Strength of Schedule

[4out1in]

A lot of D1 teams gets a raw deal by the OHSAA . They need to look into expanding Divisions like they do in Football . I'm not sure but I think D1 around 400 boys and in grade 9-12 . That means that you would may have to play a Mason High School with around 1300. That not even sensible. Its one thing to be a D3 with 200 ( not sure of the break down ) taking on a D2 with 275 ( still not sure of the cutoff) and another for a D1 with 400 taking on someone with over 1000 boys . Their logic on the 4 divisions appears that there is an equal number of teams in each division . Expanding divisions and balancing the numbers can be still done . Also in the states eyes i heard that in the count it includes the high school campus , students that attend Tech school , home school and special needs kids. If I'm wrong feel free to call me out on this . Just my 2 cents worth.

I agree with this. The small DI schools have a huge disadvantage. I used to coach at a DI school in Northeast Ohio of 400-some. We would run into Ed's or Ignatius or even Mentor in the tournament. There was a bigger enrollment gap between those schools and us than there was between us and the smallest DIV schools. They should probably go to a super division in DI of 650 or 700 and up. Then, if they're still interested in splitting divisions evenly, they can take the rest of the schools below that super division cutoff and divide them evenly into the remaining 3 divisions. That would be more fair.
I think this was what was originally proposed in football, but the OHSAA screwed the pooch and simply added another division instead of addressing enrollment disparity at the top.

[danicalifornia]

5 Divisions would work, IMO.

Split D1 could be enough, but if you'd want to keep it even, that could be done as well. D1 just has such a gigantic gap in it.

[Chieftain Fan]

I like the idea of a " super division " of 650 and more and divide the rest in 3 divisions or maybe 4 . The numbers would be easy to work out . Does anyone know how to approach the association on this idea. I would assume that either Supt and or AD would be the one to get this started . This is as big a problem as competitive balance or more so . Some Schools are getting bigger and bigger and that makes the balance more of an issue. Just my opinion.

[trojandave]

A 22 game schedule allows for most schools to schedule up if they so desire. I know that most league schedules play about 14 games maximum, with some exceptions (the OVC has a 14 game schedule). If a school has 8 non-conference games, there's still enough room to schedule out of district teams and still have traditional rivalries intact. I know that Columbus schools have always been good about going on the road outside their district to play.

Where a weak schedule really hurts a particular team is in regional play........I have seen it time and again where a SE district team struggled against teams outside the district. For example, Greenfield McClain under Coach Van Matre had some outstanding teams that won I believe 7 district titles. But the Tigers always fell short in the regional because their schedule didn't prepare them for that level of competition. The closest McClain came to making the Final 4 was in 1987, when they lost to eventual state champion Columbus DeSales in the regional final 52-51.

Two years ago, Unioto rolled over about everybody going undefeated into the 2015 regional. But the Shermans lost to a Columbus Walnut Ridge team that I thought was not as good as UHS (missed FT's in the last 2 minutes killed the Shermans). Walnut Ridge was not intimidated by Unioto's undefeated record; playing in the Columbus City League makes those players mentally tough, to go along with their physical talents. Much to Unioto's chagrin, the Scots won the regional but lost in the state semifinal. I really thought that Unioto team was the best D2 SE district team since the 2008 Chillicothe state championship team, and even better than the 2009 Logan Elm Final 4 team.

[trojandave]

4out1in: I totally agree that the small D1 schools are at a big disadvantage, with such a huge discrepancy in enrollment. I am definitely in favor of a 5th division, which would split up the current D1. The state of Florida has 9 divisions for its basketball tournament. I think that 5 for Ohio would be enough.

In 2013, Mentor played Toledo Rogers for the state championship in D1. Mentor won 76-67. Mentor had an enrollment of almost 1,000 boys, while Toledo Rogers had about 380. This game was certainly an enrollment aberration, and definitely not the norm.

[93Bulldog]

Who else can say they play pfloyd's top three teams besides Athens?

#1 Fairland (5-0) on 1/14
#2 Vinton County (7-0) lost 78-59
#3 Warren (5-0) on 1/21
(NR) Morgan (6-0) on 2/14
#10 Logan Elm (5-3) won 70-62
#13 Marietta (5-2) on 2/11
#2 Vinton County (7-0) on 1/27

* Also Parkersburg (3-2) on 1/10
* Also Bishop Watterson on 2/4

[michigan]

Wilmington was/is the smallest D1 in the state. They were over by 1-2 boys for last year and this year. They were unbelievable last year with their pressure everywhere (and of course Cumberland at UC now). Still returned 3 starters and are very good. The Miami Trace win over the Hurricane is super impressive.

Raider- is it wrong to say that the D2 games are usually the most entertaining? Libbey/Chillicothe, Dunbar/Upper Sanduskyx2, JG/SVSM are some that stand out to me as amazing games.

D2 and D3 are always the best. Sucks Kennard didn't make it to state last year. Still nothing beats OJ Mayo and Bill Walker and OJ is from South Point

Always the biggest argument is who was better, Lebron James at Akron SVSM or Clark Kellogg at Cleveland VASJ

Kennard did not make it to State last year because he was at DUKE as the starting two guard...

[Raider6309]

Bishop Watterson gets their 7 foot recruit here soon. He came from Dublin Jerome. Morgan lost to Steubenville 80-70 last year in the district final. Morgan is very good. Parkersburg will be tough

[thebarlowbandit]

Bishop Watterson gets their 7 foot recruit here soon. He came from Dublin Jerome. Morgan lost to Steubenville 80-70 last year in the district final. Morgan is very good. Parkersburg will be tough

Watterson is a whopping 2-5, outside of the name, not much.


And a team probably didn't do well enough in the Regional because they weren't the better team. I mean, they have the home court advantage, most of the time shorter travel time, never have to spend the night and yet despite all these advantages the SE only looses because they didn't travel to the far corners of the state to play this years top ranked team in a place where family is unable to come and watch.

[93Bulldog]

What would Watterson be if they played in southeast district? Records are misleading when facing columbus teams.