High School Football Playoffs (A respite from insanity)
Mates,
Here in Michigan the regular high school football season ended last Friday, and tomorrow night is the start of the playoffs. There are 8 eleven-man divisions and 2 eight-man divisions. The top 32 teams are seeded by points and region.
Link to the various divisions and grids here: https://www.mhsaa.com/sports/football/stories/mhsaa-announces-2023-football-playoff-brackets-11-player-finals-schedule
Teams are given points for wins and get multiplier/more points if they play 'up' in divisions - meaning if you're, say, division 3 and you play a division 1 or 2 school you get bonus points for that game.
I'm not the only coach on the board as I know at least Qmatic and Magnus coach, and I'd bet there's at least a few others.
It is an exciting time of the year. Win and advance. Lose and you turn your equipment in on Monday. And the two best teams of each division play at Ford Field on Thanksgiving Saturday (beat ohio!) and Sunday.
I hope you get out to a game and root for your local team, your old high school, or maybe a U of M prospect or commit. No Michigan game on Saturday, so you've got a little extra time to do so.
Go Blue!
XM
October 26th, 2023 at 8:14 PM ^
My alma mater is the same as Will Johnson's—Grosse Pointe South. The last GPS game I attended was my senior year in 1970—the Blue Devils today are vastly better than they were back in my ancient epoch.
October 26th, 2023 at 8:22 PM ^
Jeeesus Don, your avatar fits your profile.
October 26th, 2023 at 8:27 PM ^
Well that's not an accident.
October 26th, 2023 at 8:36 PM ^
Can I interest you in term life insurance and/or reverse mortgage?
I'm a rep at Tru Stage.
October 26th, 2023 at 8:16 PM ^
Also time to go to 6 divisions. Teams are getting in at 4-5. 5-4 was ridiculous enough but now losing records get in in certain divisions.
October 26th, 2023 at 8:28 PM ^
but, but, but, the losing records (and playoff points) come from playing a tough schedule. think of an FCS school playing some MAC schools or even B10 schools. for instance, our record is far from spotless, but we've played a brutal schedule and expect at least the first couple of rounds of playoffs to be literally the easiest part of our schedule.
October 26th, 2023 at 8:32 PM ^
Trust me that comes from the leagues they are. My school is a 1 seed with a 7-2 record because we beat 3 dog shit D1’s and a terrible D2 team in our league. 2 of those D1s are dog shit every year. My school is D3
It’s also why a better record team in our district not only doesn’t get 1 seed they don’t even get a home playoff game because in their league they have 5 D5 teams
October 26th, 2023 at 8:56 PM ^
again, not true, or at least not universally true. teams in our division won't play us and we have to go way out of our way to book 9 regular season games. even teams in our conference don't want to schedule us.
October 26th, 2023 at 9:28 PM ^
I can see why---your team soundly whipped your opponent when I saw them play two weekends ago. A 3 hour (or more) bus ride each direction and then a shortened game because of a running clock the entire 2nd half. I was very impressed, I think your team can go deep into these MHSAA playoffs. Best of luck, may your team stay healthy!
October 27th, 2023 at 5:26 AM ^
Catholic League? MAC Red? OAA Red?
October 26th, 2023 at 8:28 PM ^
I think the POP system may need some tweaking as well. In Division 1, Clarkston is 17th and Romeo is 19th, both with 4-5 records. Moving to 6 divisions would still leave those schools in the playoffs.
October 26th, 2023 at 8:34 PM ^
More schools will pop up a division. Listen I’m a basketball guy and I hate football gets 8 divisions while the rest of the sports gets 4. If you want ti see an enrollment disparity go check out basketball and who qualifies for what division
October 26th, 2023 at 8:24 PM ^
Go Dreadnaughts (Dexter). Unfortunately last season was their chance,9-0 regular season, loss in D2 semifinal in a blizzard on the west side of the state, 3 kids signed with FBS schools for this season (Cabana UM)
October 26th, 2023 at 8:36 PM ^
AP going to pop you guys
October 26th, 2023 at 8:25 PM ^
Rockford is taking Division 1. No, I'm not biased at all!
October 26th, 2023 at 8:32 PM ^
Their half of the bracket is BRUTAL. The District should be a breeze, but Davison, Northville, Saline and Belleville are all potential Regional or Semifinal opponents.
October 26th, 2023 at 8:40 PM ^
Gotta beat the best if you want to be the best!
October 26th, 2023 at 9:43 PM ^
Through my affiliation with the MHSFCA I heard that the committee looked at Cass and Belleville being the teams they wanted to keep on opposite sides of the bracket. Last year they met in the semis and it was a much better game than the finals where Belleville breezed by Caledonia.
October 26th, 2023 at 8:34 PM ^
Belleville Alumni here. Class of 97'. Would love to see them play Rockford! Belleville's league has no competition and I think they will stroll through to the finals again. Good luck!
October 26th, 2023 at 8:42 PM ^
My kids go to Northville. Northville cruised to 8-0 without playing a competitive game and then got boat raced 42-0 by Belleville in the conference championship. Feels like Belleville is on another level (x10).
October 26th, 2023 at 10:27 PM ^
I really thought that game would have been competitive after watching video of Northville. Belleville's defense might be the best it's been on this run they have been on.
October 27th, 2023 at 4:09 PM ^
I have a lot of respect for your program, and your fanbase.
Yall showed up to the Silverdome in 1998 like Varsity Blues, with what seemed like 15,000 partisans.
