Realignment talk: Here we go

The teams in Class AA.

Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby NorthDakota11 » Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:48 am

Bisonguy06 wrote:Time for me to eat some crow... of the former AA teams, Rugby lost, Hazen lost and Watford City didn't dominate. I predicted Watford and Hazen would romp. I should've paid more respect to Harvey and their tradition. In the four class system, the gap between AA and A has always been small. The realignment last year didn't ruin 'A.' Watford may win it, but they'll have to earn it.


Bison, you can eat all the crow you want (upsets happen, and is Harvey beating anyone really an upset???) but I don't think you have to, I think what happened last weekend just strengthens the argument for going back to a three class system... You have two teams that no one can argue would be very competitive in Class AA this year playing Class A... (Watford and Hazen) you could at least add Harvey to that list and probably some others...

I could come up with a very competitive 24 (maybe 32)team AA... and then we could have an "elite 8" AAA and then all the 9-man and A schools can figures something out... maybe rotating State Championships where you play 9-man one year in the Dakota Bowl and 11 man the next... (This would be ideal for Steve34 I think) hahaha

I hope everyone can understand that last part was a total joke... but seriously now, you have Hazen getting beat by Harvey, and Watford having a scare in their game... Tells me that AA and A aren't that different... Why not combine the two... and make the bigger AA schools go back to AAA where they were not so long ago?
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Bisonguy06 » Wed Oct 28, 2009 5:24 pm

Good points... I think we are at a crossroads here with football. We will continue to have declining enrollment, leading to school closings, co-ops, and teams dropping from 11 to 9 man football. We WILL NOT have the four class system forever.

And if we have crazy proposals to drop to 10 teams in AAA, maybe that's a sign that we're already at the point where we can't justify four classes anymore. To get to 10, we're going to force three teams down a level, teams that have always competed in the top division in every sport? I definitely prefer a three class plan to this new proposal.

What kind of division has only 10 teams??? Here are just a few things that happen when you have a 10 team division. (Under the proposed plan, 8 of 10 teams make the playoffs)

1) 3-6 definitely gets you into the playoffs. 2-7 probably gets you in. And if the bottom three teams tie at 1-8, a 1-8 team gets into the playoffs.

2) Every single playoff game will be a rematch of a regular season game. There will be no new matchups. Heck, why are you even having playoff games? Hasn't the regular season champ already proven itself if they run the table?

3) More miles, more missed classroom time. Minot will make two regular season trips to Fargo and one trip to Grand Forks every year, assuming that they host the other two Fargo schools. They'd eventually have to hit the road east in the playoffs again.

Think of the alternative: the east division in a 16 team AAA in 2011 could consist of West Fargo, Fargos North, South, Davies, Shanley, Grand Forks Central and Red River, and Wahpeton. A whole league of I-29 schools! The 5 Fargo teams would have no conference road trip longer than 75 miles!
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby bballfan7 » Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:18 pm

Bisonguy06 wrote:Good points... I think we are at a crossroads here with football. We will continue to have declining enrollment, leading to school closings, co-ops, and teams dropping from 11 to 9 man football. We WILL NOT have the four class system forever.

And if we have crazy proposals to drop to 10 teams in AAA, maybe that's a sign that we're already at the point where we can't justify four classes anymore. To get to 10, we're going to force three teams down a level, teams that have always competed in the top division in every sport? I definitely prefer a three class plan to this new proposal.

What kind of division has only 10 teams??? Here are just a few things that happen when you have a 10 team division. (Under the proposed plan, 8 of 10 teams make the playoffs)

1) 3-6 definitely gets you into the playoffs. 2-7 probably gets you in. And if the bottom three teams tie at 1-8, a 1-8 team gets into the playoffs.

2) Every single playoff game will be a rematch of a regular season game. There will be no new matchups. Heck, why are you even having playoff games? Hasn't the regular season champ already proven itself if they run the table?

3) More miles, more missed classroom time. Minot will make two regular season trips to Fargo and one trip to Grand Forks every year, assuming that they host the other two Fargo schools. They'd eventually have to hit the road east in the playoffs again.

Think of the alternative: the east division in a 16 team AAA in 2011 could consist of West Fargo, Fargos North, South, Davies, Shanley, Grand Forks Central and Red River, and Wahpeton. A whole league of I-29 schools! The 5 Fargo teams would have no conference road trip longer than 75 miles!


