MSHSL adds a 7th class in football

[BodyShots]

From the sounds of it, I'm a bit younger than Bodyshots, and even in my lifetime that has changed. Kids go out of sports and instead of asking what they can do to get better, they ask what they need to do to get the letter. What happened to simply doing things for the sake of doing them?

I don't mind letters given out for more things, but they are again given out more loosely. It's the same thing with trophies.

Interesting. From reading all of your posts, I had the feeling that I was quite a bit younger than you.

You read all of my posts? You must have gained much knowledge from all those essays

OK, I lied. I didn't read all 5000+ posts that you wrote. But I still think your older.

[HShockeywatcher]

John Millea has a piece on the change at www.mshsl.org

I had to search around a little bit (which is not very efficient with MSHSL's search engine), but found http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/johnsjournal.asp
A very good read; some key points, I find interesting:

Kuisle, a former board member as well as past president of the board, told the members that 5A football “needs to be fixed” because of the size disparity between schools. Kuisle suggested adding a new class for the largest schools, telling the board, “The disparity of a 3-1 ratio is becoming unsafe for kids. 1,200 vs. 3,000; it’s wrong and I’m tired, as an athletic administrator, of trying to defend this and tolerate this disproportionality.”

So the next time you hear someone complaining about how “the MSHSL wants everyone to win a medal,” tell them that the MSHSL is just a bit more concerned with safety than medals.

Currently, football is structured like this…
5A: 57 teams
4A: 51 teams
3A: 65 teams
2A: 66 teams
1A: 66 teams
Nine-man: 77 teams

6A: 32 teams
5A: 48 teams
4A: 48 teams
3A: 54 teams
2A: 61 teams
1A: 61 teams
Nine-man: 77 teams

How many football classes do other states have? That was a popular question on Facebook and Twitter after the MSHSL board voted. Here’s a sampling: Texas has 12; Michigan and Illinois have eight; Wisconsin, Missouri and Kansas have seven; Iowa, South Dakota, Ohio, Kentucky and Washington have six; Indiana has five; North Dakota has four.

1 Wayzata 3060
2 Eden Prairie 3007
3 Minnetonka 2750
4 Stillwater Area 2670
5 Champlin Park 2571
6 Blaine 2551
7 Burnsville 2530
8 Anoka H.S. (Coop) 2521
9 Edina 2436
10 White Bear Lake Area 2257
11 Prior Lake 2154
12 Eagan 2147
13 Maple Grove 2142
14 Coon Rapids 2120
15 Hopkins 2070
16 Eastview 2056
17 Centennial 2017
18 Rosemount 2013
19 Osseo (Coop) 1996
20 Forest Lake 1952
21 Roseville Area 1840
22 Elk River (Coop) 1792
23 Robbinsdale Armstrong 1789
24 Lakeville South 1774
25 Minneapolis South (Coop) 1744
26 Shakopee 1736
27 Woodbury 1715
28 Lakeville North 1711
29 Brainerd 1685
30 Mounds View 1671
31 North 1671
32 Park 1656

Now that should add a little more fact to the discussion.

While I understand (although I don't know that I agree with) the rational for the smaller top class, that doesn't mean that we need an additional class. There are 272 teams between 1A and 5A for 2012. That'd be 68 teams a class if we downsized that into 4 classes. There is definitely a disparity between the top two and those 10-15 below them. But after that, the disparity stops as far as I can tell.

What confuses me is the "doing this for safety" comments. Based on what they did, it is okay for a team from Cottage Grove (1656) to play Wayzata and safety is not an issue but it is not okay for Century (1275) to play that same school.

To really address the school size issue if there is a huge correlation between school size/safety (which I think is pretty crazy) having the top class be 16 schools would handle that. After #10, enrollments decline pretty steadily.

[defense]

Safety???? just when you thought you'd heard it all......I think that the football teams should schedule no one untill the weekend before the first week of the regular season. By that point, all of the teams should pretty much know who is going to play and in what role. On that weekend, the coaches can input the information on their players' positions and height and weight on some board such as this. At that point, they can schedule the teams that match up teh best with them, we should do this for safety.
Also, the coaches should required to post the records of their teams from the previous season and write a short overview of their expectations for the upcoming season. This is so that we can try and avoid any major talent mismatches which might result in a blowout.
Just my two cents.
The only other option that I can see to resolve this issue is for the MSHSL to sponser 48 or even 52 state tournements. Section playoffs would be a thing of the past. THis way every team would get to play in the State Tournement.

[HShockeywatcher]

Safety???? just when you thought you'd heard it all......I think that the football teams should schedule no one untill the weekend before the first week of the regular season. By that point, all of the teams should pretty much know who is going to play and in what role. On that weekend, the coaches can input the information on their players' positions and height and weight on some board such as this. At that point, they can schedule the teams that match up teh best with them, we should do this for safety.
Also, the coaches should required to post the records of their teams from the previous season and write a short overview of their expectations for the upcoming season. This is so that we can try and avoid any major talent mismatches which might result in a blowout.
Just my two cents.
The only other option that I can see to resolve this issue is for the MSHSL to sponser 48 or even 52 state tournements. Section playoffs would be a thing of the past. THis way every team would get to play in the State Tournement.

Yeah, I don't know a lot about the ins and outs of HS football in MN, but safety is a coaching thing. I would think that punishing programs for excessive improper tackling penalties, making sure refs are calling games well, and other such steps are what will actually make the games safer. Bad tackling and hitting after the whistle have very little to do with school size.

I'd be curious to hear from more people on actual thoughts of coaches and school personnel.