All Things 2022 Minnesota High School Football Thread


They’ve been in the Suburban East for a while now I think
Could well be. I had a nephew in that district some years ago, so was aware of the "little brother" status of Irondale in MVSD.

I still suspect that, at whatever time the decision was made to put them in the same conference, it was done with zero consideration for the competitiveness of Irondale teams and solely done to reduce overhead for admin.
 


Could well be. I had a nephew in that district some years ago, so was aware of the "little brother" status of Irondale in MVSD.

I still suspect that, at whatever time the decision was made to put them in the same conference, it was done with zero consideration for the competitiveness of Irondale teams and solely done to reduce overhead for admin.
Right, I get that and I agree it’s probably why they did it, just saying they seem to be doing alright for themselves in most sports.
 

That's where Roseville should be.
So they can lose by 40 to Elk River, Mahtomedi and Spring Lake Park? Roseville has 500 more students than 5A schools. There’s plenty of 6A schools like them. They need to help themselves.
 


So they can lose by 40 to Elk River, Mahtomedi and Spring Lake Park? Roseville has 500 more students than 5A schools. There’s plenty of 6A schools like them. They need to help themselves.
The real solution is to consolidate classes.
6a was created because 5a couldn’t compete.
Elk river, STA, chaska would be perennial top 15 in 6a and 5a

Meanwhile there are 12 of the biggest teams in the state sentences to 3-5 or worse by being banned from playing teams outside the top 30

They can’t help themselves. Classes are based on population.

Potential football population is way different than population.
Somali immigrants not a lot of American football players.
Indian and Pakistani immigrants not a lot of American football players.

It’s fine if some schools lose. Give them a chance for competition and lower levels of success though (like a playoff birth for a .500 season).

Roseville helps themselves and has a miracle 5-3 season. Lose in second round of playoffs. This means they’re top 16 in the state but nobody who doesn’t follow closely even knows they aren’t terrible. Then they go 2-6 the next year and People say “help themselves”

The year Roseville went to state (maybe 2013)? Was one of the best coaching jobs in the history of the state. Osseo state title was maybe the best ever.
 

The real solution is to consolidate classes.
6a was created because 5a couldn’t compete.
Elk river, STA, chaska would be perennial top 15 in 6a and 5a

Meanwhile there are 12 of the biggest teams in the state sentences to 3-5 or worse by being banned from playing teams outside the top 30

They can’t help themselves. Classes are based on population.

Potential football population is way different than population.
Somali immigrants not a lot of American football players.
Indian and Pakistani immigrants not a lot of American football players.

It’s fine if some schools lose. Give them a chance for competition and lower levels of success though (like a playoff birth for a .500 season).

Roseville helps themselves and has a miracle 5-3 season. Lose in second round of playoffs. This means they’re top 16 in the state but nobody who doesn’t follow closely even knows they aren’t terrible. Then they go 2-6 the next year and People say “help themselves”

The year Roseville went to state (maybe 2013)? Was one of the best coaching jobs in the history of the state. Osseo state title was maybe the best ever.
Classes need to be based on number of kids in the total system, including feeder/youth programs.

100% nailed it that Park Center's student population is absolutely incomparable to Elk River's.
 

There are no conferences for football now. We've been discussing that. All football is played in districts now that are re-drawn every two years based in part on enrollment, and in part on success on the field. I believe all scheduling is done at the MSHSL level. There are four districts for class 6A.

This all stemmed from some of the really large schools (EP, Wayzata, Minnetonka) being unable to schedule non-conference games, and the Lake Conference at the time shrinking to just five members. (It's now back up to seven, with Buffalo and STMA joining).

Traditional conferences still exist in all the other sports.

0-8 teams probably should not be in the playoffs, but in the era of everyone gets a trophy, parents would complain if junior didn't get that extra game even though they'll get throttled.
The era has been around since the 80’s.
 

