BarringtonJP wrote:
OK, as a native of St.Clair County, I take exception here.
1.) 'Downstate people' harbor a disdain for Chicagoans, but it's reserved for the Cubs fans, by and large.
Smarmy as they are with their platinum toothpicks ...... Can't blame 'em for that.
BarringtonJP wrote:2.) Are you somehow advocating that the IHSA not divvy up into sectionals and just make the scholastic bowl playoffs into one giant, seeded tournament? One where New Trier would open up against, say, East St. Louis?
No. However, there needs to be some geographic limits, but here are some options:
1. Call upon a learned group to rank the top teams, and if it is geographically feasible, separate them. This is far from difficult to do.
2. When the teams advance to state, this group can then seed the final 8. I've lost track of the number of teams who walk off the stage with those big ol' State Trophies, and simply don't deserve them ..... the only reason they get them are because of the luck of he draw, and the fact that more deserving team
BarringtonJP wrote:3.) Football teams from southern Illinois haven't won a large class state championship since 1990. Is there an outcry in that activity, too, against class 5A/6A teams from southern Illinois effectively being guaranteed a quarterfinal slot in the state series?
Football is a whole other entity. If you are in a weak quadrant, then you should make it to the state quarters, but likely no further ..... though the entire bracket is seeded at the earliest level. Scholastic Bowl is not