BENNETT'S MINUTES: Case against football playoff reduction, seeding

Seven Western Indiana Conference football teams remain alive as the Indiana high school sectional tournaments head to the semifinal round on Friday night.

Three WIC teams were guaranteed to be eliminated with the head-to-head matchups of Cloverdale-North Putnam, Sullivan-West Vigo and Northview-Owen Valley in the first round.

Greencastle lost at Danville and Brown County lost to Monrovia for the other two conference defeats. Another will fall this week as Cascade plays at North Putnam.

Other games this week involving WIC teams have Edgewood at Silver Creek, Evansville Central at Northview, Indianapolis Manual at Indian Creek, Sullivan at Monrovia and South Putnam at Indianapolis Howe.

People can obviously put as much or as little stock into John Harrell’s computer predictions as they like, but those picks were pretty good last week. Every first-round game in both the Greencastle 3A sectional and the 2A sectional involving North Putnam and Cloverdale was picked correctly by Harrell.

The computer came close to perfection in the South Putnam 1A sectional, but made what had to be one of its biggest errors in giving undefeated Covenant Christian a better than 70 percent chance to win the title based upon all the factors detailed in this space last week.

You may not have caught this score, but Traders Point Christian — playing in its first-ever IHSAA tournament — defeated Covenant Christian 14-7.

Nobody’s perfect.

One of the state’s top games Friday night will undoubtedly be the semifinal in the 2A sectional bracket opposite of North Putnam and Cascade, featuring top-10 teams Western Boone and Tipton.

Normally when a matchup like this occurs before the championship game, interested parties are clamoring for a seeding system to be put in place to prevent such a happening.

Many states, with Illinois being one of them, do not let every team into the playoffs. I‘m not sure what percentage of the teams make it, but I think it’s about half.

Teams are grouped as closely to each other as possible, and then are put into a bracket resembling that used by NCAA basketball with the No. 1 team in a region playing No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7, etc.

Not that anyone involved would ever ask me, but I prefer things the way they are.

Were there some clunker games last week? Sure. Northview 55, Owen Valley 0. Monrovia 69, Brown County 6. Pioneer 86, South Newton 0.

Did any of the winless teams from the regular season truly deserve to play in the sectional? Maybe not. Some may have secretly wished their seasons were over, especially when facing powerhouse opponents, but they all showed up to play and should be commended for that.

Football has a different connection to its participants than any other sport. I rarely see players from any other sports lamenting on social media after graduation about how much they miss their former sports, but it’s pretty commonplace in football.

The alternative solution most commonly brought up on football message boards is to have half of the teams in the playoffs, and add a 10th regular-season game to not reduce student participation opportunities. Non-playoff teams would be done after 10 games, kind of like how Greencastle was left out of the playoffs after its undefeated 1973 regular season.

To me, the seeding and “limiting teams in the tournament” topics are two different discussions, but they would have to go together.

As much as it might be tempting to separate Tipton and Western Boone, or any other pairs of dominant teams within a sectional field to set up a dramatic championship game, it’s a dangerous precedent.

What if there are three superior teams? One will wind up with a so-called “easy road” to the finals, while the other two will have to battle each other for that right.

From perusing the accompanying list of Friday’s games, there aren’t that many teams left with losing records — and in most cases those were either teams who got byes, were the winners of a matchup between two teams with losing records or teams in four-team 6A and 5A sectionals who didn’t play last week.

We should continue to let the tourney play out as it normally does, with all teams entered and a blind draw.

• It’s a small world at Danville — There are two South Putnam connections involved with the Danville football team this year.

Former Eagle standout Rob Gibson is an assistant coach with the Warriors this year. He coached collegiately at Montana Tech last year after a good playing career at Marian, but he and his wife became parents while out west and decided to move back to Indiana to be closer to family.

Danville quarterback Ben Slaton, a senior who is drawing interest from several FCS colleges such as Indiana State and Eastern Kentucky, is in his first year at the school after transferring from Plainfield.

His father, Damon, was a standout athlete at South Putnam who once scored 46 points in a basketball game.

High school football semifinal sectional pairings

CLASS 6A

SECTIONAL 1

Portage [4-5] at Crown Point [3-6]

Merrillville [6-3] at Lake Central [2-7]

SECTIONAL 2

Chesterton [3-6] at Valparaiso [7-2]

Warsaw [7-2] at Penn [7-2]

SECTIONAL 3

FW Snider [7-2] at Carroll (FW) [3-6]

Homestead [6-3] at FW Northrop [3-6]

SECTIONAL 4

Westfield [4-5] at Carmel [7-2]

Noblesville [4-5] at Lafayette Jeff [8-1]

SECTIONAL 5

North Central (Indpls) [7-2] at Hamilton Southeastern [3-6]

Fishers [3-6] at Pike [1-8]

SECTIONAL 6

Warren Central [9-0] at Ben Davis [3-6]

Lawrence North [3-6] at Lawrence Central [3-6]

SECTIONAL 7

Southport [7-2] at Brownsburg [9-0]

Perry Meridian [1-8] at Avon [7-2]

SECTIONAL 8

Franklin Central [2-7] at Jeffersonville [2-7]

Columbus North [8-1] at Center Grove [6-3]

CLASS 5A

SECTIONAL 9

LaPorte [3-6] at SB Adams [3-6]

Munster [2-7] at Michigan City [7-2]

SECTIONAL 10

Goshen [1-8] at Elkhart Central [5-5]

Concord [4-5] at Elkhart Memorial [3-6]

