Former Metro AD Goettel gives plea to save MVC football

Editor's Note: Denny Goettel was kind enough to write a guest editorial on his hopes of saving Mississippi Valley Conference football.The Mississippi Athletic Conference voted recently to reopen discussions about bringing district football to the eastern half of the state in Class 4A. Central and Western Iowa went that route two seasons ago.The feeling from athletics directors in the MVC is that there will be enough votes this time around to pass district football in Eastern Iowa, meaning an end to MAC and MVC football.I have spent most of my professional life in pretty close proximity to athletics in the Mississippi Valley Conference. As a graduate of Washington High School, having taught and coached at Kennedy High School for seven years and having served as the Athletics Director at Jefferson (five) and Washington (15) for 20 years, I think I have a background that puts me very close to the MVC. I am now in my eighth year of retirement from full-time work, but continue to coach golf at Washington and have stayed close to the scene in other ways.I am extremely distraught at the growing momentum to eliminate football from the conference scene in the MVC and also the Mississippi Athletic Conference. The 24 teams in these two great longstanding leagues have resisted the movement to district football up until now, but pressure seems to be rising to change that.I work weekly with the Big Ten Conference and visit with individuals from states surrounding Iowa and none have had the shift to district football the way it has happened in Iowa. Most that I talk to are surprised and astonished that conference football barely still exists in our state.Why is conference football so important? The MVC, for example, has competition in 21 sports, crowning conference or at least divisional champions in each. To fight for and win a conference championship is huge motivation for athletes, coaches and schools and is part of the heritage of each school. This would be eliminated in football by going to districts.Conferences recognize athletes and coaches as being all-conference for their athletic and academic efforts. This would be eliminated with district football. Conference leadership, as in the MVC, spend many hours carefully building schedules, adopting by-laws (film exchanges, starting times, length of sophomore quarters, etc.) and meeting on common problems. All of this would be out the window with district football.Sophomore conference football is very important to each of its members. Building a sophomore schedule and having teams play for some sort of championship would be eliminated with district football.With district football, the makeup of districts and because of that much of each team's season schedule would become the work of administrators in Boone, rather than the dedicated athletic leadership at the member schools of the conference.In 4A, many schools share stadiums like the three Cedar Rapids schools share Kingston Stadium. Conference scheduling spends much time working out the use of these shared stadiums. District football may place these sharing teams in the same district or in different districts, either way encumbering the scheduling of these facilities. This happens in Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Dubuque, Waterloo, Des Moines, Sioux City and Council Bluffs. Schools in lower classes don't have this problem.If district football comes, more than likely Cedar Rapids Xavier, Dubuque Wahlert and Davenport Assumption will drop to lower classes. There does not appear to be any discussion to move the next three largest schools (Norwalk, Newton & Council Lewis Central currently) up to 4A, so the class would have the awkward number of 45 schools, 24 in what is now considered the west and 21 in the east. There would have to be three districts with just five teams. Those teams would have only five games a season that mattered for the playoffs (and no conference, of course). Every 4A team would have to find at least four other non-district games and those unlucky enough to be in four-team districts would have to find five, almost impossible to do in the current nine-week setup. The west already breaks the nine-week scheduling mold starting practice about August 1.The three schools I mentioned above have all been strong in football over recent years and before. Xavier is still alive and Assumption made it to the round of 16. Wahlert has dominated Dubuque in football for many years. The 3A and possibly 2A teams that would have to start competing with these teams would not be thrilled, as has been the case with teams in western Iowa competing with Sioux City Bishop Heelan since it dropped to 3A.In the district football plan, four teams from each district make the playoffs. In the five-team districts a 1-4 team, perhaps 1-8 overall could make the playoffs. Is it a thrill for one of those 1-8 or 2-7 teams to make the playoffs, get a first-round road game at a 9-0 team, lose, 55-0, and have a running clock for the entire second half? Often times the road game will be a one to two-hour trip, just to absorb that kind of beating.Is this scenario what is driving teams to want to go to district football, just so they can say they were a part of the 32 out of 45 team to make the playoffs? And sacrificing all the aforementioned merits of conference competition just to get this?In my years in athletic leadership I tried to work with other colleagues to assure that all of our decisions were doing what is best for the kids. Would this change do things that are best for kids?I hope that the leadership in the 24 schools in these two great longstanding leagues and the leadership at the state level charged with making these decisions carefully weigh all the consequences of such a move.