The Michigan High School Athletic Association changed the format for the football playoffs about 3 years ago. The rules are quite complicated, and don’t reflect how good a football team is. I’m all for adjusting the way the playoffs work, but this change to “playoff points” doesn’t seem right.

With the MHSAA Football Playoffs kicking off this past weekend (October 27 is the first round), football fans once again need to remind themselves about the MHSAA Playoff Point system. This system is quite complicated for a lot of people, not making sense. Even when being explained, it feels like the MHSAA is doing too much, applying too many ways to earn the so called “playoff points,” which lead to confusion and chaos. The previous playoff system MHSAA had in place was a lot simpler than this, but wasn’t perfect. From 1999 to 2019, as long as a football team won 6 out of there 9 games (5 if games were canceled), they would automatically have a spot in the MHSAA Football Playoffs, with a chance to play in Detroit at Ford Field, where the finals are played. This system worked, but only for a decade or so. The Detroit Free Press wrote an article in 2019, announcing and explaining the format changes along with problems in the “old” format: “The MHSAA hoped the larger field would alleviate the pressure on schools scheduling non conference games, but the opposite occurred. Many coaches attempted to rig the system by scheduling as many easy wins as possible, making scheduling for the state’s better teams more difficult than ever.” In some cases, this does make sense. Schools have the ability to schedule who they want, and scheduling smaller teams does rig the system a little. But not every school does that.

I believe that if a school has a winning record (or .500), they should be in the playoffs. Anything lower just won’t cut it. There are solid teams this year that didn’t make the playoffs, also having a winning record. That would be Lee High School. The Legends finished this season with a 5-4 record, their first winning season since 2006, finishing 8-2 with a playoff loss to Hartford. One other reason they didn’t make the playoffs is because of enrollment numbers of students. Also something that should be fixed. This year, the Legends were led by Junior quarterback Anthony Blok. He’s the best quarterback the Legends have seen in decades. Blok broke multiple school records this year, one them being the single season passing touchdown record (29). I had the chance to interview Anthony, asking him his thoughts on the playoffs. He couldn’t agree with me more: “I’m with you, any team with a winning record should have a chance to make the playoffs,” This really shows that I’m not the only one thinking about this. Lee “fought so hard,” but came up short, again, due to enrollment.

Athletic directors help each other out when it comes to creating sports schedules. Our (WHS) athletic director Ted Hollern has been here for years, and a large part of that has been scheduling and organizing games. He has to do multiple tasks including paperwork, transportation, finding officials, volunteers, etc. I had to ask Ted what his takes were on this confusing playoff format. He understands that “schools schedule there 6 wins, most athletic directors try to schedule 6 winnable games.” This is an instance where schools might try to bend the rules a little, but all in all, they’re just trying to win some games. Smaller schools want to get a win on Friday nights, but for a lot of schools, it’s just not possible.

The MHSAA Playoff Point system has to go. There’s too many rules within itself. Besides, who doesn’t love playoff football? Allowing more teams into the playoffs makes it not only more competitive and interesting, it would make the MHSAA more money.

I hope the current playoff system is changed in the near future. Let winning teams automatically qualify for the playoffs!