There’s the old saying that coaches – particularly at the college and pro levels – are keenly aware of what’s going to be on their tombstone and/or in their obituary.
Their won-loss record.
Underlying circumstances or ineligible players or NCAA sanctions or injury issues or anything else is not going to be factored in. Simply put, a 34-28 record is not as good as 35-27.
And to that end, there is no such thing as a game that “doesn’t really matter” because it matters to them.
Which makes scheduling that much more important. In the pros, they give you a schedule so there’s not much you can do about. But in college and high school, some of it is yours by default (based on conference or district), but making the other pieces to the puzzle fit becomes a delicate issue.
Some schedules are made with one goal: Just find a way to get to the playoffs.
Other schedules are made with the goal of preparing for the playoffs.
“I try to schedule based on the kind of offense we are going to see that might prepare us for the later rounds in the playoffs,” Northwood’s Austin Brown said. “Road trips are big, too. We don’t want the playoffs to be the first time we leave Shreveport. The main factor (for non-district scheduling) is getting ready for the district grind and the playoff grind.”
“It was tough for me this time,” Byrd coach Stacy Ballew said. “I called everybody around and they either said they were full or no thanks. I’m going to do everything I can not to have a bye week. I’d just love to have a few different schools that didn’t just play for a state championship.”
More and more, regional rivalries and traditional games are taking a back seat to coaches trying to finagle their way into winning as many games as possible in the LHSAA’s power point system, which rewards wins against teams that have a lot of wins.
Consider Loyola’s John Sella. As he began to look ahead to making his two-year cycle of scheduling for 2026 and 2027, he figured it was just going to be rinse/repeat. It appeared he’d have the same seven-game district schedule as the previous two years and three non-district games that had all been verbally agreed upon.
But in a matter of a few days, he went from 10 games to four games (all four being in a new district he wasn’t counting on being a part of). To make matters worse, he had the death knell of open dates – Week 10.
A little-known rule change caught quite a few teams by surprise and Loyola found itself forced to leave Class 4A and either go to 5A or play in its enrollment classification (Class 3A).
The non-district opponents all bailed because playing a Class 3A team would give them less power points than playing a Class 4A school. As other schools quickly filled out their schedules for ’26, there were a few weeks late last fall in which Sella was looking at five open dates to start the season.
Eventually, the Flyers did fill out a full 10-game schedule, but it does show how high school schedules are driven in large part by the almighty power points.
“This is my first real time to do the schedule,” Sella said. “People will not answer your calls or tell you they are full and are not really full. But I’m guilty of it, too when (Alexandria Senior High) and West Monroe called and I said we are going to have to pass on that.”
The funny thing is, as obtaining a playoff berth has gotten easier, it seems as though the pressure to get to the playoffs has increased disproportionally. But coaches are not satisfied with just getting into the playoffs. Just like their coaching record, where more wins is better than fewer wins, being a No. 9 seed is seemingly infinitely better than a No. 11 seed.
Does it make a difference? Doesn’t matter. The feeling is that will give their team the best chance to be successful.
And the backbone of that is scheduling. There is no exact science to it; all you can do is hope it works out when it comes to record and playoff seeding.
Which may or may not go hand in hand.
“If you get enough power points, your record doesn’t really matter and you are battle tested going into the playoffs,” Sella said.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com