SECTIONAL 11

Kokomo [4-5] at McCutcheon [6-3]

Huntington North [4-5] at Lafayette Harrison [4-5]

SECTIONAL 12

New Palestine [9-0] at Zionsville [6-4]

Greenfield-Central [0-9] at Anderson [2-7]

SECTIONAL 13

Indpls Roncalli [3-6] at Indpls Cathedral [5-5]

Indpls Tech [1-8] at Decatur Central [8-1]

SECTIONAL 14

Bloom. South [4-5] at Whiteland [8-2]

Bloom. North [2-7] at Martinsville [7-2]

SECTIONAL 15

Seymour [6-3] at Columbus East [8-2]

Bedford North Lawrence [7-2] at Floyd Central [5-4]

SECTIONAL 16

TH South [3-6] at Terre Haute North [2-7]

Castle [5-4] at Evansville North [1-8]

CLASS 4A

SECTIONAL 17

East Chicago Central [6-4] at Hammond Morton [8-2]

Griffith [8-2] at Lowell [8-2]

SECTIONAL 18

New Prairie [7-3] at SB St. Joseph [6-4]

SB Riley [6-4] at Mishawaka [9-1]

SECTIONAL 19

NorthWood [10-0] at East Noble [9-1]

Northridge [5-5] at Angola [10-0]

SECTIONAL 20

FW Wayne [8-2] at New Haven [5-5]

Leo [7-3] at FW Dwenger [9-1]

SECTIONAL 21

Marion [10-0] at Delta [7-3]

Mississinewa [9-1] at Yorktown [5-5]

SECTIONAL 22

Mount Vernon (Fortville) [7-3] at Greenwood [3-7]

Mooresville [9-1] at Richmond [2-8]

SECTIONAL 23

South Dearborn [8-2] at East Central [9-1]

Edgewood [7-3] at Silver Creek [7-3]

SECTIONAL 24

Jasper [6-4] at Boonville [10-0]

Evansville Central [9-1] at Northview [10-0]

CLASS 3A

SECTIONAL 25

Hanover Central [5-5] at Andrean [9-1]

Twin Lakes [5-5] at West Lafayette [10-0]

SECTIONAL 26

Brebeuf Jesuit [8-2] at Guerin Catholic [6-4]

N.Montgomery [4-6] at Blackford [7-3]

SECTIONAL 27

Maconaquah [8-2] at Tippecanoe Valley [6-4]

Knox [7-3] at Mishawaka Marian [6-4]

SECTIONAL 28

FW Luers [6-4] at West Noble [8-2]

Bellmont [1-9] at FW Concordia [5-5]

SECTIONAL 29

Rushville [5-4] at Indpls Chatard [8-2]

Indpls Manual [4-4] at Indian Creek [6-4]

SECTIONAL 30

Danville [6-4] at Tri-West [6-4]

Sullivan [8-2] at Monrovia [5-4]

SECTIONAL 31

Lawrenceburg [5-5] at Batesville [8-2]

Brownstown Central [9-1] at Salem [6-4]

SECTIONAL 32

Vincennes Lincoln [8-2] at Evansville Memorial [10-0]

Heritage Hills [10-0] at Gibson Southern [8-2]

CLASS 2A

SECTIONAL 33

Lake Station [0-8] at Boone Grove [8-2]

Whiting [10-0] at Gary Roosevelt [4-6]

SECTIONAL 34

Bremen [8-2] at Central Noble [7-3]

Prairie Heights [2-8] at Bluffton [6-4]

SECTIONAL 35

Rensselaer Central [6-4] at Lewis Cass [6-4]

Eastbrook [9-1] at Rochester [8-2]

SECTIONAL 36

Shenandoah [9-1] at Alexandria [4-6]

Northeastern [6-4] at Lapel [6-4]

SECTIONAL 37

Heritage Christian [6-4] at Indpls Scecina [9-1]

Knightstown [9-1] at Triton Central [9-1]

SECTIONAL 38

Cascade [5-5] at North Putnam [7-3]

Tipton [9-1] at Western Boone [10-0]

SECTIONAL 39

Providence [8-2] at Perry Central [6-4]

Mitchell [6-4] at Paoli [10-0]

SECTIONAL 40

Evansville Mater Dei [5-5] at Linton-Stockton [5-5]

Southridge [7-3] at North Knox [5-5]

CLASS 1A

SECTIONAL 41

Triton [7-3] at Winamac [5-5]

North Judson [5-5] at South Central (Union Mills) [3-7]

SECTIONAL 42

Pioneer [10-0] at Carroll (Flora) [4-6]

Lafayette Central Catholic [4-6] at Tri-County [7-3]

SECTIONAL 43

Southwood [10-0] at Fremont [2-8]

Churubusco [9-1] at Adams Central [10-0]

SECTIONAL 44

Sheridan [8-2] at Monroe Central [8-2]

Clinton Prairie [2-8] at Union City [4-6]

SECTIONAL 45

Indpls Tindley [3-6] at Traders Point Christian [9-1]

South Putnam [4-6] at Indpls Howe [8-2]

SECTIONAL 46

Hagerstown [8-2] at Edinburgh [1-8]

Indpls Lutheran [7-3] at North Decatur [6-4]

SECTIONAL 47

Seeger [2-7] at North Vermillion [9-1]

Attica [7-3] at Parke Heritage [8-2]

SECTIONAL 48

North Central [7-1] at Tecumseh [4-6]

Eastern Greene [6-3] at West Washington [8-2]