Posted by flashlantern on 6/6/2012 3:02:00 PM (view original):
Reading these posts, one thought kept coming to mind that was touched upon by Girt. I took over a team two seasons ago now that I had to rebuild. I have another id SuperSloth33, which has a team in Iba (Wisconsin, Eau Claire) that when I took it over also two seasons ago now, was in serious disrepair. I even posted on these boards, asking if I would win a game that season. I ended up going 2-26 I believe, so saved the goose egg.
Anyway, to get back to my point, it was suggested to me several times by several people, either in sitemails, or posted as responses to other forum topics I came across, that since I was taking my lumps anyway, it would be best to build up the freshman by starting them over more established upperclassmen... I believe some of you can see where I'm going with this. How can playing inferior players to build them up for future seasons, thus severely hampering your team's chances to win, not count as collusion?????????
By many of your own definitions, that falls under collusion.
i don't think this is true, although i recognize where you are coming from.
it is your right as a coach to do what is best for your team, in and of itself. it is not your right to sabotage your team or your game for the benefit of others, even if it indirectly helps you. i think that is what everyone in this thread is saying (in the don't throw the game camp, at least).
nobody is trying to imply you can't start a freshman to get him more playing time, even though it technically hurts your team that game. you are supposed to maximize your teams success, and it is your choice if you do that in the short term, or in the long term. otherwise, switching offenses would be cheating. switching defenses would be cheating. being a less than perfect coach who makes less than perfect lineup decisions would be cheating. but, nobody is trying to suggest ANY of those things are cheating.
all we are saying is, you are required to, in good faith, try to make your team successful. intentionally destroying your team or throwing games is not making the most of your team, in good faith. taking a lump now, to be better later, is.
to me, one of the most interesting examples of, is this cheating? is this - you have a team, you want to get them over the prestige hump. you are really worried about early entries. can you throw the first game of the NT, with the sole intention of maximizing your prestige? its not clear what is best for your team, but it is a reasonable and defensible position that it is best for your team to lose early in the NT. now, you might say, its best for your team to throw the CT title game to get more bonus money (although i strongly disagree). but through your actions, someone gets screwed, and that seems to be central to the decision that throwing the game is wrong. in the NT case, someone comes out ahead. now of course, anytime someone wins, others lose, indirectly. throw the game to a team, who now has better prestige, and they might win a battle over someone else.
i guess i personally have held back on throwing NT games early, even though i wanted to lose. however, i've had teams who could maybe have made a sweet 16, and just not given them my all. a lot of it is because at that time, i just didn't care about any of my teams who couldn't win a title, and never gave them my all (which is my right, i believe). however, with my d1 teams, it was partially because i knew if i had a lesser season, i had a better chance of keeping my players, and i already had all the pieces assembled to win a title the next season. so why do i care if i lose a partial prestige grade, with maybe 0, maybe 1-2 scholarships next season, when it means i am the front runner to win the NT the next season?
now, is that cheating? i mean obviously there are shades of grey. you can't tell someone its cheating if they just aren't into a team and that just happens to help them, it seems. but what if they would rather try, and don't, so their team has a mediocre season, so they can be more successful in the long run?