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Like to hear some opinions to advantages and disadvantages . Should be some pro and cons. 20 win season vs a deep tourney run which would you like .

I like scheduling up for those teams who are looking to advance pretty far in the tournament or just to improve from mediocrity. I hate scheduling up and trying to debate with people on here that root for teams with soft schedules.

I like scheduling down when your program is very down and few things positive are happening. Years and years of 0-5 wins.....play some cream puffs and gain some confidence.

I commend the coaches who choose to schedule up and best prepare their team for the tournament.

Ironman92 wrote:I like scheduling up for those teams who are looking to advance pretty far in the tournament or just to improve from mediocrity. I hate scheduling up and trying to debate with people on here that root for teams with soft schedules.

I like scheduling down when your program is very down and few things positive are happening. Years and years of 0-5 wins.....play some cream puffs and gain some confidence.

I commend the coaches who choose to schedule up and best prepare their team for the tournament.

Agreed with all of this.

A school like Logan, who has a ton of room to schedule up, needs to do it for being D1 and it will only help them...it will probably give them a better seeed than they would have gotten with 13-15 wins against a cupcake schedule.

It's hard to say one way is better than the other, because they both have benefits.

Just speaking from experience, playing a "harder schedule" has never warranted much respect in terms of sectional seeding for D4. Facing Waverly, Oak Hill, Minford, Burg, Valley all twice a year every year can get pretty brutal most seasons. A lot of times South Webster comes in with a record around .500, but most teams vote them solely based off their record not the strength of their schedule. Other than this year, the SOC 1 is normally a pretty big dropoff from the SOC 2 (again, not this season). Most seasons, an 11-11 SOC 2 team would be better than say a 14-8 SOC 1 team. But if the coaches don't see it as that, and put the SOC 2 team at the #8 seed to face the very best D4 team in the sectional, there's not really any benefit other than the SOC 2 team being "more prepared" to knock them off.

Again, I see both sides of the coin. South Webster goes through the gauntlet every year and even schedules good non-conference teams each year as well (Portsmouth, Notre Dame, South Point etc). They're battle tested by the time tournament comes, no doubt about that. Some coaches respect their schedule, some do not. Hence why I wish there was a more effective seeding route other than the coaches vote (the OHSAA Football seeding system would be efficient if properly implemented and monitored).

danicalifornia wrote:

Ironman92 wrote:I like scheduling up for those teams who are looking to advance pretty far in the tournament or just to improve from mediocrity. I hate scheduling up and trying to debate with people on here that root for teams with soft schedules.

I like scheduling down when your program is very down and few things positive are happening. Years and years of 0-5 wins.....play some cream puffs and gain some confidence.

I commend the coaches who choose to schedule up and best prepare their team for the tournament.

Agreed with all of this.

A school like Logan, who has a ton of room to schedule up, needs to do it for being D1 and it will only help them...it will probably give them a better seeed than they would have gotten with 13-15 wins against a cupcake schedule.

According to some posters on here Logan already plays the strongest schedule here

I think it depends on your team. As mentioned earlier, if your team has talent and potential to make a deep tourney run then scheduling up can really help. I really like when teams schedule challenging scrimmages for several reasons beyond just preparing for season

If your program is struggling, numbers are down etc then scheduling games to get some wins and to teach the kids what it feels like to have success can be beneficial also.

I'm interested, who has the most say in scheduling? Perfect world, the AD and Coach work together to make up schedule. I assume some schools the coaches do most and others the AD does most of it.

I think you have to find the right balance. You need to go out and play some tough teams but you can't subject your kids to those kinds of games night in and night out.
If you play in a weaker league then you need to go out and play some really good teams in non league but if you play in a very tough and competitive league you shouldn't want to schedule a grueling gauntlet of non league games.
If your team is struggling to get wins you need to play a few more teams that are at your level competively to boost your team's confidence.

thecommonwealth wrote:I think it depends on your team. As mentioned earlier, if your team has talent and potential to make a deep tourney run then scheduling up can really help. I really like when teams schedule challenging scrimmages for several reasons beyond just preparing for season

If your program is struggling, numbers are down etc then scheduling games to get some wins and to teach the kids what it feels like to have success can be beneficial also.

Great points and considerations. Unfortunately, the way many coaches choose to seed teams, for those who schedule up and then lose a good number of close games end up getting penalized with a lower seed because their record doesn't look as good as the guy who scheduled down and stacked up the wins. There's no perfect system, especially when coaches only look at one stat column before seeding the teams in their section: the "W/L" column.

Of course, in order to make a deep tourney run you must beat the best in your field. However, getting a couple "easier" wins early in the tournament does wonders for confidence and chemistry.

But, whenever you see a #8 seed knock off a #1 seed, you can often look back at the schedules of those teams and see that the #8 seed played some pretty tough teams throughout the season and just happened to lose to them.

Athens was the play in game for baseball. They went to the regional finals. No one wants to ever line up with South Webster or Crooksville

Gallipolis will host Ironton Tuesday, Jan. 31, in a key OVC cage battle. Tigers beat Blue Devils 56-43 in first meeting earlier this season after Gallians blew a 37-31 lead early in 4th period.

OK

Not sure what the post about Gallipolis playing Ironton in "key OVC cage battle" has to do with scheduling up.

I think a lot has to do with the experience of your team. You can have a very talented team that you think my be pretty good at end of year. But a lot of young and new kids. you probably dont want to schedule them up. Same team one year later i think you would want to schedule up.

I very much like it when a team toughens up their schedule, but at the same time I don't believe in scheduling to the point where you can't get any winning momentum going. Anybody can play a tough schedule but to really give that schedule credence is to advance in the tournament......or what did that tough schedule do for a school if that school loses in the sectional? Chillicothe last year played the toughest schedule in the SE district, but lost to Unioto in the sectional final. The Cavaliers played better teams than Unioto in the regular season, and the Shermans schedule wasn't nearly as demanding as CHS's. Yet UHS was the team that advanced to Athens while Chillicothe was sitting at home with the early exit.

If you have a team that you think could make noise come tourney time, there is no reason not to schedule up. Put your team in tough situations, late close game situations, teach them how to deal with losses, and learn from losses to better teams. If you have a good team, I can't see the downfall. Guess the only thing might be the possibility of losing more games and coaches not being educated and seeding you based solely off record.