This is a pretty good plan but a few things that I see could cause problems is Jamestown in the west will still have to miss class time against Williston Dickinson and Minot which they probably already miss going to grand forks. Minot and Dickinson will still be out of the Classroom when they play each other. Also how many non conference games are going to be played a year im guessing 2. That means that Williston is going to have to schedule 2 of those I-29 teams and that makes one long trip for williston and one long trip for whoever plays them that year.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Indy5 » Wed Oct 28, 2009 8:33 pm

bballfan7 wrote:
Bisonguy06 wrote:Good points... I think we are at a crossroads here with football. We will continue to have declining enrollment, leading to school closings, co-ops, and teams dropping from 11 to 9 man football. We WILL NOT have the four class system forever.

And if we have crazy proposals to drop to 10 teams in AAA, maybe that's a sign that we're already at the point where we can't justify four classes anymore. To get to 10, we're going to force three teams down a level, teams that have always competed in the top division in every sport? I definitely prefer a three class plan to this new proposal.

What kind of division has only 10 teams??? Here are just a few things that happen when you have a 10 team division. (Under the proposed plan, 8 of 10 teams make the playoffs)

1) 3-6 definitely gets you into the playoffs. 2-7 probably gets you in. And if the bottom three teams tie at 1-8, a 1-8 team gets into the playoffs.

2) Every single playoff game will be a rematch of a regular season game. There will be no new matchups. Heck, why are you even having playoff games? Hasn't the regular season champ already proven itself if they run the table?

3) More miles, more missed classroom time. Minot will make two regular season trips to Fargo and one trip to Grand Forks every year, assuming that they host the other two Fargo schools. They'd eventually have to hit the road east in the playoffs again.

Think of the alternative: the east division in a 16 team AAA in 2011 could consist of West Fargo, Fargos North, South, Davies, Shanley, Grand Forks Central and Red River, and Wahpeton. A whole league of I-29 schools! The 5 Fargo teams would have no conference road trip longer than 75 miles!


This is a pretty good plan but a few things that I see could cause problems is Jamestown in the west will still have to miss class time against Williston Dickinson and Minot which they probably already miss going to grand forks. Minot and Dickinson will still be out of the Classroom when they play each other. Also how many non conference games are going to be played a year im guessing 2. That means that Williston is going to have to schedule 2 of those I-29 teams and that makes one long trip for williston and one long trip for whoever plays them that year.

Ok, first, Minot and Dickinson have to be in the same region no matter what ( except for dickinson dropping down) and they have been forever so that game is nothing new. And for Williston, Don't they play a Montana team already? So just keep that game and maybe scheldue a AA team like Trinity or something. And if they don't want to do that, having one trip to Fargo every other year won't kill them. Thats missing a lot of class one day in the year. Not a huge deal.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Bisonguy06 » Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:41 pm

Ok, we are bouncing around a lot of ideas here... I just want to fully explain what I have in mind.

If it were me, I'd go back to the way it was a couple years ago with 16 teams in AAA. I don't care who the 16 are, I'd have 16. It's a good, round number. Only half your teams make the playoffs. It would mean something to get to the playoffs. You're back to an east and a west. You save miles. You get two nonconference games. One of them would be a long road trip (or you could schedule an out-of-state or AA team), and one of them would be at home.

In 2011, my ideal 16 teams would be the largest 13 schools and 3 out of these 5: Devils Lake, Wahpeton, Valley City, Fargo Shanley, and Bismarck St. Mary's. I listed them in order of size. Devils Lake is the largest of those five.

If we took the 16 largest schools in the state, the leagues would look like this:
AAA east
GFC, GFRR, WFargo, Fargo North, Fargo South, Fargo Davies, Valley City, and Wahpeton

AAA west
Bismarck, Century, Minot, Jamestown, Mandan, Williston, Devils Lake, Dickinson

Valley City and Devils Lake would not like this plan. Too bad. They're among the 16 largest in the state. But there is an alternative:

A couple years ago, Shanley, and St. Mary's opted up, allowing Devils Lake and Valley City to play down. If they did that again, the leagues would look like this:

AAA east:
GFC, GFRR, WFargo, Fargo North, Fargo South, Fargo Davies, Fargo Shanley, and Wahpeton
This is the I-29 league that I had in mind

AAA west:
Bismarck, Century, Minot, Jamestown, Williston, Mandan, St. Mary's, Dickinson
This is the good ol' WDA. These schools play each other in every other sport.

