Rover- yes the Central League has said league games only , and no post season play. There have been some rumblings that a few schools want to challenge this. But if they start the season on October 23 ,and Districts Start november 6 , not sure how any school can even qualify.
Qualifying is going to be a trip. I’m sure they’re going to use the same ratings that seed the D1 tourney, which always seems kind of hairy from the outside, but works itself out in a bracket so big. Expect a field to look like 2001 - and I’ll plug my State Champs project from that year which kind of outlines what a weird four team field D1 got that year.
From a D11 standpoint, the biggest casualty statewide might be Notre Dame in 3A. They’ve scored a million points in the first couple weeks, and unlike last postseason, will have 1,000 yard running back Matt Freuen,who had to sit out last year as an athletic transfer. He’s already run for over 500 yards in three games, and the Phil Stambaugh passing attack is once again really good.I had thought ACC might be a player in the state in 4A,but they got trucked last week by Nazareth. East Stroudsburg South was interesting in a 5A hollowed out in the East with no Wood (if Whitehall could get their shit together, they could be a state finalist with Wood up). 6A would have been stomped by SJP, next question.
—-stop reading if you don’t want a boring history lesson—
I was reminded yesterday that the last time the D11 champ didn’t go to states in big school was the 1992 William Allen team. To tell you how long ago that was 1) William Allen won a District title! They haven’t won many games, period, in the last decade and a half. 2) their head coach was Rich Snisack, who went onto build Parkland into the program we know today, and is now the superintendent of Parkland schools. 3)They beat Dieruff in the final, one week after Dieruff beat them for the East Penn championship. Again, the two Allentown public schools competing for championships in football is a long, long way away. 4) Their star was Nate Hobgood-Chittek,a dominant defensive tackle and tight end who went on to play for Mack Brown at North Carolina (I guess that one has come back around) and spent five years in the NFL, including winning a Super Bowl with the Kurt Warner Rams. Hobgood-Chittek tragically passed away in 2017. 5) They got out pointed by Cumberland Valley for the playoff spot, who went on to win the state title with Jon Ritchie. 6) It was the fourth time in five years that D11 was left out of the playoffs for the D3 school. Brackets expanded in 1994, then D3 and D11 we’re matched up in a quarterfinal starting in 1996. D11 went 6-2 head to head against D3.
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