If there is one thing I love about high school football in Wisconsin, especially being from a former powerhouse program like Monroe, it was the rivalries and the preparation for the playoffs.
When I was a player, it was the chance to get out and play against the teams we grew up cheering against, the teams our brothers played against. Fans traveled in droves to Waunakee, Stoughton, Oregon, Monona Grove and Verona. Then to Milton, DeForest and Fort Atkinson.
Big schools with big kids. Games that would showcase brawn, guts and mental execution. Sometimes schools were bigger than Monroe, sometimes they weren't. For two decades, it didn't matter because Monroe usually won.
What is the WIAA proposing for Monroe's future opponents in the coming years?
Madison Edgewood, Sauk Prairie, Edgerton, Evansville, Lodi and River Valley.
There are two teams on that list that Monroe has a somewhat recent history with - Edgewood and Sauk Prairie. Sauk has been a fixture in the Badger Conference for years and Edgewood joined the Badger when the WISAA folder in 2000. Now, there are two Badger Conferences, North and South, which is fine and dandy. Monroe lost out on its heated rivalry with Waunakee, but picked up a former foe in Fort Atkinson.
But now throw in Edgerton and Evansville (Rock Valley Conference), Lodi (Capitol) and River Valley (Southwest Wisconsin). What do you get? Just schools of similar sizes that will play football against one another. Outside of the "bad blood" against Edgewood, a private school, not really any school has any tradition or rivalry against Monroe.
So now, with the WIAA's plans to switch from its current playoff and conference format to a district format, which will ensure winning teams in each district a playoff berth instead of twiddling thumbs to see where the pieces fall, Monroe will just play "other teams."
Why would the WIAA move to district format? They will give you financial reasons (which, from game admissions losses to travel expenses will likely not have any effect) or other tidbits, but the main reason they are doing it could be to take playoff pressure out of their hands. They want to make it easy so they have less of a chance to screw up the playoff brackets, which seemingly happens every year.
You know, WIAA, if you want to play something that's easy, walk away from the football field and, in the words hall of fame Cheesemakers coach Pat Martin, "Go play Tiddlywinks."
By switching to the district format, teams will get one to two "non-district" games to play to continue rivalries. Well, what about when teams have held rivalries for years with several teams, like the Badger Conference?
Some schools will benefit greatly from the change, some won't. The WIAA is choosing the easy way out. They don't want to spend 24 hours the night of the last set of games each football season to work out the playoff matrix. Several members on the Web site WisSports.net spend the entire season figuring out brackets already. It's basically Wisconsin's high school football version of college basketball's "Bracketology." We know which school should play which and where, but we have to wait for "big brother" to give the go ahead.
The WIAA hasn't released many details about the plan, which may be why it was shot down by a vote of 11-2 when brought up to a group of athletic directors and coaches Jan. 11.
One of the thousand of questions I have is what will happen when a team moves up a division due to enrollment? Monroe has an enrollment of 770, which is down significantly from when I was in school. Division 3 is for school enrollments between 476-840. What if Monroe's population rebounds and the school gets bumped up a division? Will the entire landscape have to be re-worked? Brodhead-Juda has 475 total students. Do they get added?
Sauk Prairie (827) has a better chance moving up a division, so would Brodhead-Juda take their place? Who would then take the Cardinals' place in the Division 4 district?
A school like Lakeland, up in Minocqua (which I covered for a season), has its population vary by dozens or more every year. When I covered them in 2007, the school had just under 1,000 students. This year, 835. That's a big difference and an entire division.
What about schools that decide to drop a program entirely, or that become a new co-op. What would happen if New Glarus, Monticello and Belleville joined as one school district, which has been brought up. Albany teams with Evansville and now there are two or three divisions in a mess from five towns within a John Daly drive from one another.
I would say to keep the system the way it is. If the WIAA wants to hire an outside group of five to 10 individuals to work it all out, they can. Steve Lendosky, a.k.a. "longball" on WisSports.net, has done his own Matrix every year. He posts his updated brackets throughout the season. Maybe his bracket can be a good reference.
If a team has to forfeit before the playoffs begin, which Fox Valley Lutheran had to do a few years ago, is the WIAA going to just install the next team, give another team a bye (which is what happened), or re-structure the entire bracket? I would say to re-structure it. Who cares if it takes another hour, two hours or 12 hours. Some 25-40 kids may get a chance to play in a playoff game, which doesn't happen everyday. It's a great experience to say the least.
Won't somebody please think of the children!
All I'm getting at is that the system right now can work, and, for the most part, it does work. I would dedicate my time to be a part of a committee to figure out the bracket. But this district proposal just has bad news written all over it, for the entire state.
