[EKUAlum05]

I understand the fact that more teams are getting to go to the playoffs, but I'm talking about the fact that teams are running more complex offenses and defenses. Not too many years ago it was strictly smashmouth football. There seems to be more and more teams ( with the exception of a few like Whitley, Johnson Cen., Belfry, and Russell ) that instead of trying to run over people try to out-scheme teams. Just my thoughts.

In that case, probably the four key reasons that football has "evolved" in my opinion:

1. Facilities- Higher frequency of weight rooms and training being offered. A successful strength and conditioning program will always at the very least turn a bad team into an average team.

2. Consolidation- The reduction of your tiny rural 1A schools into schools with better facilities and a higher talent pool to draw from.It is much easier to be a sustained "good" 4A team when you have 40+ players, then being a sustained "good" 1A team with 20+ players.

3. Feeder System Development- 20 years ago there were only a handful of programs that truly had a well developed feeder system, now that number is obsolete. Leagues and tournaments, coupled with more skilled coaches at the grassroots level have helped players learn fundamentals and general individual talent at Grades 5-8 instead of requiring teams to spend the majority of their Freshman and Sophomore seasons.

4. Travel- The oddest component that has helped, the increase in better and safer roads has had a significant impact. You can get from the far Eastern part of the mountains to the far Western reaches in 3 hours or less... before it could take 4.5-5 hours on a bus. This has allowed teams to play competition from a broader area and also allowed more scouting and better information flow.