Though at Westside we are generally in that percentage of teams not in the top 28-33%, I wonder about having fewer teams in the playoffs.
If less teams made the playoffs, there would definitely be a decline in lopsided first round matches. It would be more of an honor to make the playoffs. The season would end a few days earlier. I could go on...
On the other hand, in some professional leagues, the NBA, NFL, and MLS to name a few, approx. 50% of the teams in the league make the playoffs. Again, even at the highest level, there are some mismatches in the opening rounds of the playoffs. But if only the top 25% of the teams in the league made the post-season, imagine how many late season games would be tanked, players would quit trying, coaches would be fired, etc., because teams would know much earlier in the year whether or not they would qualify for post-season play.
This would be a huge change to the landscape of professional and prep sports in America. MLB Baseball currently only takes a small percentage of teams into the playoffs. In Europe, only the top 3-4 teams from La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, the English Premier League, etc. make the Champions League. Teams that finish 5-8th spot can earn a bid to the Europa League. But still these numbers only amount to about the top %28-%33.
Kind of like Americans preferring a happy ending when they go to the movies; in athletics, we tend to reward mediocrity moreso than in other nations. Perhaps it's because we focus on SO MANY sports. Perhaps there's something about a "feel good" story that is more appealing to Americans than say Germans or the French.
I think taking less prep sports teams to the playoffs would not be a bad idea. I also think it would crush the hearts of many a teenage athlete who dreams to make the playoffs (though those dreams may be crushed even more harshly when their team is pounded in the first round).
Finding a way to set up a series of matches between the top handful of soccer teams across the state in all classifications, and allowing these teams to meet in a central/neutral location to play one another over the course of the year in order to determine an ALL-CLASSES champion will probably be the closest we ever get to the ideas being proposed.
With the sceduling and organizational skills of coaches like Steve Lea, Kevin Heise, Bill Tooley, etc. (on the girls side), I honestly believe South Carolina could make this happen and do it WITHOUT changing the whole system.
Here's to the hope that someone really does take the initiative...
