Alright, so what are the flaws with this? (sorry, it is about football, not politics....)

With the worksheet I have it's pretty easy to manipulate who is in what class. So far each Tier has about 5 teams swapping classes but I get your point about teams flipping Tiers.

The issue you would run into, as some have stated me included, is teams playing up 2 classes. I get your point in it being a "reward" but schools and communities still want that championship. I don't think it is as big of a problem 1A - 3A, 4A - 6A, but there is a huge difference in 3A to 5A football. Imagine Tolono or Byron playing Fenwick or SHG or Rochester or Kankakee. It would be a slaughter and your goal is more competitive games. That's why I think you have to have tiers. Sure a top seeded 3A teams who has a good group could compete with the lower tier 5A teams that don't make the playoffs but not the top tier. As I have said, a system like yours gives the larger schools an advantage. But by grouping teams and having a floor and ceiling approach, you can maintain a more equal playing field.

I am more than happy to take your approach bov moving tht Top 8 teams in each class up and Lower 8 down. I would expect in the middle classes you would see more lopsided matchups than we already do.

Here you are Ramblin......took your idea and bumped teams up and down based on RPI.  Any team with a +35 RPI was bumped 2 classes, +30 Bumped 1 Class. Each class seeded based on RPI.  Started from 8A and worked my way down.  Don't have 1-3A done yet.

8A was pretty similar to what we see every year.

7A had schools like Kankakee, Morris, and Fenwick bump up from 5A

6A this is where ESL ended up, were bumped from 5A along with Mahomet, Mascoutah. JCA, Richmond Burton, Phillips, St. Francis, and Kewanee bumped up from 4A

5A is where you start to see problems. Princeton, Williamsville, Du-Pec, Byron, Tolono, and Braidwood were all bumped up from 3A and would be taking on schools such as Sacred Heart Griffin, Sterling, Grayslakes, Kaneland, and other typical 5A/6A schools.

4A is similar to 5A. St. Teresa, Wilmington, Tri Valley, Pana, Bismarck, Farmington, Johnston City, and Breese Mater Dei all bumped up from 2A and IC, Mt. Carmel (the town), Benton, and Chicago Clark bump up from 3A. These teams will be playing the likes of Jacksonville, Carbondale, Marmion, Metamora, Wheaton Academy, who are usually found in the 5A class.

As I have not finished yet 1-3A quite yet but I think my 3 class tier might suit your goal a bit better. Need to set a ceiling and a floor for teams to be bumped up or down and a tiered system accomplishes both of those goals. Once we get to final exams and I start doing detention duty, I will set up brackets and see how this turns out.

I still don’t like the idea of 5A and 6A champs and/or finalists being fodder for the 8A teams. It just makes for weaker teams winning the lower divisions from 7A down.

I like the formula of (P/6-OE/3)= 9 Games at ISU

Its the fair things to do things, gets it back to the middle of the state at a better venue (NIU sux, U of I too big)