What's wrong with either one of these plans?
Last edited by Bisonguy06 on Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby GBR » Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:20 pm

I have an idea. Let's take all of the schools up to 200 boys 7-12 and make them one class and the rest can be the upper division. Not fair to the smaller schools?......too bad. Just like it hasn't been fair in FB to have the low end enrollment schools go up against the monsters that have 5 times (no exaggeration) the available pool of athletes. The system is flawed all the way around, but dragging teams up to let them get their butts handed to them every year is not the answer. Make the teams that have 1000 kids or there abouts have 2 separate squads, that makes as much sense as the " I-29 Wahp and VC and DL your screwed" league.

I'm not for the small schools, I'm just against the big ones.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Bisonguy06 » Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:54 pm

Yeah, I'm not out to get DL, Wahp, and Valley City. Two of those three schools would be off the hook if Shanley and St. Mary's opt up, as they always have in the past. The third one would be off the hook as soon as the rapidly growing cities of West Fargo and Bismarck decide to add another high school.

Lots of ideas out there. The topic is whether we like the 10 team AAA. I don't like it. Steve does... does anyone else like the idea? Anyone?
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Indy5 » Thu Oct 29, 2009 7:25 pm

Bisonguy06 wrote:Yeah, I'm not out to get DL, Wahp, and Valley City. Two of those three schools would be off the hook if Shanley and St. Mary's opt up, as they always have in the past. The third one would be off the hook as soon as the rapidly growing cities of West Fargo and Bismarck decide to add another high school.

Lots of ideas out there. The topic is whether we like the 10 team AAA. I don't like it. Steve does... does anyone else like the idea? Anyone?

I don't. WAY too many flaws. No non-conference games, more travel then any other system, Playoffs don't mean that much and more that can be thought of. Those are just right off the top of my head. The Three class system or your idea would be 10 times better than a 10 team AAA.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby NorthDakota11 » Fri Oct 30, 2009 8:13 am

If it wasn't obvious already... Mark me down as a NO... in fact has anyone been in favor of this other then Steve?
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby steve34 » Fri Oct 30, 2009 9:42 am

The top 16 was a failure, and it's tough to see all of you want to go back to it. How many times does a system have to fail before you will decide that it's not a good system?

No one has addressed what the AA schools will look like in the future, or the A schools in the future, compared to the AAA schools. There's a reason why Wahpeton chose not to protest being moved down. They simply won't have the numbers to compete at the AAA level. Shanley won't want to return, and St. Mary's probably won't either. So, you decide to wreck Wahpeton and Valley City for your nice round number of 16. Your plan has nice numbers, but no logic on the current enrollments. None.

I can understand that there are problems with the 10 team AAA system. But returning to 16 is rediculous. And destroying the four-class system? The state has given you a great system of football. You all want to destroy it? You won't be happy till there's a system out there that guarantees your favorite team a title every four years, no matter how much it hurts everyone else.

You are obviously not part of the solution. That means you're part of the problem.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby NorthDakota11 » Fri Oct 30, 2009 10:41 am

"You are obviously not part of the solution. That means you're part of the problem."

I think everyone that has commented on this subject has been very open to other ideas... except for you Steven (you and your 10 team "meaningless" AAA Divison... why even have playoffs... just give the overall best record the championship and play 9 games) this is a tricky issue that has more then one solution. But I think its been proven that teams that are smaller can compete regardless of the level they are at if the right coach and program are in place.

Without the New England coop Trinity could be 9-man (correct me if I'm wrong here) and they are undefeated! The other three top teams should probably be playing AAA for a few more years (Waph's enrollment then falls off the table, I don't think anyone is arguing that) but Shanley and especially Devils Lake will be quite alright for some time. In fact if Shanley got the right coach in there they could compete for AAA titles on a yearly basis...

