[Hoot Gibson]

Every team in the state should be in the playoffs. Playoff wins should be earned but there is no more reason to exclude football teams from the playoffs than to do so for any other sport.

Excluding teams because of some crazy point system that rewards teams for dodging tough competition and rewards them for beating up on teams with soft schedules against weak opponents, the way that Ohio does, is a terrible system.

Allowing every team a shot at a playoff win, as Indiana's system does, is more fair than any other system. It is not rewarding teams for losing games, it is avoiding penalizing some teams by placing them into strong districts and rewarding others by placing them into weak districts.

This is not about giving everybody a trophy. If everybody gets into the playoffs, nobody will be impressed by a playoff appearance. Kids are not stupid. Kentucky high school basketball players do not feel like they have accomplished anything special by losing in the first round of a district tournament.

Indianapolis Cathedral plays a killer schedule for a school its size every season to prepare for the playoffs. If the team had to qualify for the playoffs, then they could not afford to schedule bigger out of state schools like Trinity and Elder and risk missing the playoffs. They have a case full of state title trophies that proves that their system works.

The regular season in Indiana is spent preparing for the playoffs. There is no incentive to padding your schedule to win games. Teams don't refuse to schedule a game because they fear that a loss will keep them out of the playoffs.