6A - What does this mean for Chesmont, PAC10 and Central?

[ChesmontLeague1]

Im in support of the 2 new classes as it will give more schools the chance to drink from the cup in Hershey each year. Sub League seems sets in 2 divisions due to number of schools w the large enrollment. Chesmont National will have 4 teams in this bracket 3 teams either 5A or 4A, 3 non league games plus 1 crossover game against American (5A). This means they will play 3 at least maybe 4 league games against lower classifications. Pac10 and Central will see same issue. Will we see some football agreements between leagues? Or Possibly league mergers? My vote would be for a merger w Pac10 as many were traditional rivals from old days. Thoughts on how this will pan out for the leagues?

 

[D1football22]

PAC-10 is going to 2 Divisions next year. Freedom and Liberty??? One will have the 6A schools (6 teams) and the other division 4A (6 teams). You will play in your Division 5 Regular Season games. No crossover in Regular Season. The only crossover week will be the last week of the season (week 10), with #1 in 6A playing #1 in 4A ( #2 6A plays #2 in 4A, etc). That is 6 games within the League. PAC will start with 4 OOC games to start the season. Some teams MAY play each other as a non-league game in early season. I think Spring-Ford already has Wilson West-Lawn, Exeter and Unionville on the schedule to start the season. I guarantee Perk Valley will play a good OOC schedule. Regarding the Central League... In the future, The PAC and Central should think about having a week of crossover games. Both leagues have 6 AAAAAA and 6 AAAA schools potentially. I would love to see PV or SFord play Ridley, GV, etc.. This will help with Playoff points with the larger schools in the PAC.

 

[D1football22]

So, in essence, the larger PAC schools won't have the issue of playing lower classification teams (except for 1 game) unless they choose to schedule lower classification teams in their OOC schedule early in the season.

 

[Zipline33]

Interesting how this will impact the specific leagues. If 6A, wouldn't you rather play non-league 6 versus in-league 4's or 5's? I suppose the Central League has already been experiencing this scenario (4a versus 3a) so maybe not a big deal...

 

[ChesmontLeague1]

PAC-10 is going to 2 Divisions next year. Freedom and Liberty??? One will have the 6A schools (6 teams) and the other division 4A (6 teams). You will play in your Division 5 Regular Season games. No crossover in Regular Season. The only crossover week will be the last week of the season (week 10), with #1 in 6A playing #1 in 4A ( #2 6A plays #2 in 4A, etc). That is 6 games within the League. PAC will start with 4 OOC games to start the season. Some teams MAY play each other as a non-league game in early season. I think Spring-Ford already has Wilson West-Lawn, Exeter and Unionville on the schedule to start the season. I guarantee Perk Valley will play a good OOC schedule. Regarding the Central League... In the future, The PAC and Central should think about having a week of crossover games. Both leagues have 6 AAAAAA and 6 AAAA schools potentially. I would love to see PV or SFord play Ridley, GV, etc.. This will help with Playoff points with the larger schools in the PAC.

PAC10 seems to be set with 5 league 6A games and 4 OOC games. In the Central League I don't see 6 AAAAA schools I see 4 (Upper Darby, Conestoga, Ridely and Haverford... Garnett Valley and Penncrest will fall into 5A. Maybe we will be playing some Central League teams. Maybe we can get the winningest team in D1 (Coatesville) to play the second winningest (Ridley again). Yeah.. Ridley had some of its best teams of recent years last time they played while Coatesville was restocking. Will be interesting to see what pans out.

 

[Joe_Kane]

If the class size is roughly 96 schools like most estimates show, then the Central League would be broken down as follows:

6A (four schools)
Conestoga
Haverford
Ridley
Upper Darby

5A (eight schools)
Garnet Valley
Harriton
Lower Merion
Marple
Penncrest
Radnor
Springfield
Strath Haven

If that's the case I could see the Central League standing pat and keeping a similar format; having the 6 Big Schools (four 6A schools + two largest 5A schools) all play each other eveyr year and 6 Small Schools all play each other every year, then have 3 cross over league games and 2 OOC games to maintain pretty much the same schedule they use now. I'd love to see them open up the schedule some more, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

 

[ChesmontLeague1]

If the class size is roughly 96 schools like most estimates show, then the Central League would be broken down as follows:

