Brian Rosener is the keeper of the Semoball Cup which is presented to the school with the most successful season. It is based on a formula that takes into account the combined winning percentage of all sports teams plus bonus points for advancement in postseason play for both teams and individuals. The bonus points are divided by the number of teams a school fields. Rosener has been the sports editor for the Daily American Republic in Poplar Bluff, Mo. since December 2001. He was born and raised in St. Louis, where he attended Lindbergh High School and Webster University. He is married to Jennifer, a Poplar Bluff native, has a son Jack and a dog named Satchel who stands in for his @semoballBrian photo.

Last year for football experiment

Posted Monday, August 15, 2011, at 6:31 AM

Football practice kicks off Monday for the Poplar Bluff Mules and new coach Mark Barousse with the season opener just three weeks away.

Of course the real season for Missouri high school football doesn't start until the middle of October when teams begin district play. That will soon change.

Starting next fall, districts will turn into a bracket-style playoff and every game on the schedule will count.

MSHSAA announced this spring that starting in 2012 all teams will play a nine-game regular season with the 10th week the start of the district playoffs.

Districts will be set up much like now, based on geographical location, but will feature eight teams instead of four. Those eight teams will be seeded based on how they perform during the previous nine games. The top seeds will host throughout the district playoff leading to a championship game, the winner of which advances to the state quarterfinals.

The new playoff plan is a giant leap for MSHSAA, which didn't even have a state championship in football until 1968, but it has critics, who are leery of the point system and say there will be half as many district champions.

But unlike the current system, which has advanced the champ and runner-up from a four-team round-robin style playoff, the new plan is closer to that of the other MSHSAA sports.

Schools will also be able to schedule all nine games -- currently it's only the first seven weeks -- and those regular-season games will soon count for something. The seeding of the district will be based on the performance of teams during the first nine weeks. Teams will earn points for:

* Wins, losses and ties;

* Playing larger schools;

* Strength of schedule;

* The point differential of each game up to 13 points.

The point system will be tracked weekly by MSHSAA but it will only be used to seed the teams for the district. And if there are two teams with consecutive seeds that have played each other they can appeal the order and the rest of the district will vote. (Say if Cape Central is seeded 1 and Sikeston 2 but Sikeston won the meeting earlier in the season, the district teams can vote Sikeston into the top seed.)

Week 10 will see the top four seeds hosting the bottom four seeds (1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, ect.) with the gate receipts ($5 admission) split 60-40 between the two schools and MSHSAA assigning the officials. The game will be played on a Friday, unless the schools agree on a Thursday kickoff, with the district semifinal Wednesday and the championship the following Monday night.

Gone will be those pesky Thursday night road trips to West Plains or, like this season for the Mules, Seckman.

Based on results last year, the Mules would have been the sixth seed and had to travel to third-seeded Parkway West for Week 10. Dexter would have been the fourth seed hosting Lutheran South in Class 3 while Malden would have been the No. 2 seed hosting St. Pius X of Festus.

The expanded schedule can also feature new opponents and schools could extend their schedules beyond the regular two-year contract, but that might not change since MSHSAA reclassifies schools every two years based on enrollment.

Poplar Bluff will play conference rivals Cape Central, Jackson, Sikeston and Farmington in 2012 along with Union, Dexter, Northwest-House Springs, Normandy and Chaminade.

The Mules have won just five district titles since 1968 despite winning records in 22 of those years. The last title came in 2000 under Barousse but Poplar Bluff has a 13-19 record in district play after he left.

Barousse's teams lost just four district games in his five years but only twice did the Mules advance to the state playoffs in that time. Under the current format, which ends after this season, his teams would have been a perfect 5-for-5 in reaching the postseason.

This fall the Mules host their first two district games against Jackson (Oct. 14) and Rockwood Summit (Oct. 21) before playing at Seckman. By winning two of those games Poplar Bluff can reach the state playoffs even with eight losses.

And this system seemed like a good idea why?

