OT: PIAA Championships preview

[Ship69]

Screw him and the WPIAL. Every time the PIAA tries to fix all the problems with the playoff system the WPIAL schools threaten to leave. All the WPIAL wants is their schools to make the playoffs every year. That's why they went to the garbage 6 classes in the first place. Go back to 4 classes and fix this junk!

Things will never be entirely fair. Because of the tons of little private schools playing basketball, my local high school gets bumped up from our usual 5A in football to 6A in basketball. With an enrollment of about 1,300 it's possible we could end up playing a school of 4,000 in the district playoffs.

[IUPalum]

Don't get me started on Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt, the team that beat Aliquippa. They recruit like crazy and should be playing 6A. The cowardly Mid-Penn Conference doesn't even make them play in the top division of the league, so instead of playing State College, Harrisburg, Central Dauphin, etc. each year, they get to beat an assortment of 5A schools 50-0 each year. A couple of years back McDevitt, on the east shore side of the Susquehanna River, snatches a running back from a west shore school, Mechanicsburg. That kid eventually ended up at Penn State. There is a Catholic school located within the boundaries of the Mechanicsburg school district, so it was hardly about a Catholic education.

All private schools recruit.

[IUPNation]

Don't get me started on Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt, the team that beat Aliquippa. They recruit like crazy and should be playing 6A. The cowardly Mid-Penn Conference doesn't even make them play in the top division of the league, so instead of playing State College, Harrisburg, Central Dauphin, etc. each year, they get to beat an assortment of 5A schools 50-0 each year. A couple of years back McDevitt, on the east shore side of the Susquehanna River, snatches a running back from a west shore school, Mechanicsburg. That kid eventually ended up at Penn State. There is a Catholic school located within the boundaries of the Mechanicsburg school district, so it was hardly about a Catholic education.

They don't need to call it Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt any longer. The Bishop McDevitt of Wyncote PA that competed in the Philadelphia Catholic League closed two years ago. They can just be called Bishop McDevitt.

I don't get the 6 levels either. Although if they went back to 4 classes...I doubt anyone is going to beat St. Joe's most of the time. That school is in North Philadelphia and is blasting everyone off the field. It's not about location either.

[IUPNation]

All private schools recruit.

Your better publics probably do too. Imhotep Charter is technically a public school in Philadelphia...they just can recruit the best players all over the city....and sometimes from outside the city...as long as they have a relative who lives in the city and they use their address to enroll.

[Ship69]

All private schools recruit.

Some are more obvious about it than others. If you're going to have a single state tournament, you either have to have all schools playing by the same rules or start another tournament. And why the hell should Aliquippa have to move up in class, but not McDevitt.

[Ship69]

They don't need to call it Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt any longer. The Bishop McDevitt of Wyncote PA that competed in the Philadelphia Catholic League closed two years ago. They can just be called Bishop McDevitt.

I don't get the 6 levels either. Although if they went back to 4 classes...I doubt anyone is going to beat St. Joe's most of the time. That school is in North Philadelphia and is blasting everyone off the field. It's not about location either.

Illinois has eight classes and seems to do OK. They limit the regular season to nine games and usually have their playoffs done before Pennsylvania.

[Ship69]

Your better publics probably do too. Imhotep Charter is technically a public school in Philadelphia...they just can recruit the best players all over the city....and sometimes from outside the city...as long as they have a relative who lives in the city and they use their address to enroll.

Big cities often allow a lot of transferring between city schools, which can be abused. Of course the privates in the cities positively feast on that. I once read that Mount Carmel, a Chicago-area Catholic school that's a perennial power in Illinois high school football, had access to a recruiting area that included 198,000 students.

[Bart]

Lots of talk about high schools recruiting players. Seems par for the course now that high school players in Pennsylvania can cash in on their name, image and likeness with endorsement deals.

[Ship69]

Lots of talk about high schools recruiting players. Seems par for the course now that high school players in Pennsylvania can cash in on their name, image and likeness with endorsement deals.

Yup. That opens the door for even more abuse. Which schools will have the best NIL salespeople?

[jrshooter]

Some are more obvious about it than others. If you're going to have a single state tournament, you either have to have all schools playing by the same rules or start another tournament. And why the hell should Aliquippa have to move up in class, but not McDevitt.

I'm digging my heels in and standing behind the status quo. The last thing I want to see is separate tournaments for publics and privates. That takes us away from true state champions.

And I look at this much the same way I look at "running up the score." At some point, the program that's losing might need to work at getting better and closing the gap rather than complain about the inequities.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Lots of talk about high schools recruiting players. Seems par for the course now that high school players in Pennsylvania can cash in on their name, image and likeness with endorsement deals.

The high school N.I.L. is hilarious.

Like I give a **** what some 17-year-old from (say) Indiana is promoting.

To each his own, I suppose. In some markets the next superstar will make serious coin. Good for him.

The next 'Lebron' will make $5m as a high school senior. Think about that.

Heck, to the rich goes the spoils.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Some are more obvious about it than others. If you're going to have a single state tournament, you either have to have all schools playing by the same rules or start another tournament. And why the hell should Aliquippa have to move up in class, but not McDevitt.

Aliquippa is just hilarious-- from a reality standpoint.

This is one of the poorest towns in the state. But, all they do is win.

They are, enrollment-wise, a small 1A school. Yet, they voluntarily played up. That wasn't good enough. They volunteered to play from 1A to 3A ... yet they still got forced to go 4A.

Keep in mind this isn't some Catholic school. Nobody in their right mind would move to Aliquippa..

Yet, here they are in the 4A state finals -- with like 22 dudes DRESSED.

IMAGINE if they were allowed to play against schools their own size. They'd have won probably the past 25 1A state titles.

[IUPNation]

School district consolidation in The Yinzerlands is long overdue. There are too many dinky schools out there. Every town does not need a high school,

[Ship69]

I'm digging my heels in and standing behind the status quo. The last thing I want to see is separate tournaments for publics and privates. That takes us away from true state champions.

And I look at this much the same way I look at "running up the score." At some point, the program that's losing might need to work at getting better and closing the gap rather than complain about the inequities.

You'll have a true state champion when everyone is playing by the same rules. Hard to close the gap when one school can recruit from multiple districts and another can't.

[jrshooter]

You'll have a true state champion when everyone is playing by the same rules. Hard to close the gap when one school can recruit from multiple districts and another can't.

Yes. Absolutely. Nobody's going to say it's easy. It's hard to rise to new levels.

The word we aren't using is "impossible."