[Hoot Gibson]

The real problem with Kentucky high school football is that the gap between good teams and bad teams is a wide one and there are many more very bad teams than very good teams. When you exclude more teams from the playoffs, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer because basketball season starts early for teams that have no playoff games.

A player whose team does not make the playoffs will lose at least a month of football experience over a four year career. Restricting the number of playoff teams from each district to two will reduce the number of lop-sided first round playoff game scores, but it would do nothing to improve the quality of Kentucky high school football.

As for the risk of injury to players on good playoff teams, I don't see any difference in a team losing a key player in the first regular season game or in the first playoff game. Injuries are a part of the game, and if a team has not developed enough depth to overcome an injury or two during the playoffs, then that is not the fault of their opponents.