6A (four schools)
Conestoga
Haverford
Ridley
Upper Darby

5A (eight schools)
Garnet Valley
Harriton
Lower Merion
Marple
Penncrest
Radnor
Springfield
Strath Haven

If that's the case I could see the Central League standing pat and keeping a similar format; having the 6 Big Schools (four 6A schools + two largest 5A schools) all play each other eveyr year and 6 Small Schools all play each other every year, then have 3 cross over league games and 2 OOC games to maintain pretty much the same schedule they use now. I'd love to see them open up the schedule some more, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

Joe - If the Central stands pat (same w Chesmont) our 6A schools are going have harder time making playoffs if they have 2 losses of a current schedule vs a Suburban schedule. With all do respect the Central seems to have a hard time at 4A making playoffs with two losses. At first glance it seems like if you are playing 7 or 8 6A games minimum and win them you'd have a better chance of making playoffs vs our leagues current format. I can't see Cville and the 2 Dtowns happy (not sure about Avon Grove). You may have to pull up a regular season point break out scenario of say a Ridley in 2016 vs say a Pennridge in 2016?

 

[ChesmontLeague1]

Joe - If the Central stands pat (same w Chesmont) our 6A schools are going have harder time making playoffs if they have 2 losses of a current schedule vs a Suburban schedule. With all do respect the Central seems to have a hard time at 4A making playoffs with two losses. At first glance it seems like if you are playing 7 or 8 6A games minimum and win them you'd have a better chance of making playoffs vs our leagues current format. I can't see Cville and the 2 Dtowns happy (not sure about Avon Grove). You may have to pull up a regular season point break out scenario of say a Ridley in 2016 vs say a Pennridge in 2016?

Lets say Ridley goes 9-1 and Pennridge goes 7-3 hypothetically next year. Wouldn't surprise if they are close on playoff points.

 

[PAFootball2012]

Is there any way Garnet Valley can go into 6A even if they are classified in 5A? They have always been competitive in 4A and I don't see them being okay dropping Down a class

 

[Zipline33]

Is there any way Garnet Valley can go into 6A even if they are classified in 5A? They have always been competitive in 4A and I don't see them being okay dropping Down a class

Good catch on GV, great program. I don't see why they would NOT drop down. They will have a better shot at winning district. It looks like they will be one of the teams that will benefit from the change.

 

[SPEED&JUMP DR.]

You can always play up in class, but never down., I think leaques all around are going to shake things up a bit. The central league 6A teams would have to go 9-1 to make the playoffs under current scheduling. Using this years schedule ridley only has 3 6A games and 7 5A games. They would never qualify going 7-3. And remember, they are reducing the season by one less playoff game-so 6A in district 1 would likely only have 8 qualifiers-not 16. This is horrible because more than once the district champ came from the 9-16 seeds. Next yhear that cant happen.

Look at the PCL. If they insist in keeping the separate championship format-we already know who is playing for the 5A championship next year-Ryan v. Wood. Regualr season means absolutely nothing. And how does either team fill a 15 week schedule unless its filled with byes. So they could play that game in week 11 for the PCL 5A championship, then sit around and wait for the PUB champ then District 1 champ.

Realistically, I think you going to see more of the regional district playoffs instead of each district in and of itself. Call it the SEPA region and take 16 teams as far down as 4A-combining both District 12 and District 1-top 16 based on points. The downside to that is the PUB would be lucky to get in more than 1 team at the 4A, 5A or 6A level and both the PUB & PCL would not be able to crown individual champs. So would it be more important for them to compete for a state championship or league championship. Right now the arrangement they have with the PIAA allows them to do both. Would the PUB or PCL walk away from the PIAA over this? Some say they would and it would be a subtle way of getting Wood, LasSalle, St Joes out of the PIAA.

 

[Joe_Kane]

Joe - If the Central stands pat (same w Chesmont) our 6A schools are going have harder time making playoffs if they have 2 losses of a current schedule vs a Suburban schedule. With all do respect the Central seems to have a hard time at 4A making playoffs with two losses. At first glance it seems like if you are playing 7 or 8 6A games minimum and win them you'd have a better chance of making playoffs vs our leagues current format. I can't see Cville and the 2 Dtowns happy (not sure about Avon Grove). You may have to pull up a regular season point break out scenario of say a Ridley in 2016 vs say a Pennridge in 2016?