Steven it is becoming more and more clear to me as to other people i'm sure that you are only interested in one thing... and that is taking care of your school (obviously a larger AA school who could possibly be required to move back up)... as long as your school is in a competitive position every year you could care less about the rest of the schools in the state. you have showed that over and over in your posts. You're not willing to look at any other options. Why is that? I'm not an Class A guy I'm not a Class AA or AAA guy... I just want whats best for North Dakota high school student athletes and you are doing a huge diservice to 60-70% when you're only concerned with taking care of one class... or in your case I think one school.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby NorthDakota11 » Fri Oct 30, 2009 10:47 am

Ok let me change it to Trinity could "ALMOST" be nine man... they have 82 boys the largest 9-man school has 81.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Bisonguy06 » Fri Oct 30, 2009 11:42 am

Steve, can we at least agree that with declining enrollment, it will be difficult to sustain the four class sytem forever?

We're already at a point where over half of all ND football teams make the playoffs. We've got area schools celebrating their first playoff appearance in decades, when in fact all they had to do was finish 4th in a 6 or 7 team region.

I really think the people proposing the 3 class plan here are the forward-thinking folks. They're not looking back to 1996, they are looking ahead to 2016 and a realistic picture of what North Dakota high school athletics will look like.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby beaplayer » Fri Oct 30, 2009 12:12 pm

No matter what the solution is, it will never be completely equitable, so go for the "Best Solution" for all. I think it is wrong to have the 10 team AAA class and have playoffs unless you just let the 1 and 2 seeds go head in a final game. Frankly, it takes some of the point out of the season if you do it this way. There is no playoff to aspire to. Getting rid of non conference games would be a huge mistake. Anyone who watches football know that, aside from natural attrition (injuries and quits), teams get BETTER as the season goes on, so giving all teams 2 games to at least get their feet is very important. I do think that West Fargo is soon going to have to consider another high school, so maybe that irons everything out, but I think the system that allows each team to have some non conference games and not have to travel so far during the regular season is better academically as well as for the game.

When you are talking discrepancies in numbers think about this. The difference between having 1037(FS) males vs 311 males (DL) is about 3X more. Difference between 311 (DL) and 108(Trinity) is 3X.

There is no difference in size difference when you break it down to ratios between what would be the largest and smallest schools in AAA under a plan that moves of DL, and the largest and smallest in AA right now. The smallest school in AA is 2 seed in state, so why can't the smallest seed in AAA do the same thing. Not every male student participates at any level, but getting the right kids to come out and finding the right coach is possible at any school if the AD and coach put there mind to it.

If you pull up the next largest 2 AA schools they drop by 100 students so then that ration jumps to 4 times., which could present them with more of a challenge and probably isn't as reasonable for Fargo Shanley and Wahpeton as it is for Devils Lake, and I'm not sure what there projections are. A bit of it hinges on if West Fargo is looking to build a new school and then it would make sense to move DL up and the WF and then you are back at 14 with the 2 (I think) non conference games.

DL is much more caparable to the smallest 5 AAA schools than it is to the largest AA. They are just at a bad number.

It will be interesting to see how the playoff pans out and what schools end up where-Whether being the biggest or the smallest matters.

It is about being lucky enough to put the special group of kids on the field with the right coach at the right time and it all coming together when you win a championship. The odds are better with a bigger group of kids, but that isn't all there is to it.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Bisonguy06 » Fri Oct 30, 2009 1:01 pm

A new high school in either West Fargo or Bismarck will solve this problem in the long term. You will have a clear cut top 14 schools in this state, and Devils Lake will quite clearly belong in the second division and not the top.

Let's not force Williston, Jamestown, and Dickinson into AA when we are just a few years away from having a natural class of 14 big schools.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Deuce » Fri Oct 30, 2009 1:47 pm

beaplayer wrote:When you are talking discrepancies in numbers think about this. The difference between having 1037(FS) males vs 311 males (DL) is about 3X more. Difference between 311 (DL) and 108(Trinity) is 3X.


But what about 1037 - 311 = 726 more male athletes to pick from vs 311-108 = 203 more male athletes to pick from? To me its a bigger advange to have 700+ more kids to field a team from vs the 3 to 1 ratio argument.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby NorthDakota11 » Fri Oct 30, 2009 2:30 pm

Deuce wrote:
beaplayer wrote:When you are talking discrepancies in numbers think about this. The difference between having 1037(FS) males vs 311 males (DL) is about 3X more. Difference between 311 (DL) and 108(Trinity) is 3X.


