HHSAA creates Open Division Football Playoffs

[Markeke]

All good....season still young. Like Tata said 1-0 each week.

[Neighbor]

Like many have said, it's a good step in the right direction.

Some problems here and there, but it's only the first year of doing this without totally overhauling all the divisions. It works for now. The biggest thing I find the funniest is that over the years, I feel like the main discussions for three divisions has been Iolani dominating D2 but not being able to hold a candle to the D1 teams, and now they're the one's that come away from this with a free pass lol

[SRJC]

I'm confused
does Iolani get a free pass?

"The new format adopted by the HHSAA on Monday will give the ILH two state berths in the Open Division. The league’s third-place finisher in Division I will be allotted a berth in the HHSAA’s D-I state tournament." - http://www.hawaiiprepworld.com/football ... ew-format/

Let's say Punahou and St. Louis make it to the Open Division. So the ILH's 3rd place finisher would be either Kamehameha or Iolani.
I don't think Iolani gets a free pass they gotta place 3rd in league at least

[rrforlifebaby]

I'm confused
does Iolani get a free pass?

"The new format adopted by the HHSAA on Monday will give the ILH two state berths in the Open Division. The league’s third-place finisher in Division I will be allotted a berth in the HHSAA’s D-I state tournament." - http://www.hawaiiprepworld.com/football ... ew-format/

Let's say Punahou and St. Louis make it to the Open Division. So the ILH's 3rd place finisher would be either Kamehameha or Iolani.
I don't think Iolani gets a free pass they gotta place 3rd in league at least

The way I understand it, the schools have to decide what bracket they want to play for. St Louis, Punahou and Kamehameha have all declared for the Open Division; Only the top 2 ILH will be allowed to play for the Open championship. It seems like the 3rd wheel won't be allowed to then play for the D1 title, since it looks like Iolani is declaring for the D1 bracket.

This is a little different than what they do in California I think. If I understand it correctly, many teams will declare for the Open championshiop, but a committee decides who plays in the Open Division vs the next levels down.

[bandits1]

I'm confused
does Iolani get a free pass?

"The new format adopted by the HHSAA on Monday will give the ILH two state berths in the Open Division. The league’s third-place finisher in Division I will be allotted a berth in the HHSAA’s D-I state tournament." - http://www.hawaiiprepworld.com/football ... ew-format/

Let's say Punahou and St. Louis make it to the Open Division. So the ILH's 3rd place finisher would be either Kamehameha or Iolani.
I don't think Iolani gets a free pass they gotta place 3rd in league at least

Depends on which article you read, I guess. Here's a quote from Scoring Live's:

"The D1 field will be made up of four OIA teams, Iolani from the ILH, two teams from the Big Island Interscholastic Federation and one from the Maui Interscholastic League. Iolani is assured the ILH's lone D1 berth because Punahou, Kamehameha and Saint Louis all declared only for the Open division." - http://scoringlive.com/story.php?storyid=14409

IF Scoring Live's reporting is accurate, it's crystal clear that Iolani gets a free pass. Since they've already got their ticket stamped to the D1 State Tourney, they can just rest their starters as much as they want during the regular season since they're not required to win a single in-league game(not that they would have, but still). Again, ridiculous.

[gopunahou]

I'm confused
does Iolani get a free pass?

"The new format adopted by the HHSAA on Monday will give the ILH two state berths in the Open Division. The league’s third-place finisher in Division I will be allotted a berth in the HHSAA’s D-I state tournament." - http://www.hawaiiprepworld.com/football ... ew-format/

Let's say Punahou and St. Louis make it to the Open Division. So the ILH's 3rd place finisher would be either Kamehameha or Iolani.
I don't think Iolani gets a free pass they gotta place 3rd in league at least

Depends on which article you read, I guess. Here's a quote from Scoring Live's:

"The D1 field will be made up of four OIA teams, Iolani from the ILH, two teams from the Big Island Interscholastic Federation and one from the Maui Interscholastic League. Iolani is assured the ILH's lone D1 berth because Punahou, Kamehameha and Saint Louis all declared only for the Open division." - http://scoringlive.com/story.php?storyid=14409

IF Scoring Live's reporting is accurate, it's crystal clear that Iolani gets a free pass. Since they've already got their ticket stamped to the D1 State Tourney, they can just rest their starters as much as they want during the regular season since they're not required to win a single in-league game(not that they would have, but still). Again, ridiculous.

