With this being the last week of inter-district games in football, it may be a good time to put to rest some of the conspiracy theories on how sites are selected.

It's really quite simple. In football, the team at the top of the pairing hosts the game in their district with a priority given to artificial turf fields. This is the basic rule. We alternate brackets by class and then flip them the next year of the two year cycle to allow each district the potential to host a game. This solves many problems. It gives districts an idea of what game they may be hosting so they can request their schools not winterize their stadiums to stay open for possible games. It also alerts schools that may have an opportunity to be a host to stay open to host games.

The other corollary in the site policy is if districts are not contiguous then the tournament director may look for a site as close to midway as possible. The spirit and intent of this provision was created with the advent of teams from the east qualifying through the west in the larger classes and the west qualifying through the east in the smaller classes. This policy gave us the flexibility to adjust the travel and use a site as close to midway as possible. So there it is. That's the policy on sites.

A couple thoughts to share with our Monday morning quarterbacks.

PIAA does not care one iota who wins. It does not matter. We are not fans of teams. We are fans of high level, athletic competition with the lessons that are learned to promote, protect and conserve the highest ideals of interscholastic education and good sportsmanship. Period.

Just because stadiums exist, we are not necessarily welcome in them. We hear the average fan say, "why don't they play at ABC University?" Here is the answer. ABC University may not want us. They do not like the boorish behavior from some of our fans or the damage done to their campuses. They need to serve their students by maintaining their campus activities without having to accommodate us. We are very thankful to those universities that will have us. We are tremendously grateful to them and all of our member schools that will host us and keep their facilities open for our schools to compete. We could not play without them, so thank you.

In 24 years, we have yet to see a field, court or track score a point. Go Play! The players only want to compete. They want to play; anywhere; any time; any place; let's go. They know that there are two results; win or lose. So we need to mentally prepare for both.

We, as adults, force our opinions on our athletes by our continual commentary. Please stop it! Our time is over. The games and times are for the players. Applaud their actions. Cheer for them wildly, support them uninhibitedly. But do not place your opinions on their performances. It is their time and their time alone.

In the words of the Beatles, "Let it be. Let it be. Simple words of wisdom. Let it be."

Until next week; let the best teams win!