Ohio High School Assoc: 6-game regular season for football
I guess they are trying to limit exposures and finish well before flu season?
Bigger thing: to announce this late in the afternoon on a Friday is a complete jerk move. Schools have to start working on rescheduling, and with just over 2 weeks to do it, that means they'll have a long weekend.
MHSAA has not been perfect, but at least they are better than Ohio so far.
https://www.nbc4i.com/sports/ohsaa-announces-6-game-regular-season-for-football-expanded-playoffs/
Colorado moved high school football to February start and hope to finish sometime in May
Michigan ALWAYS > ohio!
Especially in the cost of auto insurance.
Does the timing really matter to the schools? Wouldn’t they have already known this and been involved in the discussions?
You might think so, but no.
These associations represent over a 1,000 schools. They don't have the time or resources to involve everyone. The leadership meets by committee, often in secret, and then announces the decisions when they are ready (in this case, springing it on them right before a weekend).
High school football is all about traditions and rivalries. With this setup, if your school plays your big rival in the 8th game of the year, you have to figure out how to keep it and if so, what early game gets removed. Tons of domino effects, so a lot of work to do.
Guess I’ve learned something new today then. I assumed the decision would’ve been made at least a day prior to the public announcement and that they would’ve gotten notification of it ahead of the news posting that let the general public know.
These associations certainly could do it that way, but it would take a lot of work, so they don't. Here's an example from Twitter (from a local OH sports reporter) on how people feel.
One area Athletic Director just texted me this on the OHSAA news:
— Jordan Strack (@JordanStrack) August 7, 2020
“It is incredibly disrespectful and unprofessional to send this email out at 4:15 on a Friday with no warning.”
Schools are now scrambling.
What a shame to actually make the athletic directors do some work when they got most of the spring season off.
As a teacher (and former coach) in Ohio, I can say that OHSAA has been an absolute disaster through this process. I think they took a lot of heat for canceling the end of the winter season and the entire spring season as abruptly as they did. There was, I understand, a recent change in leadership, and the current leadership seems bent on letting schools be the bad guys rather than actually making decisions. As a result, you have a number of schools in the Cleveland area (including mine) that have canceled all fall sports on their own, leaving other schools scrambling to fill their schedules. Apparently when our school canceled its fall season, part of the justification was that more than half of the scheduled games had already been canceled anyway. OHSAA has been behind the curve on everything.
The people are this board are so desperate to be 'better than Ohio' at something.
August 8th, 2020 at 12:30 AM ^
We are pretty much light years ahead of Ohio in the only thing that matters for educational institutions so there's that too...
I mean, at this point it feels like it's almost contractual in how they're scheduling this season. Like, they get paid if a couple of games are played and come hell or high water, they're getting that paycheck.
I'd be fine with states basically saying "we're going to try in the spring and if not, so be it". Because this constant jerking around feels immensely country-productive and disruptive for all involved.
This actually sounds like a really well thought out plan. 6 weeks and then everyone makes the playoffs. That way if a game or 2 get cancelled you are still in playoffs. Then if covid doesn't get bad you can play more games after the playoffs if you choose to do so after being eliminated.
Sure, the scheduling sucks but since everyone gets in you don't have to worry about getting enough points to make it. This should eliminate excess travel.
Regarding the OP, I'll vent my frustration here since I can't do it elsewhere:
Our athletic director and administration have started a trend of making big announcements on Friday afternoons, and the problem is that for a few of the announcements, we need clarification on things by the next week.
"Hey, it's Friday! And you can start off-season workouts on Monday! Have fun sifting through all the rules and regulations, and don't f*** up or we'll all get sued! Okay, I'm off on vacation for the weekend!"
This has caused some major issues.
So yeah, I guess this is the way people are taught in the administrative world.
August 10th, 2020 at 8:52 AM ^
Six pack of action.