But what about 1037 - 311 = 726 more male athletes to pick from vs 311-108 = 203 more male athletes to pick from? To me its a bigger advange to have 700+ more kids to field a team from vs the 3 to 1 ratio argument.


to say all 726 of those will be "athletes" is being dishonest to the argument... Ultimately yes there would be more "potential" athletes at those schools... but I would say at a school like Fargo South the majority of the kids who are going to help a football team are already out as they probably are at Devils Lake... But there are always exceptions and thats where a good "program" and coach make the difference... For example, with the basketball teams Bowman County has had recently there is no reason they should be that BAD at football... Their best athletes don't go out for football... They would be very competitive in my opinion if they could even get half of their good bball players out there!
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Deuce » Fri Oct 30, 2009 2:38 pm

But which do you think is a bigger advantage? 726 more kids to choose from or 211? They may not all be athletes but you only need the 22 best. In my opinion you'll consistantly field a better team picking from an extra 700 vs 200. That's why I didn't think its accurate to say FS & DL a 3:1 ratio is equal to DL & Trinity also 3:1.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Bisonguy06 » Fri Oct 30, 2009 3:02 pm

The 16 team AAA was not a failure, by the way. Of the three smallest schools, Wahpeton was THE SMALLEST PUBLIC SCHOOL IN AAA and they were a perennial playoff team. Shanley was middle-of-the-pack and respectable under coach Feeney. St. Mary's was near the bottom of the west, but not a total doormat.

We don't have to go from 16 to 10 in four years. We can certainly do 14. Looking ahead, we'll have 13 big schools in 2011. Surely at least one of these other three teams can compete in AAA until we get a new high school in West Fargo, right? Last year I was told Shanley would be the solution to this problem and that they'd be willing to opt up. They have a new school building and a beautiful new sports complex right smack in the middle of the fastest-growing part of the fastest-growing city in the state. They're not going to be trending downward in enrollment. They can play AAA until we have a new high school in West Fargo.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Stromer » Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:20 pm

Deuce wrote:But which do you think is a bigger advantage? 726 more kids to choose from or 211? They may not all be athletes but you only need the 22 best. In my opinion you'll consistantly field a better team picking from an extra 700 vs 200. That's why I didn't think its accurate to say FS & DL a 3:1 ratio is equal to DL & Trinity also 3:1.


You make an excellent point. Lets say for arguments sake that a quarter of the male athletes will go out for football. With those extra 726 kids, South will have 181 extra students going out for football compared to DL. On the other hand, DL will only have 53 extra students over Trinity. The 3:1 ration really distorts the gap between the schools.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Indy5 » Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:28 pm

NorthDakota11 wrote:
Deuce wrote:
beaplayer wrote:When you are talking discrepancies in numbers think about this. The difference between having 1037(FS) males vs 311 males (DL) is about 3X more. Difference between 311 (DL) and 108(Trinity) is 3X.


But what about 1037 - 311 = 726 more male athletes to pick from vs 311-108 = 203 more male athletes to pick from? To me its a bigger advange to have 700+ more kids to field a team from vs the 3 to 1 ratio argument.


to say all 726 of those will be "athletes" is being dishonest to the argument... Ultimately yes there would be more "potential" athletes at those schools... but I would say at a school like Fargo South the majority of the kids who are going to help a football team are already out as they probably are at Devils Lake... But there are always exceptions and thats where a good "program" and coach make the difference... For example, with the basketball teams Bowman County has had recently there is no reason they should be that BAD at football... Their best athletes don't go out for football... They would be very competitive in my opinion if they could even get half of their good bball players out there!

Being a good basketball player or baseball player or whatever other sport you are good at doesn't ensure that you will be a good football player. It's a whole different game. Requires different physical abilities, different mindsets,etc.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Indy5 » Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:36 pm

steve34 wrote:The top 16 was a failure, and it's tough to see all of you want to go back to it. How many times does a system have to fail before you will decide that it's not a good system?

