Minnesota High School Football Section Championship Matchups

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Someone send PJ a private message about the 8th grade QB.

Oh, and Lakeville South will win the state title. Eden Prairie was not match for them.
Lakeville South had issues with Shakopee, and could stumble there, but otherwise it's going to be Lakeville South who wins Prep Bowl 2021.
 

Nice to see my alma matter represented there in the 9 man teams.
 

Face The Facts said:
Someone send PJ a private message about the 8th grade QB.

Oh, and Lakeville South will win the state title. Eden Prairie was not match for them.
Lakeville South had issues with Shakopee, and could stumble there, but otherwise it's going to be Lakeville South who wins Prep Bowl 2021.
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Lakeville South did indeed take EP to the woodshed early in the season. Should EP beat Lakeville North, probably Minnetonka in the quarterfinals, and Maple Grove in the semi-finals, it could be an interesting match-up in the Finals at USB. EP shut out Shakopee and it wasn't that close.
 

discochris said:
Yes, but I don't see why it had to apply to all classes. 6A maybe, because that only affects 30 schools, but leave the conferences for everyone else. I hate that they killed off rivalries in football.
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Cascading issue. Take the 6A schools out of their existing football leagues, and the leagues they were pulled from scramble for smaller schools, who then have to replace their losses.
 

Gopher 461 said:
Lakeville South did indeed take EP to the woodshed early in the season. Should EP beat Lakeville North, probably Minnetonka in the quarterfinals, and Maple Grove in the semi-finals, it could be an interesting match-up in the Finals at USB. EP shut out Shakopee and it wasn't that close.
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The Shakopee loss to EP was a bit surprising considering Shakopee played well against everyone else this year including Lakeville South and generally runs the ball well.

I assume EP can stop the run but has problems with the pass.
 


I still can't believe they only play 8 regular season games. Add a 9th game but then reduce the playoffs by a round. Combine sections to 4 for every level, pick the top 8 teams in each section for the playoffs.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I still can't believe they only play 8 regular season games. Add a 9th game but then reduce the playoffs by a round. Combine sections to 4 for every level, pick the top 8 teams in each section for the playoffs.
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8 is enough. Ending it on MEA Weekend and counting backwards 7 works just fine. I say keep it that way and still eliminate the first week of playoffs like they have done for 6A.

Top 4 in each section should advance to the playoffs and just go from there. The Wed-Tue-Sat schedule starting on MEA Weekend is crazy. Not healthy in this day and age.
 


MaxyJR1 said:
  • Bixby and Eden Prairie in the final 16 for 6A and host Lakeville North this week.
  • Hoskins and Alexandria in the Section Final against Bemidji after upsetting #1 seed Moorhead over the weekend.
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Go Cards!
MaxyJR1 said:
  • Nelson and Tracy Milroy-Balaton are in the Section 3 1A final against Murray County Central.
  • Alvarez and Columbia Heights will be at Fridley in their section final this week. Fridley won 15-6 a couple weeks ago in final game of the season.
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Face The Facts said:
The Shakopee loss to EP was a bit surprising considering Shakopee played well against everyone else this year including Lakeville South and generally runs the ball well.

I assume EP can stop the run but has problems with the pass.
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The win against Shakopee wasn't surprising as EP has excellent run defense, but yup. Linebacker drops allow for 10-15 yarders, CB's give too much room on the boundaries, and they are always subject to TE's down the hashes with cover 2. I don't know if it's a bend don't brake deal but that's the way it's been for years.
 

Face The Facts said:
The Shakopee loss to EP was a bit surprising considering Shakopee played well against everyone else this year including Lakeville South and generally runs the ball well.

I assume EP can stop the run but has problems with the pass.
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Shakopee starting QB was knocked out earlier this year. Not the same team since
 

District FB was not just about Eden Prairie. In SW MN, teams were playing non-conference games against schools from IA and SD to fill out their schedules, which really screwed things up when trying to figure out seeding for section tournaments.

And some teams are just in a tough geographic situation. Marshall is a AAAA school out in SW MN and there are no other AAAA schools in the area. In the old conference setting, they would beat the bleep out of smaller schools and then get thumped in the sections the first time they played another school with similar enrollment.

even with district football, Marshall only played two AAAA schools in the regular season. the rest of their games were against AAA schools. (and Marshall was down this year - ran out of Lance's).
 

short ornery norwegian said:
District FB was not just about Eden Prairie. In SW MN, teams were playing non-conference games against schools from IA and SD to fill out their schedules, which really screwed things up when trying to figure out seeding for section tournaments.

