It's the best league in the nation, top to bottom.
It takes a time for teams to acclimate.
McDonogh took it's lumps for years after moving up from the B. Then after a decade of struggle, it finally committed to supporting a coach and players and has seen a ton of success. But it was total buy-in to get there.
Spalding was a B team that had almost two decades of losing in the A until it finally found some money and support the past couple years. If that money keeps flowing, they will be in very good shape. If it doesn't, Spalding is a tough school to recruit.
John Carroll was the winningest team in the other league all those years ago and it took them what, 3-4 years to get good footing and the arrow pointed up? And they still have work to do.
Severn was a long-time B team too. They are at a crossroads. Their location is fantastic. They have a good core of young talent. But they are always competing with 2 conference foes and 3 public schools for top local kids. I think their price-tag and small size puts them at a disadvantage. Their future depends on the will of school leadership.
MSJ has been in the A league forever but has always been run and recruited like a B team. They play with whoever enrolls. That said, they do well with the talent they have and are still regularly ranked in the top 20 MD polls.
It doesnt happen with luck. Gotta commit time, energy and resources if you wanna win in the A.
Maybe MSJ and/or Gilman should go to B and not bring a team up. That should level amount of teams.
Everything is fine the way it is.
But the playoffs need to move to 8 teams.
8 out of 11 teams need to make the playoffs? Why have a regular season at that point? LB at 4-6 should have been awarded a playoff spot? Earn it.
I agree and want them to "earn it." Adding those 2 spots is just adding a formal play-in game instead of leaving it up to the 5th-6th tiebreaker rule.
Based upon how each of the last 3 real playoff seasons (non-covid) played out, it actually makes sense. Each year there were 2-3-4 way tiebreakers where the last teams in were decided by an arbitrary rule.
If you look at the scores from those seasons you'll also see that ALL of the top 8 ranked teams (except LB the past 2 years and Severn in 2021) defeated a quarterfinal, final four or championship game teams.
If the league didn't support it, I'd say no.
But those top 7-8 teams are all extremely close. Shame to leave it to a rando formula.
All it does is make the tournament more fun and compelling. You add a bye or play-in game. More excitement for the kids, another lax game for the fans.
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