[Red and Black]

BlackcatAlum do you think maybe playing the tougher teams and taking a loss or two might have had something to do with rolling the teams at the end of season i sure do and pretty sure Mac does to. Those kids on the earlier teams played the tougher teams every year from when they were freshman and it made a difference. I agree the schedule was left for this years coach but the next two are his. I hope the blackcats improve and someday will play Pikeville again and not just wanting to play JV.

I think the argument should be- is it worth the risk of exposing your team to tough competition and possibly lose 2 games to quality opponents and then have to play on the road in rounds 3 and 4 or do you go play mediocre opponents that you’re likely to beat and gain the reward of playing at home in those later playoff rounds. I think that very debate likely cost both Pikeville and Belfry a state final appearance last year. If their schedules aren’t so hard then maybe they’re good enough to win the games they lost on the road in rounds 3 and 4 if those games were played in Pike county instead of 2 hours away and 6 hours away? I understand the arguments from both sides and I’m not sure which side I land on, but as of right now I probably fall on the side of scheduling for RPI instead of SOS exposure. The multiple benefits of home playoff games are so huge that I don’t think they are less valuable than playing teams that are possibly better than you. Home playoff games are more valuable than anything else.

As for restarting the Pburg/Pikeville game I’m all for it, and I’d imagine Mac and Hager would love to get it started back too. It’s an old rivalry that excites both fan bases and both teams are trending toward the top of their respective classes again. But, I think the RPI system messes it up. A Pburg loss hurts their RPI more than a pikeville loss hurts theirs due to the class difference. If Hager thinks pikeville will win by 30 then it probably isn’t worth the RPI hit to play pikeville and lose. Idk if pikeville is a 30 point favorite or not the next couple of seasons, but they might be. I haven’t watched pikeville play much the last few seasons outside of their JV last year so I can’t match them up. I think it would be a fun game to schedule, but it needs to be worth the risk involved in scheduling it. If they would do away with the RPI system and go back to true regional championship games in the 3rd round then it would be a no brainer to schedule every year.