When I was a player, it was the chance to get out and play against the teams we grew up cheering against, the teams our brothers played against. Fans traveled in droves to Waunakee, Stoughton, Oregon, Monona Grove and Verona. Then to Milton, DeForest and Fort Atkinson.
Big schools with big kids. Games that would showcase brawn, guts and mental execution. Sometimes schools were bigger than Monroe, sometimes they weren't. For two decades, it didn't matter because Monroe usually won.
What is the WIAA proposing for Monroe's future opponents in the coming years?
Madison Edgewood, Sauk Prairie, Edgerton, Evansville, Lodi and River Valley.
There are two teams on that list that Monroe has a somewhat recent history with - Edgewood and Sauk Prairie. Sauk has been a fixture in the Badger Conference for years and Edgewood joined the Badger when the WISAA folder in 2000. Now, there are two Badger Conferences, North and South, which is fine and dandy. Monroe lost out on its heated rivalry with Waunakee, but picked up a former foe in Fort Atkinson.
But now throw in Edgerton and Evansville (Rock Valley Conference), Lodi (Capitol) and River Valley (Southwest Wisconsin). What do you get? Just schools of similar sizes that will play football against one another. Outside of the "bad blood" against Edgewood, a private school, not really any school has any tradition or rivalry against Monroe.
So now, with the WIAA's plans to switch from its current playoff and conference format to a district format, which will ensure winning teams in each district a playoff berth instead of twiddling thumbs to see where the pieces fall, Monroe will just play "other teams."
Why would the WIAA move to district format? They will give you financial reasons (which, from game admissions losses to travel expenses will likely not have any effect) or other tidbits, but the main reason they are doing it could be to take playoff pressure out of their hands. They want to make it easy so they have less of a chance to screw up the playoff brackets, which seemingly happens every year.
You know, WIAA, if you want to play something that's easy, walk away from the football field and, in the words hall of fame Cheesemakers coach Pat Martin, "Go play Tiddlywinks."
By switching to the district format, teams will get one to two "non-district" games to play to continue rivalries. Well, what about when teams have held rivalries for years with several teams, like the Badger Conference?
Some schools will benefit greatly from the change, some won't. The WIAA is choosing the easy way out. They don't want to spend 24 hours the night of the last set of games each football season to work out the playoff matrix. Several members on the Web site WisSports.net spend the entire season figuring out brackets already. It's basically Wisconsin's high school football version of college basketball's "Bracketology." We know which school should play which and where, but we have to wait for "big brother" to give the go ahead.
The WIAA hasn't released many details about the plan, which may be why it was shot down by a vote of 11-2 when brought up to a group of athletic directors and coaches Jan. 11.
One of the thousand of questions I have is what will happen when a team moves up a division due to enrollment? Monroe has an enrollment of 770, which is down significantly from when I was in school. Division 3 is for school enrollments between 476-840. What if Monroe's population rebounds and the school gets bumped up a division? Will the entire landscape have to be re-worked? Brodhead-Juda has 475 total students. Do they get added?
Sauk Prairie (827) has a better chance moving up a division, so would Brodhead-Juda take their place? Who would then take the Cardinals' place in the Division 4 district?
A school like Lakeland, up in Minocqua (which I covered for a season), has its population vary by dozens or more every year. When I covered them in 2007, the school had just under 1,000 students. This year, 835. That's a big difference and an entire division.
What about schools that decide to drop a program entirely, or that become a new co-op. What would happen if New Glarus, Monticello and Belleville joined as one school district, which has been brought up. Albany teams with Evansville and now there are two or three divisions in a mess from five towns within a John Daly drive from one another.
I would say to keep the system the way it is. If the WIAA wants to hire an outside group of five to 10 individuals to work it all out, they can. Steve Lendosky, a.k.a. "longball" on WisSports.net, has done his own Matrix every year. He posts his updated brackets throughout the season. Maybe his bracket can be a good reference.
If a team has to forfeit before the playoffs begin, which Fox Valley Lutheran had to do a few years ago, is the WIAA going to just install the next team, give another team a bye (which is what happened), or re-structure the entire bracket? I would say to re-structure it. Who cares if it takes another hour, two hours or 12 hours. Some 25-40 kids may get a chance to play in a playoff game, which doesn't happen everyday. It's a great experience to say the least.
Won't somebody please think of the children!
All I'm getting at is that the system right now can work, and, for the most part, it does work. I would dedicate my time to be a part of a committee to figure out the bracket. But this district proposal just has bad news written all over it, for the entire state.
