WPIAL survey results: Schools favor 6 playoff brackets, mixed on realignment approach

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, December 12, 2019 | 2:17 PM

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The WPIAL’s football survey produced mixed results on some topics, but a clear majority of schools want to keep six separate playoff brackets.

“So we’re going to go with that approach,” WPIAL associate executive director Amy Scheuneman said.

WPIAL schools also overwhelmingly opposed the idea of every football team making the playoffs, but other decisions weren’t as clear cut. So the WPIAL scheduled a meeting Jan. 8 in North Hills Middle School auditorium for principals, athletic directors and football coaches.

There they’ll answer a key question: How should the WPIAL group teams into conferences for the 2020 and ’21 seasons?

The survey didn’t provide a clear mandate.

“We will be presenting a couple of ideas to schools, and then they’ll have to decide which direction they want to move,” Scheuneman said.

One question asked: Are you in favor of keeping with status quo? Another asked: Is your school district interested in a more “regional approach,” even if it meant playing up or down in PIAA assigned classification?

More than 50% said they’d prefer to keep the status quo, Scheuneman said, but more than 50% also wanted to look at regionalization.

“That indicated that a majority of them weren’t completely upset with the way things are operated,” she said. “They just wanted a little bit more close competition, so that’s one of the options we’re going to present.”

The WPIAL will reveal survey results and multiple scenarios at the January meeting. The information will include full example schedules for each option, and the schools will be asked to select the best approach.

One option is “status quo but with a little bit of regionalization included,” Scheuneman said, along with hand-scheduling of nonconference games.

“It’s status quo but yet not,” she said.

Other options won’t be revealed until the meeting.

The nine-question survey was sent electronically to schools this fall. The mixed results for some questions weren’t unexpected, Scheuneman said.

“Everybody has their own interests when they’re completing a survey,” she said. “That’s why we wanted to see where the majority lies.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.