Thing is, St. Louis, Punahou, and Kamehameha will treat their games against Iolani like a bye week. They did last year. But let me guarantee you this: Iolani will throw the kitchen sink at us and St. Louis on September 17 and 23, respectively. Not only are we their biggest rivals, the St. Louis home game on September 23 is their homecoming.

[SRJC]

Got it thank you for the explaning makes sense now just read the wrong article.

[gopunahou]

On the bright side, nobody will complain about the ILH not having multiple berths.

[HS Football Fanatic]

Step in the right direction for sure!! This is great for any HS football fan, all the big dogs playoff in the open division. The kinks in the other division tournaments seem a little strange, like that "iolani rule". Iolani gets a free pass into the div 1 tournament?? not a fan of that, they could essentially not win a regular season game and get into the state tournament. Another one is the BIIF getting 2 teams into the div 1 tournament. Oh well, it is what it is. More teams mean more kids get a shot at playing more games. Which is great for the kids. Like I said it's a step in the right direction, and maybe a step closer to that "super conference" idea. I just think that it's funny that this new format gets announced 3 weeks into the season, 3 weeks of "open" teams blowing out their opponents........LOL!!!

I know I rag on Iolani but this is something somebody ELSE suggested--maybe Chris Chun feels sorry for them for going against the Big 3 twice (and possibly playing St. Louis or Punahou THREE times). Chun is an Iolani grad, mind you.

What I do know is that saynotomercs will love this format.

@HaterOfElitists: Something tells me Iolani won't be able to play St Louis or Punahou THREE times; playing them just TWICE takes a major toll on them. Iolani simply doesn't usually have the numbers, size, or physicality to play St Louis or Punahou three times, and be successful. I suspect that even Iolani alumni would admit this. I mean, things are what they are. I'm not posting this to talk stink about Iolani or make its alumni feel bad.

[gopunahou]

Step in the right direction for sure!! This is great for any HS football fan, all the big dogs playoff in the open division. The kinks in the other division tournaments seem a little strange, like that "iolani rule". Iolani gets a free pass into the div 1 tournament?? not a fan of that, they could essentially not win a regular season game and get into the state tournament. Another one is the BIIF getting 2 teams into the div 1 tournament. Oh well, it is what it is. More teams mean more kids get a shot at playing more games. Which is great for the kids. Like I said it's a step in the right direction, and maybe a step closer to that "super conference" idea. I just think that it's funny that this new format gets announced 3 weeks into the season, 3 weeks of "open" teams blowing out their opponents........LOL!!!

I know I rag on Iolani but this is something somebody ELSE suggested--maybe Chris Chun feels sorry for them for going against the Big 3 twice (and possibly playing St. Louis or Punahou THREE times). Chun is an Iolani grad, mind you.

What I do know is that saynotomercs will love this format.

@HaterOfElitists: Something tells me Iolani won't be able to play St Louis or Punahou THREE times; playing them just TWICE takes a major toll on them. Iolani simply doesn't usually have the numbers, size, or physicality to play St Louis or Punahou three times, and be successful. I suspect that even Iolani alumni would admit this. I mean, things are what they are. I'm not posting this to talk stink about Iolani or make its alumni feel bad.

So you are saying they'll play Kamehameha three times? And that Kamehameha will be the top seed in the ILH tournament? The rules are, whoever finishes with the best record draws the last-place team in the league tournament (most likely Iolani). Since Punahou or St. Louis will likely finish first (or tie for the best record), Iolani will face one of them, giving them a third matchup with either. The only way Iolani can back out of this is is to forfeit. And let me tell you, if Iolani is sporting a 0-5 or even 1-4 record entering its regular season finale against us, it'll likely give its main contributors a rest or only give them a quarter of playing time--just to save them for their "playoff" game and third matchup with either us or St. Louis. The bad news for them is that the regular season winner of the ILH will throw the kitchen sink at them and never relent until they've established a 35-point lead or more in that playoff game. Hate to break it to you HS Football Fanatic, but Iolani must play a playoff game in the second week of October. On the bright side, it'll give them three weeks to get healthy before their first state tournament game.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

That's the ILH schedule.

