It should be emphasized that the above proposal addresses all concerns. It provides for a six-game regular season (CHECK). The regular season is designed for the purpose of identifying the eight best teams in each class so a meaningful state-championship playoff can be played (CHECK). The remaining 56 teams in each class, (those not in the playoff), can play the equivalent of seven three-game tournaments, thus ensuring every team in the state plays a nine-game season (CHECK).Assign 64 teams to each class, 8A through 2A, with the remaining teams (smallest schools) assigned to 1A. Then divide the 64 teams in each class into 8 geographic regions with 8 teams in each region. Each region is then randomly bracketed into quarterfinals, and the first three games of the season are played to determine the ranking (1 thru 8) of the teams within each region.
Games 4, 5 and 6 of the season are played to determine playoff qualifiers and the seedings for the playoffs. The first place teams from each region are bracketed regionally into a quarterfinal playoff, the second place teams would similarly play each other in a quarterfinal playoff, and the third place teams, and so on down the line. This will provide for very competitive games since, for example, games 4, 5 and 6 for an eighth place team will all be played against other eighth place teams.
After this six-game regular season is played, the playoff teams will be selected and seeded as follows. The top five finishers among the eight first place teams will qualify for the playoffs and be seeded 1 through 5. The champion of the second-place finishers will qualify and be seeded 6th. The champion of the third-place finishers will qualify and be seeded 7th. And the champion of the fifth-place finishers will qualify and be seeded 8th. Those eight teams will play for the state championship within their particular class.
As an example of how this might look, the 8A playoff bracket could reasonably look like this:
(1) Lincoln-Way East (6-0)
(8) Fremd (5-1)
(4) Homewood-Flossmoor (4-2)
(5) Loyola (5-1)
(3) Glenbard West (5-1)
(6) Marist (5-1)
(2) Maine South (5-1)
(7) Brother Rice (5-1)
In summary: Every team gets to play nine games. A true state champion is determined for each of the eight classes. And the season ends on time without running into the seasons that are to follow for the other sports.
In addition, the manner in which it is designed will allow for many of the existing traditional rivalry games to still be played.
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