Last week I gave everyone an opportunity to take a look at the new proposal that is being considered by the UIL to realign Texas High School's for football competition. I wanted you all to have the chance to get a better overall explanation of the entire concept, so that namely I did not butcher anything and in order to allow everyone the chance to get a grasp on the concept, and hopefully form a opinion before I broached the topic.
With that in mind I find myself somewhat twisted as to how I feel about this possible new method of determining the best of the best in Texas High School Football. That in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing, as I have a few thorns in my side from even the current structure.
Obviously the article demonstrates a desire by some to create some sort of balanced scale, so to speak, for small schools. I see the argument being made for small school's that have to go up against much larger institutions, but only to a point. Yes those larger school's might very well have an advantage over the smaller one's in terms of students to pull from, but they are still going to find themselves with the same 11 men on the field.
My point, competition is competition, and the world of sport has winners and it has losers in every contest, but the best is determined by the way one performs and not how many people got to compete. This system I believe could continue to water down the level of true athletic competition that already takes place each year.
What do I mean by continue?
Well let me state first of all that I do enjoy watching high school football and being a part of the excitement and tradition that accompanies the game. I am certainly a supporter of seeing as many of these young men get to the post-season and test their abilities with the best around the state. However, I ask you to please take this into consideration as well for the sake of the argument at hand. There are already too many teams competing in the post-season in Texas High School Football, and now we want to create some kind of system that could lower the level of competition.
Look at the way we have steadily seen the game watered down with the inclusion of the everyone and their brother routine of packing the playoffs. Okay I can handle the second place finisher as a rule, I mean there is the possibility that two great teams had to battle it out right there for a District Title and were merely separated by one great play, or perhaps a terrible turnover. Basically, there are districts all over Texas that could have seen first and second go either way; case in point LaMarque and Texas City and the famous Division I and II 4A Titles in the same season several years back.
Now that brings into play another area of dispute, and that is the two state championship system. In and of itself it totally is an oxymoron in the sports world. I mean after all there was last year's two World Series Champs, oh and then there are the two Super Bowl titles, right? No, actually that would be wrong and it would totally defeat the purpose of a championship. Please, I do want make clear I do not doubt the validity of anyone that has won a state title in Texas, or the work that went into it, but when you just stop to think about it you see how ridiculous and convoluted the idea of two champions seems to be.
The scenario that I have always wanted to see would have an additional week added on to the post-season and both "State Champs" battle it out to see just who is the best. We could have seen some tremendous football contests with a system like this, however instead we have two champions.
My biggest argument clearly is to see better competition amongst the schools that are vying for the Texas State Championship. I want to see a system that does give an opportunity to everyone to go out there and have a shot at a state title, but clearly I want to see the best possible match-ups in that process. A watered down field is not that exciting and in the long run I am afraid the combination of the current system, along with the new proposal could make this possible.
Who knows though, I just hope they stop and decide what is best for competition.
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