Who will be this year’s surprise and who will dominate football this year. It’s never too early to talk High School Football.
Who are your top players in 2012? Who do you think will be the top teams going into the 2012 season?
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482 Responses
@ hentz: Well said. A potential state champion should have proven themselves during the regular season also to earn the right to compete in the playoffs. For a team to win the state title they have to win 6 games. I mean, what is this, the NCAA basketball tournament?
@ Jeff Smith Of course there is an advantage to private schools because kids can go there with no geographic boundaries. But if you want to seperate it than you will see things get out of control recruting wise. Look at Jersey and Maryland. I am not a catholic school backer, as a matter of fact hate the PCL, but enough whining and complaining about catholic schools. There are a lot of negatives they have to deal with, People have to pay 6000-8000 in some cases even more, catholic schools are in such dire straights that they are not letting kids go for free. Most catholic schools have very bad or no facilities.
Than North Penn and Neshaminy don’t get in the playoff’s this is football not other sports where everybody gets in.
@ Jeff Smith:
It ( D1) still should drop from 16 to 8 teams. NP & Neshaminy don’t make the playoffs, then they don’t make the playoffs. Plus it would get rid of that unpopular bye the other half of the bracket has, and would shorten the season by one week ( assuming the west cuts back 1 week).
Public schools and Private schools need separate playoffs or allow kids to move around and play where they want to. Same end result. This gets tiring hearing the Catholic Schools backers trying to say there is no recruiting or advantage.
Just read some of these comments. Good stuff on here. Someone was questioning Josh Funk`s street cred , because he never played prep football. That is funny stuff. Funkster knows more about Pa prep football than any living human. Playing prep ball doe not make you a football authority. Funkster might not know cover two from a comforter blanket, but he knows teams, coaches and players. Plus he is the bassmaster!
Cutting down D1 to 8 teams? I don’t agree with that. You people realize North Penn wouldn’t even had made the playoffs? Same goes with Neshaminy. District 1 is pretty strong to boast a 16 team playoff.
Your right about that separating public/private schools would create what everyone complains about. People who claim recruiting need to only look at New Jersey and Maryland, if we did what they did recruiting would get out of control.
16 weeks works out good, regardless of whether it is 15 or 16 weeks, D1 should not get so many teams in, and D12 should not a bye in certain classifications. I understand why the PIAA has to let WPIAL get what they want, because they will leave the PIAA, but re-organizing this 6 week playoff should be a priority.
@ phillyboy:
You gotta realize that only 2 teams from the entire state ( in each division) play 16 weeks, only 4 play 15 weeks, etc. But I agree, cut it down to 15 weeks.
I also agree cutting D1 down to 8 teams ( even though NP would not have made it last year). That has nothing to do with the current point system. I think the current system is quite equitable. Can’t think of a better way.
How can you say the public schools dominant?
Look at LaSalle, Wood, ACC & even Prep.They do seperate the public & parochial ( private) schools early in the playoffs. They wanna keep that city championship goin’.
I think a 16 week schedule for high school football is ridiculous. 15 games should be the absolute limit. There’s no way D1 should have 16 teams in the playoffs. I realize it’s a large district but still it’s watered down with that many teams. Instead, they should figure out a way to perfect the point system. And if a team doesn’t make the cut, so be it. On the other hand, one thing the PIAA has right is NOT separating the public and private schools for the playoffs. The public schools continue to dominate so it would be a case of fixing something that’s not broken. New Jersey is an exception. I don’t know why but the private schools are so much better over there in certain team sports.
@ muggy:
I know, a bit crazy. But that was bantered about. The only time anyone from D12 was going to play a team from the west, it would be at least halfway thru the playoffs. But I don’t think these changes ( D3 to the east & D12 to the west) will ever happen.
They wanted to drop from a 16 week schedule to a 15 week schedule. Simple solution for the East would be dropping D1 from 16 teams in the playoffs to 8. That would solve the East. Not sure what they would do in the west.
I contacted a couple of people I know from the southeastern part of the state. Neither one had heard the NP rumor; however, one of my contacts indicated, if the rumor is true that it is a move that he thinks should happen. If I hear anything back from either inidivdual, I’ll pass along what I find out.
