Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert Goodman
What do they do for standings purposes, count an overtime win as something between a tie and a regulation win?
In most cases, having a few tie games sprinkled around helps spread out the standings to determine championships, as long as it isn't the top teams that tie each other. But that goes only if only conference championships go on to play off. If they have one of these systems where many more teams than you'd need (to realistically determine a champion) qualify for playoffs, then I've no idea whether season ties help resolve qualifications or make them harder to figure.
Of course in playoffs themselves you need to break ties. However, in the finals you don't!
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One of the reasons for "having more teams than you need to realistically determined a champion" is that not all schools compete in the same playoff division within a conference.
I will use this season's Michigan High School State Champions as an example.
In Division 2, Mona Shores High School won the state title in Division 2. They did not win their conference championship this season because they were in a conference with Muskegon High School, a team that spent much of the season ranked in the USA Today national Top 25 (and lost the D3 title game). If we only allowed conference championship winning teams into the playoffs we would not not allow a team that was obviously deserving of winning a state title into the post-season.
This is not the first time a team has failed to win a conference title, but won a state championship. This year alone, from the 8 divisions of MHSAA 11 man football playoffs, the champions in Division 1 (Davison), Division 2 (Mona Shores), Division 5 (Lansing Catholic), and Division 6 (Monroe St. Mary's CC) won state titles without winning their conference. Mona Shores and Monroe St. Mary's CC both lost their conference titles to teams in other divisions. Davison and Lansing Catholic both beat the team in the playoffs that won their conference title.
I don't agree with the 6 win and in system Michigan uses, but that is being replaced for 2020. It will now be pre-determined divisions based on enrollment, with the top 32 teams (out of roughly 67 teams) in each division, making the playoffs based on the new playoff point system that will be used. Those teams will then be bracketed geographically like they are now.
The reason for systems like this is there are teams who may not play well early in the season, but that could make a deep playoff run late in the season when they gel as a team. I've seen 5-4 teams (that get in to "fill the field") win state titles in Michigan before. Farmington Hills Harrison did that the first year of the 6 wins and in playoff system. They lost 2 games in the first 6 weeks, then forfeited two games as well. They sat 2-4 after 6 weeks, but won a state title. One of their losses that season was the state champion in a higher division.