Enough with many of our many going to Ohio to play football games because of scheduling difficulties. Expand the playoffs to 512 teams, eliminate the six-victory shadow that is casted over every football coach and allow more teams and communities into the playoffs.
Executing the change would be rather simple. The ninth week would now be the first round of the playoffs. The teams with 1-7 or 0-8 records that don’t make the playoffs would be allowed to schedule a game against a non-playoff team if they choose.
There is some concern that schools would miss the revenue generated from playing that ninth regular season game. The Michigan High School Athletic Association would simply give the participating schools 80 percent of the revenue for the first round (50 for the home team, 30 for the road) and keep 20 percent.
Some would argue that there would be a number of lopsided games in the first round. Well, there are already lopsided games during the regular season and no one seems to complain about those.
At one time it was just the non-public schools that were affected. Now schools like Muskegon and Hudsonville that schedule games in other states to fill their schedules.
Coaches at many schools don’t want to risk playing a team in the nonconference they know they’ll likely lose to because it’ll make it more difficult to collect six wins and reach the playoffs. Eliminate that number (6) and coaches will be more willing to take a chance and play a team that perhaps has a larger enrollment and a better record.
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