Inside the OAA
Covering all 22 OAA teams with insight and thoughts on each team from Northern Oakland County to Southern Oakland County.
Monday, December 14, 2020
Why Everyone Making the Football Playoffs is a Good Thing.
Written Monday December 14th at 2:00 PM
Why everyone making the playoffs is a good thing.
In other sports everyone makes the playoffs. In football it was done this season because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Could this be the norm???
This pandemic playoff format where everyone makes the playoffs has been a success. This is something that the MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl and the MHSAA Representative Council need to seriously look at.
You had some great and intriguing matchups in the postseason that no one would had thought off like Lake Orion/Grand Blanc, West Bloomfield/Sterling Heights Stevenson, Stoney Creek/Chippewa Valley etc.
Oak Park would have not made the playoffs under the old format which is based on strength of schedule and playoff points. In 2019, you needed six wins to make the playoffs. The Knights went 0-6 this season but right now they would be still playing if not for this pause.
How it would work is that everyone plays eight games and expand the playoffs like this year. It would create very interesting storylines.
There are coaches and some fans that are against this model because it rewards bad teams and that everyone makes the postseason. On the flip side if you have played a brutal schedule and don’t have a winning record and you see a team that has an easier schedule make the playoffs then you’ll be up at arms.
OAA 2017 rings that bell.
As a former player and current blogger and podcaster I think this is an awesome format to look at in the future and it creates surprising matchups and teams like we have seen in this postseason.
The pandemic playoff format tells where several schools particularly in the OAA have to be in the conversation.
We know about West Bloomfield, Lake Orion, Clarkston, Oxford, Adams, Oak Park, Southfield Arts and Tech, Groves, Seaholm, North Farmington, Farmington, and Stoney Creek. They have been there and done that. They have won State titles or have had deep playoff runs but there are several schools that have been underachieving programs that could use this experience to reshape their brand.
For teams that were in the Blue this season, it pretty much tells the whole story.
Rochester was the division champ going unbeaten for the first time since 1991 but they were blown out by Adams. Avondale lost to Groves. Troy Athens was blown out by Southfield Arts and Tech. Those three schools lost to OAA schools that were either in the Red or in the White which of course is much tougher competition all in the first round. Ferndale lost to Detroit Renaissance which I’ll mention below about them because their problem seems to be out of league. Pontiac was blown out which I also mention below. Troy and Berkley both won their first round games over Bloomfield Hills and Royal Oak respectably but were blown out by West Bloomfield and Warren Mott in the district semifinals.
Ferndale is the perfect example of a program needing this pandemic playoff format. The Eagles have the smallest enrollment in the OAA but they have a Co-Op program with Ferndale University which puts them in Division Two for the postseason. My biggest issue with Ferndale is that the Eagles have proven they are a league contender in the Blue but it’s when they go out of the OAA and face bigger schools like Detroit Renaissance this is where they struggle. This is something that Coach Eric Royal needs to address this offseason, it’s not the in league but the out of league they need to address.
I was very happy for Pontiac and their student athletes. A football program that has had a very difficult nine years (5-72 since.) Let’s be fair the Phoenix are the only Division Three school in the OAA. For them to experience what it’s like in the postseason is a huge accomplishment. Pontiac had to go to Bay City and got blown out 64-0 by Bay City Central in the first round. The league seriously need to help Pontiac big time especially with what they have been going through maybe give them some open dates not have them go through that gauntlet. I wrote a separate column surrounding this issue.
Should teams be rewarded for the tough schedules they play sure but it’s up to those teams as mentioned in the Blue that need to step up and show results.
At the end of the day this pandemic format gave everyone a chance to play. Should the MHSAA and the Representative Council make this permanent it would be very interesting. It could create a Cinderella story and it gives teams a fresh start from the regular season and into the postseason.
Posted by Saginaw Bay at 10:50 AM