Strength of non-conference scheduling

[McCaravan]

At the very least you need 5 wins....if you can look at your 7 conference and cross over games and have no doubt, unless it's a complete fluke, that your going to win at the minimum 5 of those games, then go ahead and schedule who you want for the non-conf games. If you think you may be on the edge of getting those 5 wins, you may be looking for gimme games the first two weeks. End goal is to make the playoffs then survive and advance.

 

[penlight]

At the very least you need 5 wins....if you can look at your 7 conference and cross over games and have no doubt, unless it's a complete fluke, that your going to win at the minimum 5 of those games, then go ahead and schedule who you want for the non-conf games. If you think you may be on the edge of getting those 5 wins, you may be looking for gimme games the first two weeks. End goal is to make the playoffs then survive and advance.

.... or in 2021 and beyond, 4 wins and the playoff points earned by playing strong non-conference games is likely all that will be needed to qualify.
On the Edgy Radio show last week the pundits who look at all of this far more deeply than I do seemed to concur that with the number of schools either going to 8-Man Football or no longer fielding teams (e.g. CPS) 4 wins is the new 5 wins.
Does anyone else wonder if this cliche of 5 wins has been just a convenient/plausible excuse for ducking strong non-conference opponents?
IMHO, if the IHSA ever gets to everyone being included in the playoffs another popular excuse will materialize.

 

[Cross Bones]

It’s not going to happen. I don’t see them beating either of those 2 teams. That’s me picking LP and that’s something I didn’t think I would do but they have improved. Not a power yet but have gotten better to the point you can’t discount them. HF well they are just better.

Yeah, I don't think they're beating Lockport or HF, their best chance of getting a Blue win was against us since we're small and not deep. However, my point was whether the crossovers count as conference games and if 5 team divisions of conferences get an automatic bid.

 

[colin2229]

Id like to schedule one top 10 team for NC and then also a good local team. I don’t want to play cupcakes. The kids need to know they are playing good teams from the get go to help motivate them in the off season.

Also, football is just way cooler when you play a good team on Friday night. So let’s provide more of that! As an adult, the week is a little easier to get through when your team has a big game on Friday night! For the kids, there’s a different buzz on campus all week when there’s a big game on Friday.

If youre worried about 5 wins, you probably weren’t going to go far in the playoffs anyway.