OK - here are the first-round matchups in 6A:

#8 Brainerd at #1 Stillwater
#5 Lakeville North at #4 Minnetonka
#6 Anoka at #3 White Bear Lake
#7 Burnsville at #2 Lakeville South

#8 Hopkins at #1 Maple Grove
#5 Forest Lake at #4 Eagan
#6 Totino-Grace at #3 East Ridge
#7 Coon Rapids at #2 Prior Lake

on the other side of the bracket-
#8 Eastview at #1 Eden Prairie
#5 Osseo at #4 Woodbury
#6 Farmington at #3 Shakopee
#7 Mounds View at #2 Champlin Park

#8 Roseville at #1 Rosemount
#5 Wayzata at #4 St. Michael-Albertville
#6 Edina at #3 Blaine
#7 Park at #2 Centennial

If the high seeds hold, the Quarterfinals would be
Lakeville South vs Stillwater
Prior Lake vs Maple Grove
Champlin Park vs Eden Prairie
Centennial vs Rosemount
As a Rosemount fan I am pretty happy with the section they ended up in. Glad to see South and Prior Lake elsewhere. That said, I think EP probably got the easiest path to the Quarterfinals overall.

Will be fun to see how the brackets play out. I won't be shocked if we see a fair number of upsets along the way.
 



They redistrict every two years so it will change a bit this off-season. 6A coaches are pushing for section play and one non section game at their level and keep the current playoff structure of crossing over sections. It will help them seed better. Right now the are trying to seed teams they didn’t see all year.

When they first went to districts there were many more teams in the state. There were 8 teams in nearly every section except for class 4 and 5. Now hardly any sections have 8 teams. They may need to consider eliminating a class or at least make all sections have at least 5-6 teams. There are 4 team sections on some classes.
 

As a Rosemount fan I am pretty happy with the section they ended up in. Glad to see South and Prior Lake elsewhere. That said, I think EP probably got the easiest path to the Quarterfinals overall.

Will be fun to see how the brackets play out. I won't be shocked if we see a fair number of upsets along the way.
Looking at the soccer and football schedules, Nov. 4 has a chance to be a special day for Rosemount students. Potential Boys and Girls soccer championships at 8 and 10 a.m. playoff football at 7
 

How on earth does Forest Lake not play White Bear Lake and Centennial, 2 districts that we border yet we play STMA and Lakeville North both 45-1 hour away?
 

They redistrict every two years so it will change a bit this off-season. 6A coaches are pushing for section play and one non section game at their level and keep the current playoff structure of crossing over sections. It will help them seed better. Right now the are trying to seed teams they didn’t see all year.

When they first went to districts there were many more teams in the state. There were 8 teams in nearly every section except for class 4 and 5. Now hardly any sections have 8 teams. They may need to consider eliminating a class or at least make all sections have at least 5-6 teams. There are 4 team sections on some classes.
They need to eliminate a class long term
 




How on earth does Forest Lake not play White Bear Lake and Centennial, 2 districts that we border yet we play STMA and Lakeville North both 45-1 hour away?
Same reason Wayzata doesn't play Minnetonka, EP, Edina or Hopkins, but has to go to Farmington and Centennial. That's how the state schedules it.
 


Same reason Wayzata doesn't play Minnetonka, EP, Edina or Hopkins, but has to go to Farmington and Centennial. That's how the state schedules it.
And the state is dumb as hell

This whole convoluted schedule is for fairness and parity allegedly.

But it is also the same schedule that sees Hopkins lose to lakeville south 77-0 and 6A coon rapids beat 5A St. Cloud Apollo 62-0

Hopkins is so good they can’t play anyone outside the top 30
Coon rapids so bad that Apollo has the privilege of getting to play a 6a team and losing by 60 last week.


State should quit worrying about trying to pick winners and losers and just worry about fairness and logic
 

And the state is dumb as hell

This whole convoluted schedule is for fairness and parity allegedly.

But it is also the same schedule that sees Hopkins lose to lakeville south 77-0 and 6A coon rapids beat 5A St. Cloud Apollo 62-0

Hopkins is so good they can’t play anyone outside the top 30
Coon rapids so bad that Apollo has the privilege of getting to play a 6a team and losing by 60 last week.


State should quit worrying about trying to pick winners and losers and just worry about fairness and logic
But how do they do that? Go back to conference play (my choice). Go on straight enrollment numbers?
 

But how do they do that? Go back to conference play (my choice). Go on straight enrollment numbers?
Before district scheduling scheduling was a nightmare for 5-10 schools

After district scheduling the schedule is killing programs and booster club revenue (believe it or not apple valley vs lakeville north had bigger crowds than forest lake lakeville north) for a good 30-40% of the state.

