[PHSForever]

Is it the power of the media or do they honestly belong where they are ranked? This is the coaches poll, not the media poll, and I realize where this subject can lead. I also realize that several will get knocked off early, because there can only be representaive per region. If it was set up the way the NCAA basketball tournament is set up , would there be multiple teams out of some of these regions participating in the state tournament, beacuse they are honestly the top teams? With the way the post season is set up, a lot of the very best teams never get to play in the state tournament. There can be a very good arguement sometimes that perhaps 3 out of 4 teams in the final four may not be anywhere close to being in the top 5 or maybe even top 10 teams in the state. I could see where some teams that make it say to the final four (for sure in the final 16) in some years would probably never even be able to make it out of the district if they were playing in particularly the 7th or 11th regions.

These are questions on my part, not so much statements.

I'm just saying that the media exposure leads to coaches being influenced. For example, look at Harrison County. Not quite as strong as the past, but they went from being in the top 10 to not even receiving votes after being bombed by Brossart and another team back to back games. The media writeup on those games was pretty stiff, so I think coaches are reading the paper for teams they don't follow very closely, and that influences their vote. And the same could be said about the Sweet 16, yeah, some of the better teams may not make it there either, but that's the way the ball rolls. Pikeville-Shelby Valley regional tournament game is a perfect example. Pikeville beat Valley 3 times in the regular season, then loses in regional, and Valley, with a losing record, represented the 15th, promptly getting stomped by the eventual state champs and barely having more points than turnovers. Play that game (PHS-SV) 20 times this year, Pikeville wins 19, they just lost one at the wrong time. Same for baseball.