How could it be better?
The N.C. High School Athletic Association was looking for a way to stop kids from missing school because of travel to far-away sites and reduce spending when it developed the pod system now used in the football playoffs.
What the NCHSAA created was the most exciting, most dramatic, most entertaining and most incredibly fun football playoff system the state has ever had. It also saved a buck or two.
"If gas hadn't been $4 a gallon at the time, do I think the pod system in football would have been developed?" said Rick Strunk, an NCHSAA associate commissioner. "Probably not."
The trendy thing might be to knock the playoff system and talk about too many rematches, not enough intersectional play, too many teams and particularly too many teams with losing records.
But week after week the system, now in its second year, has produced intriguing matchups. Sure there have been rematches, and it is hard to drum up much enthusiasm for games involving two-win teams, but the pod has created a spectator's delight.
I don't know of a single high school football coach who likes the pod system and that's understandable, because coaches don't want repeats of regular-season matchups. Most coaches say it is hard to beat a good team twice in one season.
Wake Forest-Rolesville vs. Leesville Road. Fuquay-Varina vs. Middle Creek. Cardinal Gibbons vs. Erwin Triton. Leesville Road at Garner.
What is there not to like about these matchups?
All brought to you courtesy of the much-aligned pod.
The pod system is the latest evolution in trying to find the best football playoff system. The NCHSAA has used many playoff systems, including a few years when the 3A and 2A playoffs ended at the regional level.
As Rudyard Kipling said, "Oh, East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet."
For years, teams had to win a conference to qualify for the playoffs. A team could, and Millbrook did in the 1960s, finish 9-0-1 and not make the playoffs.
The playoffs eventually were expanded after the NCHSAA experimented for a short period with two separate playoffs, one for league champions and another for other top finishers in league play.
Later, the NCHSAA used a prepared bracket that was set years in advance. The bracket matched teams from various conferences according to league finish. Similar brackets still are used in most other sports.
That system was criticized after Garner, ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press poll, was paired against Richmond County, ranked No. 2, in a first-round game.
Two years ago, geography was added as a factor in seeding to create the pod system that uses geography, conference finish and overall record.
Since geography is a factor in creating conferences and now the playoffs based on geography, it is no surprise that conference mates often play in the first round and second round. The NCHSAA Board of Directors is expected to consider changes to the system either during its December or May meetings. There might be a completely new variation by next season.
But personally, about the only thing I don't like about the pod system is that the coaches don't like it.
I understand why they don't like it, but it sure is fun to watch.
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