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Fballrules17 wrote:Heritage is in the same boat.  Marion Center will probably finish somewhere between 7-10,  West Shamokin somewhere between 4-6.  

When the PIAA switched to 6 classes it did absolutely nothing for the Shade's, Williamsburg's, and Saltsburg's of District 6.  The ICC, WestPac, and Heritage should all merge (32 Teams) and form enrollment based conferences, that take geography into consideration but base alignment on enrollment and competitive balance.  

Let's face it.  Bellwood gets nothing out of playing Williamsburg and Ligonier gets nothing out of playing Saltsburg and vice versa.  District 6 can do better by their schools.

100% agree. Throw in a school like Penns Valley who is opposite end of spectrum. They may or may not be able to at least compete with other schools their size . We will never know because they get beat up in the Mountain conf. And usually don't qualify for playoffs.

It is absolutely ridiculous that some schools around here play nearly all schedule down in class and the others up... The playoffs should be baased on how teams did playing other schools their own size and playing under the same rules. Then you would have a much better way to evaluate teams for the playoffs and such.

In that I mean schools of similar size and schools with boundaries playing other schools with boundaries as well as schools without boundary restrictions playing each other. Current format is a joke.

With the differences in conferences there isn't much that can be done . If we stick with AA as an example and throw in district 5 teams , there are 15 schools split between 5 conferences. As bad as I think ICC is, they do have a third of those double a teams. I think they should be split according to size . I also think district 5 should be swallowed up by district 6 in AA. It's ridiculous PIAA still crowns district champs with so few schools. Same can be said for 6 in the upper classifications.

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels that way.  Maybe if the decision makers would consider the "greater good" we could see much more competitive football on Friday Nights.  You'll notice that my thought of merging the ICC, Westpac, and Heritage includes only Single A and Double A schools.  incidently all of those schools have boundaries.  At this point I've given up on seeing competitive balance in the district and state play-offs (across the state) with those schools without boundaries.  It's never gonna happen.  If I were a small public school I would just take my ball and go home.

Aiks19 wrote:With the differences in conferences there isn't much that can be done . If we stick with AA as an example and throw in district 5 teams , there are 15 schools split between 5 conferences. As bad as I think ICC is, they do have a third of those double a teams. I think they should be split according to size . I also think district 5 should be swallowed up by district 6 in AA. It's ridiculous PIAA still crowns district champs with so few schools. Same can be said for 6 in the upper classifications.

I think the conferences can include District 6 and District 5 teams.  You wouldn't necessarily split between AA and A.  You would split between the top number about 190-125 and 125-0. 

You are right about the districts.  It makes no sense.  Ohio has Regions, 4 of them in each class.  Split evenly.  In Single A in PA, that would mean Philly to about Altoona would make up 1 region (half the state),  the opposite would be true for 6A, even more so, the western region would almost run from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg. 

There would still be blowouts in my theory . But also I'd think there would be more competition. I know the kids get discouraged even on the winning side. My son's senior year and half his games he will watch from the sideline in the second half . The kids want challenged!

Here's my thought how it should be done (in fairly generic terms). Start with all the schools in the state. 1. Make a league of just schools without boundaries first and foremost.  2. Split the remaining schools into 5 or 6 classifications based on size.  3. divide the classifications into groups based on geographic location (we'll call them districts for the sake of this post) so that every "district" has the same number of teams (as close as possible).  4. Allow teams to play anyone they want to schedule at the beginning of their season before the majority of their season is played against those teams in their "district".  Only the games played against their district count towards making the playoffs.  The other games prepare you for district play and allow for your rivalry games against local teams that may not be your classification.  5. Enjoy more meaningful football all season long. (There's more steps in there lol but I got distracted after starting my post lol)

Aiks19 wrote:There would still be blowouts in my theory . But also I'd think there would be more competition. I know the kids get discouraged even on the winning side. My son's senior year and half his games he will watch from the sideline in the second half . The kids want challenged!

Very true Bellwood destroys in the ICC every year