[bigD]

Sounds to me like the ILH just payed off the HHSAA.. What a joke!! All but one team from the ILH division 1 will be playing for a title. More ammo for them to recruit and almost guarantee a title shot. Say good bye to the competitiveness between the leagues the OIA cannot compete..

[Markeke]

Iolani has a great shot at competing in D1. This year's team can do it. Here's the problem. What if by miracles or numbers scrunching the Raiders look up the #2 or #3 spot ILH? Chaotic. THEY GIVE THE OIA ANOTHER. D1 SPOT? What if Damen's wants the D1 spot? Lots of questions.

[bandits1]

Iolani has a great shot at competing in D1. This year's team can do it. Here's the problem. What if by miracles or numbers scrunching the Raiders look up the #2 or #3 spot ILH? Chaotic. THEY GIVE THE OIA ANOTHER. D1 SPOT? What if Damen's wants the D1 spot? Lots of questions.

It sounds like each team has to declare which division championship they're going to be shooting for, and once you declare you can't move up or down regardless of W/L record, because like you said, it would cause some chaos if a team that was supposed to play in the D1 tourney suddenly decided they wanted to try for the Open trophy because they had a better-than-expected season. Even worse(and very unfair) if a team that declared themselves an Open trophy candidate has a worse-than-expected regular season and decided at the end that they'd rather go stomp on the D1 guys since things didn't pan out in Open.

Let's assume the HHSAA decides to keep this playoff format or something real close to it on a permanent basis. What's the point of Iolani playing in ILH D1 anymore? Waiting around for the once or twice-in-a-decade upset of the other three teams? Move them back down to ILH D2 and let the champion of that division play in the D1 state tourney and whoever comes in 2nd play in the D2 tourney. As it stands now Iolani already gets a guaranteed free pass to the D1 tourney, so who cares if they win ILH D2 every single season since in this current format they would've been the sole representative anyway? At least this way if they happen to lose a regular season game or two, it matters. Playing in ILH D1, going 0-6 every season doesn't matter one bit to their championship aspirations, which is just stupid and pointless.

[unpaid]

Iolani may not get a free pass next year. Damien won ILH D-II last year.They could win it this year and,if the ILH rule about winning two in a row is in place,Damien would have to be moved up to DI. Iolani is obviously fine with guaranteed play in D-I states,but if they are content to only play in D-I then they are going to get replaced every once in a while when Damien,St.Francis ,or Pac-5 win two ILH D-II championships back to back.

What about those schools? I would almost bet ST.Francis would not agree to being relegated to D-I states automatically just because The Big Three want to believe they are no less than Open Division caliber. Damien might be the first test case next year if they win their league this year.

[WhatEWA BEACH]

@unpaid,

There was a similar question on an HPW thread, in regard to the question, "What would happen if Damien won back-to-back D-II ILH Titles"? Nick Abramo explained on the HPW thread, though he wasn't 100% sure, that Damien is classified a D-II school, so they would not have to move up like ‘Iolani did if Damien were to win two titles in a row. The example he gave was how Hawaii Baptist, a D-II classified school, does not have to move up in boys volleyball after winning multiple titles. The rule is for a D-I classified school playing in D-II due to an exemption, as every ILH D-I classified school can choose to play in D-II in one sport. My assumption is 'Iolani chose football due to the number of players (consistently in the 40's, compared to 75+ from the Big Three), not having a JV team (Sophomores, Jr., and Sr. are all on varsity), and their W-L record over the years vs. the Big Three, as the last time 'Iolani had a win vs. any of the Big Three was six years ago in 2010, giving them a 1Win -20 Loss record so far this decade).