[Gold River]

Love the RPI. Rewards teams for playing good regular season schedules, makes the championship game consist of the two best teams more times than not.

It also rewards teams that play larger schools they can beat.

And then there are the teams like Boyle, or Belfry, among others that schedule bigger competition and live on the mantra of getting better by it. Were there any state champs that met the criteria you mentioned?  You know, who, easy scheduled beatable teams and used it to get to a title?

Nope not 1, we didn’t win 4A this year or even make it last year and had to beg local teams or just in state teams that had availability (there was quite a few. One was 1.3 miles away, not gonna talk about it though) to play us but instead had to play teams from Maryland, Illinois and had to cancel the Ohio game. You’ll have a few one hit wonder patty cake a schedule and get lucky but if you wanna build a consistent program you gotta play somebody. So no that isn’t a reward it’s a huge downside for good programs.

[2000PHS]

Love the RPI. Rewards teams for playing good regular season schedules, makes the championship game consist of the two best teams more times than not.

It also rewards teams that play larger schools they can beat.

And then there are the teams like Boyle, or Belfry, among others that schedule bigger competition and live on the mantra of getting better by it. Were there any state champs that met the criteria you mentioned?  You know, who, easy scheduled beatable teams and used it to get to a title?

Not the question of the thread. All I’m saying is that this system has a flaw that allows weak teams to to host semi final games and even make it to Kroger on occasion due to nothing more than scheduling terrible schools that couldn’t care less about football that are in larger class.

[Hoot Gibson]

Love the RPI. Rewards teams for playing good regular season schedules, makes the championship game consist of the two best teams more times than not.

It also rewards teams that play larger schools they can beat.

And then there are the teams like Boyle, or Belfry, among others that schedule bigger competition and live on the mantra of getting better by it. Were there any state champs that met the criteria you mentioned?  You know, who, easy scheduled beatable teams and used it to get to a title?

Nope not 1, we didn’t win 4A this year or even make it last year and had to beg local teams or just in state teams that had availability (there was quite a few. One was 1.3 miles away, not gonna talk about it though) to play us but instead had to play teams from Maryland, Illinois and had to cancel the Ohio game. You’ll have a few one hit wonder patty cake a schedule and get lucky but if you wanna build a consistent program you gotta play somebody. So no that isn’t a reward it’s a huge downside for good programs.

Johnson Central should not be playing any 1A schools. Period. When the program starts scheduling 1A schools again, it will be a sign that the program has begun declining, IMO. That time would be better spent practicing, IMO. I do agree that there were larger schools that should have jumped at the opportunity to have played Johnson Central but probably declined because of the impact a loss would have had on their RPI. An index should not drive scheduling for any team.

(In this past season, I would have made an exception for Pikeville, which proved it could be competitive with much larger schools, but large schools contending for state titles should not be scheduling 1A schools as a rule.)

[Hatz]

How many years has RPI been used? Since 2019 I think.

So, In 3 seasons there have been a total of 18 title games.

In those games, so far, only one team has been mentioned as possibly rigging the system through scheduling and making the finals. 1 out of 36 teams. That’s not a bad ratio.

Someone pointed out that JC was very beat up because of the hard road to the semifinals in 2020 and May have played a part in not making the Finals.

I’d argue in the old system there were similar flaws. Example would be Boyle in 2018. Rebels had to go to Belfry in the old system and turn around and be on the road in the semifinals after having to be on the road in that round in 2017. Boyle went to Corbin beat up and got whipped 21-0.

Maybe RPI seeding would have changed their route and not been as hurting.

Now I think Corbin won because they were better on the field.

I think RPI has helped allow teams to determine their own path by the way they played in the season.

[2000PHS]

I don’t think going back to the old system is the answer. People smarter than me should be able to figure out how to make a win vs Pikeville count as more points than a win over 6A “don’t care school.”

Solid programs are struggling to schedule games and I don’t see that changing under the current agreed upon rules.

[Redneck]

Love the RPI. Rewards teams for playing good regular season schedules, makes the championship game consist of the two best teams more times than not.

It also rewards teams that play larger schools they can beat.

That’s true. But if it’s larger schools that are bad and have bad records it’s not effecting the RPI in a positive way that much. I know for 1A and 2A it’s a little more manipulative. But you’re also not finding many big schools that are gonna risk losing to a smaller school.

See KCD as an example. They play the terrible 6A schools in Louisville to be near the top in 1A every year. In reality, they have probably not been a top 6 school in any year.

No knock to Paintsville they handled business well last year, but that KCD team may have been the worst team I’ve ever seen play for a title. Newport Cath, Hazard, Raceland (basically every team Paintsville played on the way there) and Pikeville and Phelps where better than them.

I don’t think anyone would disagree with this. I know most said it last year after the finals that the championship was played in week 2 of the playoffs between Paintsville/Raceland. Just my opinion, and some may not agree, but I think 4 of your top 5 teams in Class A are gonna be right here in the East every year. I also believe that Pikeville didn’t play their best game in the finals this year.

[Hatz]

It also rewards teams that play larger schools they can beat.

That’s true. But if it’s larger schools that are bad and have bad records it’s not effecting the RPI in a positive way that much. I know for 1A and 2A it’s a little more manipulative. But you’re also not finding many big schools that are gonna risk losing to a smaller school.

See KCD as an example. They play the terrible 6A schools in Louisville to be near the top in 1A every year. In reality, they have probably not been a top 6 school in any year.

No knock to Paintsville they handled business well last year, but that KCD team may have been the worst team I’ve ever seen play for a title. Newport Cath, Hazard, Raceland (basically every team Paintsville played on the way there) and Pikeville and Phelps where better than them.

I don’t think anyone would disagree with this. I know most said it last year after the finals that the championship was played in week 2 of the playoffs between Paintsville/Raceland. Just my opinion, and some may not agree, but I think 4 of your top 5 teams in Class A are gonna be right here in the East every year. I also believe that Pikeville didn’t play their best game in the finals this year.

You’re probably right. But that was one scenario out of 18 tournaments in three years. I’d take that out of any system.

[Gold River]

It also rewards teams that play larger schools they can beat.

That’s true. But if it’s larger schools that are bad and have bad records it’s not effecting the RPI in a positive way that much. I know for 1A and 2A it’s a little more manipulative. But you’re also not finding many big schools that are gonna risk losing to a smaller school.

See KCD as an example. They play the terrible 6A schools in Louisville to be near the top in 1A every year. In reality, they have probably not been a top 6 school in any year.

No knock to Paintsville they handled business well last year, but that KCD team may have been the worst team I’ve ever seen play for a title. Newport Cath, Hazard, Raceland (basically every team Paintsville played on the way there) and Pikeville and Phelps where better than them.

I don’t think anyone would disagree with this. I know most said it last year after the finals that the championship was played in week 2 of the playoffs between Paintsville/Raceland. Just my opinion, and some may not agree, but I think 4 of your top 5 teams in Class A are gonna be right here in the East every year. I also believe that Pikeville didn’t play their best game in the finals this year.

I think the two best was in the finals for sure, no one in the East was near pikeville. Russellville showed they could compete