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Searn, I think the MAC is great for the Class A schools - put the most competitive in the Red, the wost in the Blue. For the Class B/C schools, the MAC is a bad deal. I would rather, as I stated, that the schools who are the best of their size in their geographic area advance to the post-season. I honestly think the game the MAC is playing by moving the Class A schools down will eventually lead to a rethinking of the MHSAA rule as to who gets into the playoffs. Don't get me wong, awarding blowout games, etc. is bad news and I'm glad the new system no longer rewards it, but I think the teams need to be divided up by the traditional A, B, C and D and the a point system set up by which you receive fewer points for playing down. If you look at the cut for 2007, you are mid-way though D3 before you see a Class B school. That's just wrong, the small schools are getting a raw deal.

Edit - for full disclosure, the team I follow is never screwed by the system - I'm a Marine City fan. For those who sign on to Mlive, I'm Atticus30.

And, anytime someone is playing up a division, someone is playing down. Don't you agree? Is East Detroit playing down or is Clintondale playing up?

Searn wrote:

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Looking at the enrollments and the divisions posted by MHSFW ... It's not like there are any divisions in the MAC with A and C teams ...

All the divisions are either all A or B/C

Blue = All "A"
Bronze = 1 "C" and 5 "B"
Gold = 2 "A" and 4 "B"
Red = All "A"
Silver = 4 "B" and 2 "A"
White = All "A"

I see no issues with any of that ...

If someone wants to get rid of the league crossovers in exchange for scheduling Non-MAC teams ... then I"M ALL FOR THAT!!!!

The only issue I have with the MAC setup is the lack of Non-MAC teams during the regular season.

I guess I still have it in my head that there is a Class A team in the Bronze, which is why I was initially so peeved - if you look at my predictions for that league, you will see that I mistook one St. Clair Shores team for another. I still have a problem with teams like East Detroit (1,700 students) being in the same division as Clintondale (<800 students, and a struggling program). Add to that, the cross-overs that end up with Clawson playing Lake Shore (1,200 students v. 500 students), and I just feel the league is getting out of hand. Lincoln, at 1,000 students in the Bronze is also a bit of a stretch, when there are teams like New Haven and Clawson in the division, and while teams like Clintondale are all the way up in the Gold. I just can't defend the alignment. I fear the Class B teams are going to begin defecting...soon.

But Mr. NCAA, the numbers you provide prove my point. You are saying that Class B teams make up all of D5, usually. That means that half the teams in the state (all Class C and Class D teams) are squashed into 3 of 8 divisions. That was my whole point - that the 6 wins and in system, along with many bigger schools scheduling smaller schools to get their 6 wins, is pushing the smaller schools out of the playoffs. I realize there is going to be some movement, but if things were working without a bias towards the big schools, D5 would be made up of entirely (or mostly) Class C teams, not Class B teams.

I was not saying that Class B does not get its fair share - what I was saying is that the system is beginning to get gamed so that the cut off of Divisions is moving to bigger and bigger schools making the playoffs. The smaller schools are getting squeazed out. I used the D3 cut-off as an example to show that 1/4 of the playoff teams are not Class A, it's more like 30%-40%, which leaves less room for someone. I have a feeling you will see that number get even more skewed as the MAC (and possibly other conglomo-conferences) push mediocre to poor teams down into their lowest divisions to get Class A teams wins against small Class B and Class C teams.

Edit: I'll concede that I just thought of a flaw in the part of this that troubles me. I am working under the assumption that there are exactly as many "Class A" schools as there are "Class B", "Class C" and "Class D" schools. This is true, in basketball. I may, however, still be looking at the cut-off numbers for basketball to determine who I think is a "Class A" school for football. The problem is that there are more small schools without football programs than there are large schools without one. I still don't like what the MAC is doing with teams like East Detroit (1,800) playing in the same league as Clintondale (800).