D3 winner currently plays state semi-final against D7, winner is in the final, no change there. CD played the WPIAL champ, Wilson played Bethel Park, winner went to Hershey. D3 was put in the west because of the large number of 4A schools, it balanced the bracket. Don’t hold me to this, but D3 and D1 are probably the 2 districts with most 4A schools, would seem kind of nuts to have them in same bracket and make D12 go to the west- where do you play the games that fans can get to?
District 1 had 3 appearences my mistake
There may be some truth to that. When the 15 week proposal was out it had bascially D3 and D1 playing there district title to the quartefinal final round and the semi final round was D3 vs D1. I believe the other side of the bracket Had D11 and D12 playing the winner out of the D7 and all those other districts. not sure if they still intend to do that now since we are staying with 16 weeks. This a little dumb that D3 and D1 get a road to the state semi-final, not necessarily D1 but if you look at the last 10 years:
District 7 – 8 Teams have played for a 4A title
District 11- 6 Teams have played for a 4A title
District 12- 2 Teams have played for a 4A title
District 1- 2 Teams have played for a 4A title
District 6- 1 Team has played for a 4A title
District 3- 1 Team has played for a 4A title
District 12 has only been in since 2009. So were taking the top 3 districts in 4A over the last 10 years (total 16 state title appearences) and making them battle it out and letting two districts 1 and 3 who have a total of 3 appearences go all the way to the state semi-final
@phillyboy:
There are 12 districts in the state, so there are other districts in the west other then D7 & D10. It’s not that the East have 10 of the 12 districts.
They were talkin’ about this when they were going to change the playoff scenerio. They were thinking of dropping D1 playoff teams from 16 to 8 ( which I applaud ).
This is when it was mentioned bringing D3 in the fold. I also heard, believe it or not, that D12 was going to the west.
Far-fetched I know. But not that crazy since D12 only plays within their league during the regular season ( except some early games). So therefore they wouldn’t be traveling outside of philly until the mid-way through the playoffs.
The reason I mention this is someone here on the website stated that if they made these changes ( it was decided to make no changes for this coming year ), that the only way North Penn and LaSalle could meet, in the playoffs, is in the State final. And that if NP & CD met again, it would be in the Eastern Final.
Wild & crazy stuff.
If D3 moves to the eastern bracket then who will be left in the west — D7 and D10?? That would be a very uneven distribution. When D12 joined the PIAA it made sense to displace D3 to the west for the sake of balance.
@ muggy:
Well that’s the rumor, D3 moving to the East.
Central Dauphin can’t “move to the East” unless the PIAA changes the brackets- as long as District 3 remains on the west side of the bracket, Central Dauphin will remain on that side.
@ Brian Hope:
I haven’t heard that rumor, but I hope you’re right. Maybe Dave Mika or Josh Funk can shed some light.
North penn used to be in the National division until they re-aligned about 4 or 5 years ago. They really don’t have enough competition in the continental. In the National division they play who they should play: Neshaminy, Pennsbury, C. Rock’s etc. They might lose a game or two, but it’s better for them in the long run.
@phillyboy:
I heard that Central Dauphin is moving to the East. Maybe Mika or Funk can verify that also.
Central Dauphin has their 3 best skill players back next year. Maybe they’ll be ranked in the preseason national rankings.
@ Jeff:
See the many earlier comments below. We have extensively covered 2012. Now it’s remimiscing time.
great point Jeff. I watch this site and read the posts that pertain to CURRENT high school football. Let’s get back to that please.
There are many rumors flying that North Penn is moving from the Continental League to the National League, do any of you know the facts?
Thank you.
What happened to top teams (s)… for 2012? too much reminiscing now
@Philly Boy -No Pro’s that I am aware of and maybe not stellar but here’s what I remember…Chris Cisar started 2 years at Hero back for Penn State, Eric Renkey started NG as a true freshman for Penn State before a neck injury, Gary Gorajewski started 2 years OL at Pitt, Geoff Bender started at QB for NC State his brother punted for GA Tech.