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.

The real playoffs

Posted Thursday, November 8, 2007, at 6:48 AM

Every football coach in America will want to print off this story and put it in the locker room. Read this.

And then there's this.

Perhaps this is the game of the night?

Or this game?

Another OT thriller was here.

And we need a new playoff system in Missouri?

Let's play the what if game just for run. Since I've seen Poplar Bluff play Farmington and West Plains lost to Festus last night, those four teams in the Class 4 "Regional" would most likely end up with Farmington playing at Festus in the sectional playoff. So why should Festus have to beat Farmington again since they already won the playoff game to win the district?

Here's my suggestion to MSHSAA for next year's playoffs (no member vote needed):

* Play the "regional" playoff at the site of the district winners on Friday night.

* Play the sectional playoff at a neutral site the following Wednesday night.

* Leave the quarterfinal, semifinals and final the way they are, that way there are five days between each playoff game and MSHSAA can still play at the Dome the weekend after Thanksgiving.

* No more district champs. Hand out the title at the regional playoff game because that's the game that matters now.

If we're going to force teams to beat an opponent twice in the playoffs, lets at least do it at a neutral site in a big college-type stadium. The Class 4 District 1-2 game could be played at Houck. While the Class 3 game could be at Farmington. Class 2 could be hosted by Ste. Gen or Sikeston while Class 1 teams could come to Poplar Bluff, Sikeston or Ste. Gen.

Just an idea.

Comments

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It should be fixed so that once two teams from the same district make the playoffs, they shouldn't have to meet again until the championship game if they both survive. If this were the case, I would note that St. Vincents and Valle would have played each other for the championship 2 or 3 times, since their game was closer than any of the other contests they played on their way to the Championship.

-- Posted by Hugh M Bean on Thu, Nov 8, 2007, at 9:51 AM

Brian Rosener's response:
Seeding the state tournament has always been a hot-button topic for all the sports. The problem with seeding teams is that Missouri is such a big state, it means long trips on school nights for teams. That's not good for the students. Sure, the best two teams may not meet in the championship game but when do they ever?
I don't understand why they will allow football teams that do not win their district to keep playing, and possibly advancing, when no other sport in Mo gets this benefit. Just think of all the years that NMCC and Charleston would have both made state in basketball, or Portageville and Scott City for a couple years in a row.

Why did they make the change?

-- Posted by gomer on Thu, Nov 8, 2007, at 10:12 AM

Brian Rosener's response:
Good question. The short answer is because that's what the schools wanted. Each sport has a group of coaches that meet and make rule change suggestions. Those suggestions are then voted on by the member schools each spring. The vote was not really that close (160ish to 90ish off the top of my head).
Football is different than basketball in that the district playoff does not seed the teams before the tournament. Football has kind of a round-robin thing going. If basketball districts were decided by standings between say eight schools instead of a win-or-go-home tournament format, would that be a good way to choose a champion?
How about using the Illinois or Arkansas systems? In Arkansas, the top 4 (in most cases) go out of eight team districts and they are seeded to an extent. And -- as I'm sure you know -- in Illinois, every game means something because getting in is determined by ALL wins, not just district wins. But that's my 2�...

-- Posted by mikebuhler on Thu, Nov 8, 2007, at 8:26 PM

Brian Rosener's response:
The Arkansas system is probably the better of the two except that it might end long-standing rival games because if you play seven district games, that leaves only three for 'conference' games. If Jackson did not play Cape Central, is that a better system? In Illinois, teams can play a cupcake schedule to get into the playoffs with a higher seed. The one playoff game I covered in Illinois took nearly 5 hours of total travel time. The other thing about taking the top 32 teams based on records is that there are some 6-4 teams that still stay home.

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