Rod Johnson

As it stands right now, all but one region in the state is made up of four conferences. It seems to work out geographically well to split the regions in half, two conferences on each side of the bracket. Therefore, rather than just sending the top 16 power point teams into a 1-16 bracket, some of the big school regions set up two pods, each containing two conferences. Each pod then sends their top eight to the playoffs and they play until there is a pod champion. The two pod champions play in the state semifinals. An example: In the 1A-West region, you currently send the top 16 from the four conferences (45, 46, 47 and 48) into the postseason. A pod system would instead send the top 8 from a combined Conference 45 and 46 in one pod and another top 8 from a combined Conference 47 and 48 in the other pod. Each 8-team bracket (one per pod) would play down to one team remaining, then those two schools would meet in a state semifinal. Not sure that I explained that clearly enough. Did it help?

It's an interesting question because 4A West might be the only region where the pod system won't work because they can't split the current conference set up into two equal pods as they can in 6A, 5A and 4A (East) because there are a lot of teams from the NoVa area (17) and only a few truly out West (11). Therefore, 4A West might be the one region above 3A that won't go to the pods. Ultimately, the VHSL seems set, going forward, of letting each region make their own call.

I don't think that Richmond/Tidewater plan will be forced upon the West in this case because I think that the West will simply decline the pod option leaving 1-3 with one set of playoff rules and 4-6 with another.

Eliminating conferences is a fait accompli at this point, I believe. The VHSL was kind of caught of guard that ADs and Principals moved to conference play during the regular season as it was only meant to be a postseason grouping. Following that move, there will be a big push to make the playoffs as much like the old regional setups from about 5-6 years back with "pod" systems like Tidewater and Richmond are using now. I'd be surprised if the 1A - 3A schools bought in though, so the most likely scenario will see 1-3 sticking with the 16-team bracket while 4-6 follows their pod invention. Also, look for the realignment cycles to increase from 2 to 4 years with some rare exceptions being made.

Forget cityofRaven. Stick around, I need to drop a spot in the Most Hated rankings.

Thanks. Still got a long way to go, but nothing that I haven't done before. Appreciate the conversation.

Ah, yes. I totally forgot about those options. I suppose both are possible though I never had a geography discussion with him.

I wouldn't say that he specifically claimed that, but he claimed to have studied the 1A and 2A schools around the state. Guess some people don't study enough.

Yep, another reason that the guy was removed from his duties

Union has actually played two 2A schools (Richlands and Ridgeview), one 1A (Burton) and one 4A (Crockett). Their power points ranking is likely being hurt most by Crockett who has one win, to date. Appomattox has played two 3A schools (Rustburg and Heritage) and one 2A (Buckingham County). Both have beaten two 3-win teams. For Union, they beat a 1A and 2A with three wins. For Appomattox, their 3-win teams come from 2A and 3A. That's likely the difference right now.

Thanks. Fat fingers.

I'd be happy to include your opinion in our rankings. Please email me your top ten each week on Sunday morning. vaprepsrod@cox.net Thanks.

It was a really brief conversation. He may have worded it more like, "they have a couple of guys who are dangerous" or something like that. I wouldn't impugn the guy too much.

Thanks, guys. The effort is going to be there all year but it is going to take time to develop the knowledge and relationships in order to get to a higher level. Nothing that I haven't been through before though, so not all that daunting. The distance will make it more difficult, but it's not debilitating. Hopefully, down the road, someone from the area will want to get involved and make a little money on the side for writing about football. Drive home tomorrow is hanging over me like rain cloud right now. :-(

Thanks

So, by postponing it to a later day, they won't have to drive that route? Or is it just such a stressful drive in a bus that it doesn't make sense to do it two days in a row?

Union asst coach briefly told me that they were a solid program, didn't talk in-depth about them

Why would Grundy and River View postponed for a later day instead of finishing the next day?

Richlands at Union Photo Gallery -- 655 images

nothing ventured, nothing gained

I find 3A to be the most difficult of the rankings to put together for a couple of reasons... 1. It seems to be the class most spread out geographically, so it's harder to get a good look at all of them 2. Most seem to play a whole bunch of teams outside of 3A, so you don't get as many comparison games, and 3. More than the other classes, some 3A seem to be in very week districts while some seem to be in incredibly difficult ones By the time the postseason rolls around, I almost always expect some 5-5 club to handily beat an 8-2 somewhere in the state

I don't subscribe to the theory that the top dog MUST remain in the top spot until they lose. As a general rule of thumb, I like the theory, but I don't care for it as a black/white rule. A one-week pass for a tight game like last week's is about as long of a leash as I like to see teams get. Once moved Phoebus out of the top spot when they were undefeated for not looking "impressive enough", spent the next week in witness protection. LOL.

Meh, my email inbox indicated that several liked the changes. Overall, it was probably a mistake. That's fine. I try to learn from mine, fix the problems and move forward. It's part of the process of getting better.

Modifications complete.

Yeah, I would suspect that Galax would be fine given their first week performance, but haven't watched that game yet. I guess that I should have said, "any defense will have to tackle well in space" against Radford. Best of luck this week.