And some teams are just in a tough geographic situation. Marshall is a AAAA school out in SW MN and there are no other AAAA schools in the area. In the old conference setting, they would beat the bleep out of smaller schools and then get thumped in the sections the first time they played another school with similar enrollment.

even with district football, Marshall only played two AAAA schools in the regular season. the rest of their games were against AAA schools. (and Marshall was down this year - ran out of Lance's).
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There will always be those outliers. Moorhead comes to mind most prominently. A city of 30,000 with one high school (I suppose a few will enroll in the private schools Shanley and Oak Grove in Fargo) but there aren't any schools near that size for what - 100 miles? A similar situation existed with Superior, WI (which is to Duluth, as Moorhead is to Fargo). They were playing Minnesota schools because there were no local schools of similar size anywhere close in WI.

And the same is true on the other end for some tiny towns in far western MN. There are some schools that either co-op for sports with S. Dakota schools and play in the SD high school league, or in the case of Browns Valley, send their kids altogether to Sisseton High in South Dakota.

Closer to the Twin Cities, before the old Taylors Falls district was finally consolidated into Chisago Lakes, there were a few years those kids went to St. Croix Falls, WI. And there's still a tiny non-operating school district between Scandia (Forest Lake district) and Taylors Falls (Chisago Lakes District) in Franconia where the kids go to Osceola, WI.
 
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Some guy said:
Shakopee starting QB was knocked out earlier this year. Not the same team since
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Big Time. They averaged 50 points a game in the 4 games he played in. The final 4 regular season games they score 9,0,22 and 41. They also lost one of their three RB's.
 

discochris said:
It's clear you have some irrational dislike of suburban schools.
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Has nothing to do with suburb or not.

I simply hate that some school districts, and which very clearly have the money to do so, refuse to create more opportunities for their kids to participate on varsity teams or competitive groups (debate, math team, robotics, whatever). That is the correct thing. It's high school, not professional.


So what if things change in 30 years? You probably should be refreshing it in that timeframe anyway.

You can turn a smaller high school into a community center, or sell it to a developer to make into housing. Seen the latter in plenty of places.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Unfortunately not where all the new houses are being built.

This year Blaine had 9A/9B, 10A/10B, JV and Varsity Football. Spring Lake Park had 9/JV/Varsity
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What about that giant house farm on the right (east) side of 65, before or around the sports center area? I think that's been there around 20 years now.

All that is SLP district, I believe. Wild guess they open enroll to Centennial (and they'll take most anyone as they wanted to grow to the size of the Anoka district schools, and get away from being cast down with the inner ring schools). Don't want to go down to "ghetto" SLP.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
District FB was not just about Eden Prairie. In SW MN, teams were playing non-conference games against schools from IA and SD to fill out their schedules, which really screwed things up when trying to figure out seeding for section tournaments.

And some teams are just in a tough geographic situation. Marshall is a AAAA school out in SW MN and there are no other AAAA schools in the area. In the old conference setting, they would beat the bleep out of smaller schools and then get thumped in the sections the first time they played another school with similar enrollment.

even with district football, Marshall only played two AAAA schools in the regular season. the rest of their games were against AAA schools. (and Marshall was down this year - ran out of Lance's).
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I frankly don't think it would be the worst thing in the world if these border town or near border town bigger schools just played in out-of-state conferences, if that was a thing both sides were agreeable to.

Marshall plays the SF area schools. Moorhead plays the Fargo's/WF's/GF's. Maybe Superior Wisc should be playing the Duluth/Iron Range schools? Other examples perhaps.
 

MplsGopher said:
I frankly don't think it would be the worst thing in the world if these border town or near border town bigger schools just played in out-of-state conferences, if that was a thing both sides were agreeable to.

Marshall plays the SF area schools. Moorhead plays the Fargo's/WF's/GF's. Maybe Superior Wisc should be playing the Duluth/Iron Range schools? Other examples perhaps.
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But then you have issues come playoff time.
 

discochris said:
There will always be those outliers. Moorhead comes to mind most prominently. A city of 30,000 with one high school (I suppose a few will enroll in the private schools Shanley and Oak Grove in Fargo) but there aren't any schools near that size for what - 100 miles? A similar situation existed with Superior, WI (which is to Duluth, as Moorhead is to Fargo). They were playing Minnesota schools because there were no local schools of similar size anywhere close in WI.

And the same is true on the other end for some tiny towns in far western MN. There are some schools that either co-op for sports with S. Dakota schools and play in the SD high school league, or in the case of Browns Valley, send their kids altogether to Sisseton High in South Dakota.

Closer to the Twin Cities, before the old Taylors Falls district was finally consolidated into Chisago Lakes, there were a few years those kids went to St. Croix Falls, WI. And there's still a tiny non-operating school district between Scandia (Forest Lake district) and Taylors Falls (Chisago Lakes District) in Franconia where the kids go to Osceola, WI.
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In the end the kids usually don't care and have a great experience that they remember for life. Adults are the one's that tend to overthink it. I remember back in 1989 when sections were shifted and St. Peter had to play Shakopee, Chaska, and Farmington in it's section. They beat them all which was pretty cool, but they had to play those "Metro Teams."
 