Comments

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I really like Illinois' playoff system. If you win your conference, you are in the playoffs. The "wildcards" are decided on a point system similar to what MO is going to next year but usually a 6 and 3 record gets a team in the playoffs. It makes a conference championship matter which is really neat and seams to work well. I am guessing that MSHSAA doesn't want to follow something that would make each game matter to that magnitude.

-- Posted by deckerd31 on Sun, Aug 7, 2011, at 5:47 AM
I really like the new system! You got to bring your A game every game or you get sent packing.

-- Posted by Cheesehead. on Sun, Aug 7, 2011, at 9:38 PM
I really like the fact that it opens the door for scheduling. You aren't required to play your district's team before the playoffs so there can be more wiggle room. A team like Sikeston has only really had the ability to play with their season opening game and it is a similar situation with most teams. Now, schedules can have more flexibility to them.

-- Posted by sideline starter on Sun, Aug 7, 2011, at 9:48 PM
The new system will be great for scheduling purposes. A team like Perryville, has only 2 games on their schedule that they can go out and try and get a comparable opponent. It is tough to rebuild when they play in a stout conference (ste. gen, fredericktown, potosi, park hills and mapelwood I believe). Throw in 3 district teams like farmington, cape and sikeston and it puts them behind the 8 ball. The new system gives them 4 open dates besides conference, if I am correct on the numbers.

-- Posted by deckerd31 on Sun, Aug 7, 2011, at 10:42 PM
deckerd31, I agree with you about the Illinois playoff system. I've always been an advocate of a 9-game regular season and put a full week between playoff games, not this silly stuff MO does in playing 3 games in about a week and 1/2. You want to be prepared, reasonably healthy and rested during playoff time. If a week between regular season games is the norm -- shouldn't it be the same for the post-season?

-- Posted by ToeTheLine on Mon, Aug 8, 2011, at 12:11 PM

Brian Rosener
My biggest complaint with the new system is that MSHSAA didn't fix the Friday-Wednesday-Monday schedule, but in order to play at the Dome the weekend after Thanksgiving it has to be done. Moving the season up doesn't make sense because the season already starts too soon (not all schools start before Labor Day). It could be argued that the quick turnaround is better from the standpoint that teams don't need much time between games later in the season (less practice time means less of an injury risk).
Does that mean Perryville is preparing to travel to the Northwest part of the state to find four 8 man teams so they can play a 'comparable team'

-- Posted by NeverWasBeen on Thu, Aug 11, 2011, at 12:19 PM
To my understanding, all week 9 games in 2012 and beyond will be played on Fridays. No "team options" to move the game to Thursday to get an extra day to prepare for the first round of the playoffs.

-- Posted by gianthook on Sat, Aug 13, 2011, at 11:33 AM
Brian, my point is to make week nine the 1st round of district instead of week 10. Then you can still have a full week in between post-season games.

-- Posted by ToeTheLine on Sun, Aug 14, 2011, at 3:33 PM

Brian Rosener
But then teams would only have an eight-game season and that would mean lost revenue. Schools are already upset about losing the Week 10 gate (even though it's a 60-40 split). For many schools, football pays the bills for a lot of the other programs. MSHSAA could push back the playoffs so that there's a week between games and not play the championships on Thanksgiving weekend.
I stand corrected. Teams agreeing to play the week 9 game on Thursday may do so if both teams agree. If not, the game will be played on Friday at 7 PM.

At one time, all games were to be played on Fridays at 7 PM when the new playoff information was presented online.

-- Posted by gianthook on Tue, Aug 16, 2011, at 7:30 PM
Weeks 1 through 9 can be scheduled anytime the teams agree to. Looks like under the new playoff, no Week 10 Saturday games would be permitted unless weather intervenes. The teams could still play Week 10 on Thursday and I suspect most might go ahead and do that, helps recovery for the next round game. The MSHSAA announcement says if the current season start dates are kept, Week 11, 12 & 13 would be played Wednesday, Monday and Saturday respectively.

Follows the Basketball playoff format fairly close.

-- Posted by mojo3 on Wed, Aug 17, 2011, at 1:18 PM

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