon
Dublin Coffman
Cin Anderson
LOGAN
Cin Turpin
Youngstown Mooney
Cin Wyoming
Chagrin Falls
Genoa Area
Girard
Amanda Clearcreek
Clinton Massie
Kettering Alter
Cuyahoga Hts
Patrick Henry
Fredericktown
W Lafayette Ridgewood
OAK HILL
W Liberty Salem
Wynford
Norwalk St Paul
Delphos St Johns
Ada

TWO 5-5 teams in the regular season remain alive: DVI Shadyside & Maria Stein Marion Local, who was a #5 seed.

#2 seems to be the safest seed this year as 21 of 24 won their week 11 matchups.

In the pivotal 4-5 seed matchups, the #4 home team was only successful 13 of 24 times.

In only 5 of the 24 regions did the top 4 seeds all win last week, but get this:

In DVI, Reg 24 NOT A SINGLE TOP FOUR SEED WON THEIR GAME. 5-8 will be playing this weekend!

The harbin system is used to select eight teams per region. Not to rate the "best teams" in order 1 to 8.

It's not any different in the NBA, NFL, NHL, or MLB. There is a formula to fill the bracket, but a lot of things can happen throughout the season to determine a teams final seed.

Football is the only sport in the state that doesnt allow every team in the playoffs. I think football should be changed to allow all in and see who's the better team at the end.Forget strength of schedual and who plays who,run the guntlet at the end and be the best.

pantherbacker wrote: Football is the only sport in the state that doesnt allow every team in the playoffs. I think football should be changed to allow all in and see who's the better team at the end.Forget strength of schedual and who plays who,run the guntlet at the end and be the best.

Your choices to do this are:

1) Play 7 post season games. Are you going to reduce the regular season games to only 8 or 9?

2) Expand the divisions. If you had 12 divisions, you would still have 6 post season games.

3) Start the season the first week of August or end it the middle of December.

Clearly not thought through.

Everyone in the football playoffs? C'mon Maaan! The same people who are for that would be the same people who would hit the roof screaming when their 0-10 team played the 10-0 team and got smoked by fifty points by halftime, crying that the team was running the score up on them.
In this 'Everybody's a Winner" society, we don't need any more it's ok to be last rewards.
You earn your way in. period

Instead of letting everyone in for football, let's make teams earn playoff spots in all sports. It would be nice to see meaningful regular season games in the other sports.

I would like to see a harbin points system in basketball and baseball. By doing this, there's even the possibility that the later rounds could be a best of 3 series, so that depth is actually tested. I would especially like to see that in baseball.

Soem have advocated for playing just 9 regular season games and letting 16 teams in per region. Then, let the non-playoff schools play a 10th game against another non-qualifier if they wish.

Even though we were one of the #1 seeds to lose, I think its great for the game. Anyone can win on any given night. That's why it is so ridiculous that college football doesn't have some sort of playoff. The team playing the best wins, regardless of record or seed. All that matters is you get in, then you must take care of business

pantherbacker wrote: Football is the only sport in the state that doesnt allow every team in the playoffs. I think football should be changed to allow all in and see who's the better team at the end.Forget strength of schedual and who plays who,run the guntlet at the end and be the best.

Leave it alone! Its just fine the way it is

There doesn't seem to be a good way to expand the playoffs, but I think its a great idea if someone could come up with a reasonable way.

A couple of arguments for expanded playoffs might include the following:

* Perhaps you have a legitimate contender but early season injuries (which are a part of the game) have left you a few points short but now your team is healthy and ready to go.

* Perhaps you have a talented team that is short on experience but you get better as the season wears on and by playoff time you could compete but again you are short on points.

* Even more likely is you have the team, maybe even one of the best in your division, but your schedule doesnt afford you enough playoff points because some teams are having off years, If you are in a league you may not have the opportunity for many non league games and how can you predict who will be up or down any given year? This is where the Harbib System cannot measure the strength of YOUR team....it can only measure how you did against your strength of schedule. If it was possible for the Pittsburgh Steelers to play some school's shcedules, and they went 10-0 (as they would......duh!), they still wouldnt earn a single computer point more than the HS did and could find themselves out of the playoffs because they had a few 0-10, 3-7, 2-8, etc league teams or some long time rivals were having down years.

Just something to consider.

Shane Falco: I lost a ton of money on that Sugar Bowl of yours! What did you lose that by....35-0?

pantherbacker wrote: Football is the only sport in the state that doesnt allow every team in the playoffs. I think football should be changed to allow all in and see who's the better team at the end.Forget strength of schedual and who plays who,run the guntlet at the end and be the best.

yea play the games everyday of the week!

Yes I am kidding

I wish it would go back to only top 4 making it, just cuz I like every regular season game to be like a playoff game, and then strength of schedule really matters.

Don't water down our football playoffs like other states love to do to there own. The system is great the way it is and I think the other sports in ohio should consider doing something similar.

Geographically it would be impossible for some schools to have a schedule that could possibly get them in, if there were only four that made it in.

Dr. Ray Stantz wrote: I wish it would go back to only top 4 making it, just cuz I like every regular season game to be like a playoff game, and then strength of schedule really matters.

Given the number of 5-8 seeds that have won state titles, I don't see how anyone can make this argument with a straight face.

Here's a straight faced argument, high school football has been played and champions crowned in Ohio for over a century, and its been less than a decade since Ohio made the playoffs so accessible to so many teams. Prior to this, your regular season WAS the playoffs. I'm old, and in the past 1 loss or a cupcake schedule and it was basketball season come week 11. What's the worth of adding 1 more game at the expense of the 10 before it? For me, its not about quantity but quality. I'd sex a ten over 5 twos any day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

EagleFan wrote: Soem have advocated for playing just 9 regular season games and letting 16 teams in per region. Then, let the non-playoff schools play a 10th game against another non-qualifier if they wish.

I like that idea. The WBL would not have any non-conference games to start the regular season and some 7-3 teams who have missed playoffs over the years would have a chance to compete in the post-season.

It seams like some of the 10-0 teams or #1 seeds got smacked in round one this year, what does that say????

I would say the Harbin system isn't perfect, but letting 8 teams from each region in is much better than when it was 4 teams. In them days you had some contenders not making it in, but with 8 getting in usually the state champ will be in that group. I agree some teams have no choice but to play the teams in their area. Not everyone can belong in a league like the MAC. But to allow everyone in is a joke. Those first round games would be meaningless. There would I'm sure be some upsets, but there would be more blowouts, or even kids getting hurt. If they wanted to do something different let teams with a winning record in or something like that, but not every team.