Do the Gophers or any D1 college football team have paid/unpaid scouts at the HS level to keep tabs on high school prospects? Is that even considered legal by NCAA rules?
 

short ornery norwegian said:
District FB was not just about Eden Prairie. In SW MN, teams were playing non-conference games against schools from IA and SD to fill out their schedules, which really screwed things up when trying to figure out seeding for section tournaments.

And some teams are just in a tough geographic situation. Marshall is a AAAA school out in SW MN and there are no other AAAA schools in the area. In the old conference setting, they would beat the bleep out of smaller schools and then get thumped in the sections the first time they played another school with similar enrollment.

even with district football, Marshall only played two AAAA schools in the regular season. the rest of their games were against AAA schools. (and Marshall was down this year - ran out of Lance's).
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As to your first paragraph. I agree. But the “solution” they created screwed up seeding more than it ever was before.
 

hungan1 said:
Do the Gophers or any D1 college football team have paid/unpaid scouts at the HS level to keep tabs on high school prospects? Is that even considered legal by NCAA rules?
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Not sure if serious…
 

MplsGopher said:
What about that giant house farm on the right (east) side of 65, before or around the sports center area? I think that's been there around 20 years now.

All that is SLP district, I believe. Wild guess they open enroll to Centennial (and they'll take most anyone as they wanted to grow to the size of the Anoka district schools, and get away from being cast down with the inner ring schools). Don't want to go down to "ghetto" SLP.
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I have friends who live in that area and send their kids to SLP. They all love the smaller school and would never have considered open enrolling elsewhere. They don't consider it "ghetto" and your bias against suburbs with your weasel words like "house farm" is just further confirmed here.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I still can't believe they only play 8 regular season games. Add a 9th game but then reduce the playoffs by a round. Combine sections to 4 for every level, pick the top 8 teams in each section for the playoffs.
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Should play 8.
Send winning records to playoffs.
Fill in the rest of a 32 team bracket per class with .500 teams. Then 3-5 teams picked by QRF.
teams under .500 play a 9th game against a similar record team.

One class should be dropped (move from 7 classes back to 6)
 
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discochris said:
I have friends who live in that area and send their kids to SLP. They all love the smaller school and would never have considered open enrolling elsewhere. They don't consider it "ghetto" and your bias against suburbs with your weasel words like "house farm" is just further confirmed here.
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Don't ask him his opinion on Woodbury. ;-)
 

Some guy said:
Should play 8.
Send winning records to playoffs.
Fill in the rest of a 32 team bracket per class with .500 teams. Then 3-5 teams picked by QRF.
teams under .500 play a 9th game against a similar record team.

One class should be dropped (move from 7 classes back to 6)
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That works too
 

Ope3 said:
8 is enough. Ending it on MEA Weekend and counting backwards 7 works just fine. I say keep it that way and still eliminate the first week of playoffs like they have done for 6A.

Top 4 in each section should advance to the playoffs and just go from there. The Wed-Tue-Sat schedule starting on MEA Weekend is crazy. Not healthy in this day and age.
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The reason I don't like just the top 4 in each section going is because sections are not created equal, especially at the lower levels. You could have a 5-3 team left out in one section and a 3-5 team in in another. Some teams still hardly play any regular season games teams in their section.

Less sections helps prevent that.
 

If you're going to put everyone in the playoffs you face the issue of first-round games that are ridiculously uncompetitive, particularly in 8-team sections. Hopkins, the worst team in 6A, lost 50-0 to Lakeville South in the last regular season game, and was rewarded by having to play them again the next week in the playoffs. It's hard to see how games like that are a good thing for anyone, and it's a bigger issue in football than other sports as overmatched teams face increased injury risk. Six-team sections let you give the top two teams byes and at least avoid some of the blowouts, although it didn't help Apple Valley against St. Thomas (49-0 for the second time this season).
 


GophersInIowa said:
The reason I don't like just the top 4 in each section going is because sections are not created equal, especially at the lower levels. You could have a 5-3 team left out in one section and a 3-5 team in in another. Some teams still hardly play any regular season games teams in their section.

Less sections helps prevent that.
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Fair point, I understand the logic.

On the other hand, the seeding can't be that far out of whack, as there are exactly 2 teams below the #4 line that are still playing in the 48 sections Class 5A or lower (#7 Tartan in Sec 4/5A & #5 Litchfield in Sec 2/3A). Just not a lot of injustice if it was capped at 4. Litchfield, indeed would have been hosed in my proposal as they were 5-3. Tartan would have been on the sidelines, at 1-7.

If the number of classes were reduced, sure that would change things. Still, I would like to eliminate the WED - TUE - SAT, schedule. Playing 3 games in 9 days, just seems crazy.
 

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