Go back to the old system. If wayzata and Eden prairie can’t fill a schedule they can play each other twice.
 


So conference play. The issue with the Lake conference having five teams no longer exists since Buffalo and STMA joined.
Before district scheduling scheduling was a nightmare for 5-10 schools

After district scheduling the schedule is killing programs and booster club revenue (believe it or not apple valley vs lakeville north had bigger crowds than forest lake lakeville north) for a good 30-40% of the state.

Go back to the old system. If wayzata and Eden prairie can’t fill a schedule they can play each other twice.
 



Maybe go to some kind of system where teams move between classes based on the previous years results. That way a Hopkins team that gets slaughtered weekly in 6A can slide down to 5A the next year. Same thing on the flip side with a dominant 5A team, move them up to 6A. At least you would give down programs a chance to recover some and challenge the top level teams by making them move up in class. Not a perfect way to do it but better than basing it just on school size.

Rosemount played Burnsville in their final regular season game. Burnsville had like 40 kids on the roster and was clearly struggling to find players. Rosemount played like crap and still won by nearly 30 points.
 

my answer would be Section scheduling. You play all the other teams in your Section during the regular season. to fill out the schedule, you match each section with a neighboring section for as many cross-over games as needed. every school plays all regular season games against opponents in the same class.

that makes section tournament seeding simple. Yes, some teams will play each other for a 2nd time in the Section playoffs, but that already happens now under the current system. so be it.

if a team goes 0-8 for two years in a row, it can be 'relegated' to a lower class.
 

Maybe go to some kind of system where teams move between classes based on the previous years results. That way a Hopkins team that gets slaughtered weekly in 6A can slide down to 5A the next year. Same thing on the flip side with a dominant 5A team, move them up to 6A. At least you would give down programs a chance to recover some and challenge the top level teams by making them move up in class. Not a perfect way to do it but better than basing it just on school size.

Rosemount played Burnsville in their final regular season game. Burnsville had like 40 kids on the roster and was clearly struggling to find players. Rosemount played like crap and still won by nearly 30 points.
Basically promotion and relegation. Like the Premier League. That makes some sense.
 

Maybe go to some kind of system where teams move between classes based on the previous years results. That way a Hopkins team that gets slaughtered weekly in 6A can slide down to 5A the next year. Same thing on the flip side with a dominant 5A team, move them up to 6A. At least you would give down programs a chance to recover some and challenge the top level teams by making them move up in class. Not a perfect way to do it but better than basing it just on school size.

Rosemount played Burnsville in their final regular season game. Burnsville had like 40 kids on the roster and was clearly struggling to find players. Rosemount played like crap and still won by nearly 30 points.
They already do that every two years
It’s a boondoggle
Not sure they could make a new schedule every year

All the schedules will be new next year, the rumor is for 6a it will be 7 vs your section plus one random draw. (Hopefully they pair the draws to match even teams (like the 7s and 8s in one pool, 1-3 in one pool, 4-6 in one pool))

This would be more logical to me but it would require them telling Brainerd and coon rapids they have to play a 6a schedule like everyone else
 

This would be more logical to me but it would require them telling Brainerd and coon rapids they have to play a 6a schedule like everyone else
I have to think Totino Grace drops back down. They were awful. Then move Coon Rapids where they should be. Not sure what you do with Brainerd since they're a geographic outlier.
 

I have to think Totino Grace drops back down. They were awful. Then move Coon Rapids where they should be. Not sure what you do with Brainerd since they're a geographic outlier.
Well making Brainerd play st Michael, maple grove, coon rapids, Blaine isn’t that much different than east ridge playing st Michael and lakeville playing forest lake

If totino grace drops down the next one up wouldn’t be coon rapids or Brainerd. Those two are already up.
If the 2021-22 list remains accurate it will be Rochester Mayo.


Coon rapids is 19th
Straight up criminal that whoever their buddy is in the league let’s them opt down to beat Apollo by 60


For the record. One of the issues in our system is that Eagan high school is
by raw numbers equal to being cloquet (1350 bigger) than being wayzata (1350 smaller)
 

I meant as in having CR and/or Brainerd actually playing in a 6A district when Totino drops down.
 




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