It’s a good thing it doesn’t take a winning record to qualify for high-school football region and state playoffs in Virginia. If that was the case, a number of teams would not be participating.
In the four-team Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association’s Division III state playoffs, two of the participants have records of 2-6 (Fuqua School) and 1-9 (Roanoke Catholic), but earned berths anyhow.
In the Virginia High School League’s eight-team Class 3 Region B tournament, the No. 5 through 8 seeds all have losing marks, with the eighth-seed Armstrong Wildcats of the Richmond area being 2-7 with seventh-seed Warren County of Front Royal and sixth-seed Skyline being 3-7 and 3-6, respectively.
Of those eight teams in the Class 6 Region B tournament, just two have winning marks. Two others are 5-5.
Of the 32 teams statewide playing in the VHSL’s Class 6 region playoffs, nine having 5-5 records and one is 3-7.
The VHSL has significantly expanded the football playoffs in recent years, but really, are teams with two and three wins playoff worthy, or even non-winning teams for that matter, or teams with .500 marks? With football teams with such mediocre to lousy records now qualifying for such postseasons, maybe it’s time to scale back the playoffs.
Otherwise, why have a regular season at all? Just promote the lose-and-advance philosophy, skip right to the postseason and have every team qualify, no matter the records.
– Dave Facinoli
dfacinoli@sungazette.net