So well coached, and very good sports. It was a shame someone had to lose...but better you than me 😂
October 26th, 2023 at 8:51 PM ^
My bracket winners are:
Belleville
Muskegon
Mason
GR South
GR West
Almont
Jackson Lumen
Ottawa Lake
Decent parody this year... division 1 is amazing ...I hope saline v Belleville is on TV
October 26th, 2023 at 9:10 PM ^
Going with Ubly to get over the hump in D-8 this year finally in a finals rematch.
October 26th, 2023 at 9:41 PM ^
The winner of D-6 will be decided next week when Almont takes on Michigan Collegiate.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:10 PM ^
I don't see GR South taking D4. The best matchup in D4 will be regional finals against Whitehall, just like last year. This year it will be played at Whitehall, and that team is loaded.
October 26th, 2023 at 9:08 PM ^
I live in Rockford so will be interesting to see how far the Rams go before they drop a game to an east side team. And as an FHN alumn, I can’t imagine they do well against Muskegon. Also hope FHC doesn’t make another run.
October 26th, 2023 at 9:38 PM ^
I’m a coach in division 1 and I believe based on all that I have seen, that Rockford is the team to beat this year. And that includes Cass Tech and Belleville.
October 26th, 2023 at 9:42 PM ^
I have a friend who is a DLine coach in the OK Red and he agree they at least have a shot, just never seems like the west side pulls off D1 titles with how loaded it is. We will see!
October 26th, 2023 at 9:48 PM ^
A cousin of mine was on the ‘06 Dakota team that faced Rockford in the finals. I remember thinking Dakota didn’t have a chance because Rockford’s defense that year was putting up near Michigan 2023 numbers. I remember being shocked at how easily Dakota won that game.
October 27th, 2023 at 8:10 AM ^
Underwood will make Rockford look like little kids. He is that good
October 26th, 2023 at 9:18 PM ^
My Perry Ramblers will make first playoff trip in school history ( D7 ) . At state power house Pewamo - Westphalia
October 26th, 2023 at 9:46 PM ^
My buddy is the coach at Clawson and both years they’ve opened vs Perry. He spoke very highly of the way that program was being ran and the kids playing there
October 26th, 2023 at 9:37 PM ^
Go Chesaning Indians!
October 26th, 2023 at 9:37 PM ^
The team I coach takes our 7-2 record 10 miles north to take on another 7-2 team. Both of us play in the same conference, with our opponent playing one division higher. We share two common opponents. We went 1-1 vs those two teams while they went 2-0.
This is our 6th straight trip to the playoffs and 7 of the last 8. Prior to 2010 our school never made the playoffs and had one of the 10 worst win % in all of the MHSAA.
Tomorrow will be our first playoff game in Division 1. We are the smallest D1 school with an enrollment of 1446. We take on the largest school in the state with an enrollment of 2776.
The boys seem ready after today’s practice. We have a unique offense that is difficult to prepare for on a week’s notice. Should be a fun night in Macomb County across the board tomorrow night.
October 26th, 2023 at 9:42 PM ^
go qmatic's team!
October 26th, 2023 at 9:45 PM ^
#11Mile
#HuskyNation
October 26th, 2023 at 10:31 PM ^
That is awesome! Best of luck out there, coach! Hope it's a great night!
October 26th, 2023 at 10:35 PM ^
It's wild to me that my alma mater Clarkston made it in with a losing schedule.
October 27th, 2023 at 6:45 AM ^
Lack of teams in D1 that could qualify. It’s exactly why I think it’s time for 6 divisions. You should go through the lower divisions. Woof.
October 27th, 2023 at 4:11 PM ^
It doesnt work that way.
The 4-5 teams that fill in behind the automatic qualifiers will almost always be big schools because its decided by points.
Divisions arent set until after the field of 256 is known.
October 26th, 2023 at 11:39 PM ^
If you all aren’t doing anything tomorrow night and want to critique me on my stream head over to my YouTube channel and watch some high school football live. This is small town Southeast Ohio football but it can be fun to watch. One team is 9-1 3 years off an 0-10 season been an impressive turn around for them over the past few years.
https://youtube.com/@bmgmedia9882?feature=shared
October 27th, 2023 at 3:39 AM ^
Boyne City makes the playoffs yet again!.A northern Mich Div 6 playoff regular goes across the bridge to play at Gladstone.
GO RAMBLERS
October 27th, 2023 at 4:42 AM ^
The high school I attended was outscored 430-26 this year… an average score of 47.7 - 2.8
So… yeah I don’t think they made the playoff.
October 27th, 2023 at 7:37 AM ^
I once worked at a school that was so bad NPR did a story about how bad they were.
October 27th, 2023 at 8:53 AM ^
Historically we’re pretty decent with some big names coming through. Mark Ingram and Terry Crews to name a few. But the deterioration of Flint Schools and the creation of Schools of Choice programs has pretty much destroyed athletics as a whole. (Baseball while playing in a conference with the likes of Mt. Pleasant, Bay City Western and the Midland schools was particularly rough during my time in high school). Football been ROUGH since Ingram graduated in ‘09
October 27th, 2023 at 7:33 AM ^
My son plays for Utica Eisenhower - Go Ike!
October 27th, 2023 at 8:04 AM ^
My cousin teaches at Ike. Also one of my coaches has a brother who plays for them. Ike used to be the team to beat in Macomb County. Lately they've not been as consistent as their peers at Romeo, Dakota, and Chip Valley. However, I think this Ike team is the best team in Macomb (sans DLS of course) and if not this year, next year they can make a legitimate run to return to the finals where they spent a lot of time in the early 2000s.
October 27th, 2023 at 7:36 AM ^
Go Muskegon Big Reds!
October 27th, 2023 at 7:42 AM ^
Ottawa Lake Whiteford went undefeated and will be making a run for consecutive D8 crowns! Great atmosphere and so much fun.