I'm not saying I agree with it; just what I could see happening. We talk about what's best to get these teams into the playoffs; but for all we know that might not be a priority to the athletic directors, I could see them being more worried about keeping their league(s) together.

 

[D1football22]

speed- You forgot that the Season starts a week earlier!! Thus, A team can choose to play 1 or 2 scrimmages. If they play 1, they can have a Regular Season of 10 games. If 2 scrimmages 9 games.. The D1 Playoffs will not change. 16 teams at 6A. 6A won't have 44 teams like this year, but close to 40. D1 playoffs will not be 8 teams. It will be 16. Like it is now!!!

 

[not_a_fan]

With the even split plan RoverNation has posted, 5A in District 1 will have a lot of parity with most of the old small 4A schools now having a chance to win the the District (Garnet, Upper Dublin, Unionville, Rustin, Henderson, Great Valley). None of the teams in the 5A scenario have ever won a 4A D1 title.

Another team that will be mighty happy about this scenario is Pottsgrove. They would be in 4A with little to no competition for the top spot each year b/c they will play mostly 6A and 5A teams. They could legitimately win 4 games and be the top seed every year.

But boy, the WPIAL is still loaded in the top 3 classes with most of their top 4A and 3A schools now being spread across 6A, 5A, & 4A. Bottom line is that even with 2 new classes-the same players will still be in the game for a state championship.

 

[Zipline33]

Based on the changes, they may have to review the point system. Perhaps 10 points per class difference (rather than current 20)

 

[Joe_Kane]

Based on the changes, they may have to review the point system. Perhaps 10 points per class difference (rather than current 20)

Yeah, I'll be interested to see how they adjust the formula.

 

[Busch08]

I'm not saying I agree with it; just what I could see happening. We talk about what's best to get these teams into the playoffs; but for all we know that might not be a priority to the athletic directors, I could see them being more worried about keeping their league(s) together.

Joe is there any chance you see leagues splitting up? I was working up two leagues that combined Central and Del-Val at the 5A level, but now the new numbers released on EasternPAFootball would ruin my idea. I had Sun Valley returning and made a stronger division and a weaker division where the bottom of the stronger would go to weaker the following year and top dog of weaker would go to stronger division. Just wishful thinking. Interested to see how this pans out. Some strong programs at the 5A level that are going to have a legitimate shot at playing December football.

Cheers,

Busch

 

[Joe_Kane]

Joe is there any chance you see leagues splitting up? I was working up two leagues that combined Central and Del-Val at the 5A level, but now the new numbers released on EasternPAFootball would ruin my idea. I had Sun Valley returning and made a stronger division and a weaker division where the bottom of the stronger would go to weaker the following year and top dog of weaker would go to stronger division. Just wishful thinking. Interested to see how this pans out. Some strong programs at the 5A level that are going to have a legitimate shot at playing December football.

Cheers,

Busch

Busch, if history is any indicator the Central League will be steadfast in trying to keep their league together. They've shown in the past that they like where they're at, they like that every member has a team in every sport, etc. I don't know if they'd want to break up the league to make football-specific changes; but who knows maybe the new classes will be the straw that breaks the league's back. But I don't think combining the Central and Del Val would solve much as the DV would only bring Penn Wood to the table as a 6A team.

 

[SPEED&JUMP DR.]

One thing we have to remember is this is more than a football only decision, it affects other sports as well like basketball, baseball, lacrosse, etc. of which the Central league regularly does very well. So I don't see the central league making any rash changes just to accommodate the sport of football. But I do see issues down the road for the 6A central league schools the will end up playing a predominately 5A schedule is ALL sports. Either they need to change the schedule or the point system will need to be adjusted.

 

[Busch08]

Joe and Speed,

I completely understand what you are saying. I agree & highly doubt that a switch would occur just for football. Their will be major issues for Upper Darby, Haverford, Ridley, Conestoga & Penn Wood if they play a predominant 5A schedule. At the 5A level some Del-Val league programs would have to take a long look at how to schedule non league games. They can't fill them with any A to AAA teams and even some new AAAA programs will be tough if they don't win a significant amount of games for bonus points.

Looking at easternpafootball's breakdown, who ever comes out of 5A District 1 will have gone through a solid playoff run before squaring up with District 12 team.

Cheers,

Busch

 

[Fletchster1]

Wait a minute - there's other sports besides football?