[EKUAlum05]

IMO, Breathitt has not played a challenging enough schedule.... that's a big difference from saying that Breathitt scheduled a weak slate on purpose.

Before the season started I would consider a non-district schedule of Hazard, Somerset, and LCC to be a pretty solid group of teams. Newport, Clay, and Estill are perennially average to slightly below average teams. If I were grading Breathitt's schedule I would have given it a B- in the pre-season for difficulty. Even now, Hazard may be playing for a 1A State Title and Somerset still may reach the 2A Semi-Finals.... not too shabby.

My biggest gripe with Breathitt's schedule is the fact that knowing how ridiculously weak your district is going to be, why do you make your last difficult game fall on Sept. 23? It will be a full month since Breathitt was actually challenged whereas the other elite 3A teams played quality non-district opponents in the last month of the season.

Belfry:
vs. Ashland
vs. Johnson Central

Central:
vs. PRP

Bell:
vs. Harlan County

Tilghman:
vs. Clarksville (TN) Northeast



Pike Central, OTOH, can't make the same argument. They simply chose not to play a difficult schedule. PC was a victim of their weak schedule last year as it cost them the tie-breaker and a home playoff game. Despite this, they still only scheduled 9 games against a very subpar non-district slate. Even when a desperate Boyle County approached them offering to travel to PC they chose to pass.