Yutan

[hailvictors2]

Interesting scenario could play out with Yutan. The NSAA Wild Card Qualifying Criteria stipulates that you have to PLAY 8 games to be eligible for a wildcard into the playoffs. Yutan will PLAY their 7th on Friday against Lincoln Lutheran. That would make them ineligible for a wildcard. If they win they would be district champions, and if they lose they would likely be out of wild card contention anyway, but an interesting hypothetical nonetheless. I'm not sure where "district champion" fits in with this rule because they are not a wild card qualifier at that point. See page 32 of the following link. It is actually page 31 of the NSAA Football handbook, but page 32 of the PDF document, point 2 on the bottom of the page. An exception is listed for schools that are not provided a full schedule of games, but that is not the case with Yutan (It would be for schools that only had 8 games on their original schedule like Aquinas or North Bend Central). Yutan had 9 games but received 2 forfeits and chose not to replace Omaha Brownell-Talbot prior to the start of the year. Nearly every other school that OBT played did replace them.

Not sure you can penalize Yutan for teams forfeiting, especially HTRS, but that IS what the rule says. The keyword is PLAY. They didn't play either of those forfeited games. If I were associated with Yutan football I would be calling the NSAA immediately to get this sorted out before Friday. Anyone have any insight as to how this would play out? For the kids at Yutan, I hope the NSAA applies common sense and makes an additional exception to allow them to participate in the playoffs if they win. I don't think many would argue that Yutan is a playoff caliber team, despite their 3 losses.

 

[liltoad_99]

Those 2 forfeits count a games played I believe.

 

[Yossarian23]

Those 2 forfeits count a games played I believe.

You are correct.

 

[hailvictors2]

Those 2 forfeits count a games played I believe.

Good. They should, but wasn't sure if the language would become an issue. NSAA should probably reword that.

 

[dolezaljoe]

Only 3 teams were able to fill their open week from Brownell. It's not like it's easy to fill a schedule mid cycle.

 

[highschoolfootballnut]

Those 2 forfeits count a games played I believe.

correct

 

[Wildcat1621]

Only 3 teams were able to fill their open week from Brownell. It's not like it's easy to fill a schedule mid cycle.

According to the original poster, 3 out of 9 is "nearly every other". Interesting definition.

 

[hailvictors2]

Only 3 teams were able to fill their open week from Brownell. It's not like it's easy to fill a schedule mid cycle.

It is really not difficult to fill a schedule. 7 of the 9 teams OBT played had the opportunity to replace OBT with a C1 team that is in state. The only two that didn't have the opportunity were HTRS and BRLD, because no C1 teams were off that week. Archbishop Bergan played Ashland-Greenwood, Malcolm played DC West, Tekamah played Madison.

This coming week Elmwood-Murdock is taking a forfeit, meanwhile Aquinas is on a bye. The week Yutan took the OBT forfeit Falls City was off. Palmyra took a forfeit win over OBT rather than playing North Bend Central, who was off. This past weekend Lincoln Lutheran took a forfeit over OBT while Omaha Concordia was off. There is absolutely ZERO reason that these games were not played. The NSAA should have stepped in and made them happen. Instead you get kids that have been robbed of a game.

 

[dolezaljoe]

It is really not difficult to fill a schedule. 7 of the 9 teams OBT played had the opportunity to replace OBT with a C1 team that is in state. The only two that didn't have the opportunity were HTRS and BRLD, because no C1 teams were off that week. Archbishop Bergan played Ashland-Greenwood, Malcolm played DC West, Tekamah played Madison.

This coming week Elmwood-Murdock is taking a forfeit, meanwhile Aquinas is on a bye. The week Yutan took the OBT forfeit Falls City was off. Palmyra took a forfeit win over OBT rather than playing North Bend Central, who was off. This past weekend Lincoln Lutheran took a forfeit over OBT while Omaha Concordia was off. There is absolutely ZERO reason that these games were not played. The NSAA should have stepped in and made them happen. Instead you get kids that have been robbed of a game.

Maybe you need to be on the NSAA board then. Murdock would love to play Aquinas with their low numbers. And I'm sure the other schools are mentioned would have no issue deciding who's going to send the gate to the other school. And how do you know the C1 schools are willing to risk the points? Who says they would say yes to a C2 game?

 

[hailvictors2]

Maybe you need to be on the NSAA board then. Murdock would love to play Aquinas with their low numbers. And I'm sure the other schools are mentioned would have no issue deciding who's going to send the gate to the other school. And how do you know the C1 schools are willing to risk the points? Who says they would say yes to a C2 game?

The school's shouldn't have an option to say no. The schools agreed to the 16 team playoff with the understanding that their kids would each be given 9 games. If there is an opportunity for a 9th game it should happen.

Low numbers at Murdock (or OBT or HTRS or any other school) shouldn't cost Aquinas a game, period. Call up any kid on the Aquinas team right now and ask them if they would rather play a 9th game or have a bye, especially after they just got beat. They want to get back on the field ASAP. There is no reason 2 teams should have a bye week at the same time if both teams only have 8 games. As for gate, it really isn't hard to figure out. OBT was supposed to be at Tekamah this year, so Madison played at Tekamah. OBT was supposed to play Bergan at home this year, so Bergan went to Ashland. OBT was supposed to be at Malcom this year, so DC West went to Malcolm. If the other suggested games were to happen they would have been played in a way that finishes out the home and home series acting as if they were OBT. Not sure where the difficulty is with that.

As for "risking the points", there is no validity in that comment because C1 schools don't lose anything for playing down a class. If you are referring to taking a loss in an additional game that fills their schedule, I guess I would ask how that is any different than any other team playing a 9th game. There is always a risk of losing when you take the field, but that is beauty of sport.

Back to the original topic. I feel for Yutan. I have no ties to that program, but I feel for kids who love football and are denied the opportunity to play. Those kids only got 7 games this year. The purpose of my post was to make sure they are still eligible for playoff contention (which it seems they are). I'd hate for them to be robbed of 2 games and then be denied the opportunity to play in the playoffs if their power points dictate qualification.

 

[HighPlainsCoach]

I think a couple things work against teams aggresively trying to fill blanks in the schedule. One is simply that unless a team has a clear advantage, they are reluctant to schedule possible (or near-certain) loss. They will make noises about "numbers", "safety", or something but, like the rising limits on enrollment, and all of this opting down business, I think it's clear where the real motivation lies. Secondly, no eastern school can imagine traveling 2 hours for a ball game. We're kind of spoiled back here.

 

[hailvictors2]

I think a couple things work against teams aggresively trying to fill blanks in the schedule. One is simply that unless a team has a clear advantage, they are reluctant to schedule possible (or near-certain) loss. They will make noises about "numbers", "safety", or something but, like the rising limits on enrollment, and all of this opting down business, I think it's clear where the real motivation lies. Secondly, no eastern school can imagine traveling 2 hours for a ball game. We're kind of spoiled back here.

This is exactly right

 

[atlanta_ace]

Happened to us my senior year (when Christ was a carpenter). No districts then, but we had two preseason forfeits (Giltner and Bradshaw) and made the playoffs having played seven games. My dad had a team that had an opponent which forfeited their schedule on the first day of practice, NSAA gave no points for missed game, but counted it on their schedule so they went 7-1 and missed the playoffs. Changed the rule after that.