Friday, Aug. 22, 2008
Opinion: Improvement but not perfection
Tod Palmer
sports editor
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ReprintHard as it is for me to admit, I made a mistake.
The article last week announcing the 2008 Sunflower League Preseason Football Coaches Poll indicated that the season-opening contest between Olathe East and Olathe North wouldn’t count in the final league standings.
I made a point to note what a shame that was, especially considering that the two teams were selected first and second by the coaches.
Turns out that I kind of misspoke (miswrote?).
The way the Sunflower League football champion is decided has changed.
Gone are the arcane days when a team’s final six games against league opponents counted in the league standings in even years and the first six games counted in odd years.
It was a flawed system.
The system now, well, it’s better.
The last seven games against league foes will comprise each team’s league record beginning this fall.
Presumably, the first seven will count in odd years.
Is it perfect? Not on your life, but it never will be as along as the league has more than eight teams.
With the new district alignments in place for the 2008 and 2009 seasons, Olathe East, Olathe South, Olathe North and Shawnee Mission South can only play seven league games.
The other two games allowed in the nine-game regular season are against non-Sunflower League opponents during district play. Nothing those programs can do about that.
That means a true round-robin season simply isn’t possible in the 12-team Sunflower League.
It creates some silly circumstances.
On Sept. 12, for instance, Olathe South and SM South will be playing league games against Olathe Northwest at SM Northwest, but those games won’t count toward the league record for Olathe Northwest and SM Northwest.
The same thing happens a week later in matchups between SM South and Free State, Leavenworth and Olathe North, Olathe South and Sm West as well as SM Northwest and Olathe East.
That’s six total games that count in the league standings for only half the teams playing in them, which is about as goofy as it gets. It really devalues the league title in some ways.
Still, seven games is better than six.
Barring any dramatic changes, like splitting the league into divisions and awarding two championships — which also cheapens the title, incidentally — it’s probably the best system we’ve got.