[Hoot Gibson]

Guys this is a population problem not a football playoff system problem! Coal is gone....look at all the old “coal schools” that have shut their doors or lost their football programs! Where do these families move to? Lexington, Looserville and places like that! Until major companies put down roots in some of these “poorer” counties and start creating better jobs we will continue to lose more football programs! In all honesty I don’t see any system that will help with any of the problems you guys mention in this post!

I disagree. Population loss is a problem among small 1A schools, as it always has been. Otherwise, schools move up and down in classes so that the level of competition is adjusted as schools' enrollments move up and down. A 5A class school in Kentucky is, on average, about the same size as a 5A school in Indiana.

Population changes do impact individual schools, but in 4A, Boyle County is at or near the bottom of the class in enrollment and Johnson Central is at or near the top - and those two schools have the best teams in 4A. I doubt that the school with the smallest 1A enrollment will ever win a state title. Football is a numbers game, all else being equal.

The number of running clock games may have increased with the adoption of the ridiculous RPI system this season, but the quality of coaching has been a problem for many years and population has nothing to do with that fact. There are excellent coaches in Kentucky in all classifications but they are badly outnumbered by coaches who are mediocre or worse. Too many coaches are hired for political connections or because the school administrators don't really care about fielding more competitive teams.