No one has addressed what the AA schools will look like in the future, or the A schools in the future, compared to the AAA schools. There's a reason why Wahpeton chose not to protest being moved down. They simply won't have the numbers to compete at the AAA level. Shanley won't want to return, and St. Mary's probably won't either. So, you decide to wreck Wahpeton and Valley City for your nice round number of 16. Your plan has nice numbers, but no logic on the current enrollments. None.

I can understand that there are problems with the 10 team AAA system. But returning to 16 is rediculous. And destroying the four-class system? The state has given you a great system of football. You all want to destroy it? You won't be happy till there's a system out there that guarantees your favorite team a title every four years, no matter how much it hurts everyone else.
You are obviously not part of the solution. That means you're part of the problem.

Thats a pretty bold statement. I know i'm not thinking of my favorite team winning a title every four years because they aren't the best football program ever and they haven't competed for a title in a while anyways. Numbers aren't really the problem they just aren't a great football program. I'm just thinking of whats best for the state and for Bisonguy, if a new school in West Fargo makes 14 teams in AAA, what happens when Bismarck builds a new school? That will be 15 and we will once agian have a problem. I don't know how long this will take for Bismarck to need a new school, what do you think?
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Bisonguy06 » Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:48 pm

Stromer wrote:
Deuce wrote:But which do you think is a bigger advantage? 726 more kids to choose from or 211? They may not all be athletes but you only need the 22 best. In my opinion you'll consistantly field a better team picking from an extra 700 vs 200. That's why I didn't think its accurate to say FS & DL a 3:1 ratio is equal to DL & Trinity also 3:1.


You make an excellent point. Lets say for arguments sake that a quarter of the male athletes will go out for football. With those extra 726 kids, South will have 181 extra students going out for football compared to DL. On the other hand, DL will only have 53 extra students over Trinity. The 3:1 ration really distorts the gap between the schools.


At any given time, 170 out of these 181 will be standing on the varsity sidelines and having no impact on the game whatsoever.

Ratio is the right way to look at this, not overall numbers. Fargo South could get 100 senior boys to go out for football, and 80 of them would never see the field. It would beef up their numbers, but it wouldn't do much to improve the product on the field.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Stromer » Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:55 pm

beaplayer wrote:
DL is much more caparable to the smallest 5 AAA schools than it is to the largest AA. They are just at a bad number.


If just looking at enrollment, yes DL is more comparable to Williston and Dickinson then the AA schools. However, I really think DL's enrollment number is misleading. Looking just at towns, DL is way more comparable to Wahpeton or Valley City then it is to Dickinson. But looking at enrollment, DL has over a hundred more male students then Wahpeton even though Wahpeton is the bigger of the two towns (2000 census). DL is less than half the size of Dickinson but yet is only 100 male students away from them. These numbers just don't add up, which I attribute to DL being next to Spirit Lake and having a large minority population that other towns of comparable size do not have.

The Turtle Mountain situation has already been brought up in this thread. Even though their enrollment is larger, a formula is used to reduce it for classification purposes, as it is well documented that the turnout for football is just not there. I think this could be applied to DL in some aspect as well. DL has a large minority population. However, a smaller percentage of the minority students play football or athletics in general compared to the rest of the student body. Thus, even though enrollment wise DL looks more like Dickinson, athletically it is more like VC or Grafton. This is comparable to Trinity, except it is the complete opposite. Trinity's enrollment could almost qualify them for 9man, yet they are competitive at the AA divison. The difference is that as a private school, the type of kids enrolled there are more likely to go out for sports, which allows them to compete with schools whose enrollments are triple the size.

Bottom line is that this arguably been one of the most competitive fb seasons in recent memory in all divisions. Bringing up schools that should be AA to make a 16 team AAA is not the answer. Dropping down schools that should be AAA to make a 10 team AAA is not the answer either. The answer is to keep the current system. Yes when Davies enters the picture, somethign will need to change. The best solution would be for WF or Minot to add a school, as its overdue and will happen in the future. However until then, one school will have to play up. Unless one of the privates wants to move up, DL is just gonna have to bite the bullet until a new school gets built. Its not perfect but its the best for ND high school football at the current time.
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Re: Realignment talk: Here we go

Postby Bisonguy06 » Fri Oct 30, 2009 7:27 pm

Amen. I think that's a fair analysis on all sides.
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