Stewart: The Milwaukee South football team declined a playoff berth. Here's why.

The contrast is striking.

In some corners of southeast Wisconsin, we have one football program that hasn’t made the playoffs in 30 years (Nicolet) and one snapping a 22-year postseason drought this year (Racine Case).

For many teams, making the field of 224 is the measure of a successful season. Football is the only WIAA sport in which a team must earn its playoff spot, so even though about half of the teams make the field each year there is a level of accomplishment that comes with being inside the playoff bubble. It is one of the most exciting times of the year.

So why is Milwaukee South passing on the opportunity?

Cardinals coach Sam Steinhoff gladly explained, offering an answer that touches on a number of issues that affect the sport in the City Conference: declining enrollments, declining roster sizes, inexperienced players and the league's divisional alignment.

“People are going to say whatever they want to say because they don’t understand the logistics of City football,” he said. “It’s a whole different game than what they think is going on.”

South, which finished 5-4 overall and took second in the Blackbourn Division with a 5-1 record, didn't just pass on the playoffs this year. It did so last season as well. 

Turning down the opportunity is a rarity. WIAA officials can’t remember it happening in the 11-man game, but an eight-man team passed on the opportunity to take part in the playoffs a few years ago.

For South, it boils down to safety and realistic expectations.

The school is listed with an enrollment of 1,326 on the WIAA website, which would have made it one of the larger Division 2 schools. That could have meant a pairing with a school such as Wilmot or Waterford in the first round. As a smaller D1, it could have drawn Muskego or Franklin, the area's top two ranked teams.

“We have zero in common with those schools as far as ability level and everything else," Steinhoff said. "They could beat us (by) whatever they want. … We have zero chance going into that game.”

You never say never in sports. Miracles can happen. However, a look at scores of recent first-round playoff games involving City teams – 50-0, 56-6, 55-12, 45-12 – gives you an idea of what might be on the horizon with such a matchup.

It would really be a recipe for disaster were it not for opposing coaches liberally using their benches and running the ball often to end the games as quickly as possible.

South has 20 players. The highly seeded opponents it would likely face in the first round have three to five times as many.

There are some who think teams in South's position should show up and compete. How else do you get better, they say? 

The reality is that sometimes a matchup can be so one-sided that it's hard for either team to get much from the experience.

The struggles of City football to compete with suburban schools are nothing new. A wrinkle to the situation, however, was a change made to the league’s divisional alignment before last season as well as how charter schools attached to some of the high schools affect enrollment figures.

For much of its history, the City Conference has been split into two divisions, the Blackbourn and Richardson. Before last season, the league adjusted the alignment with the fledgling/rebuilding programs placed in the Blackbourn where they would have the opportunity to get stronger and the most established teams placed in the Richardson where they'd face better competition.

A consequence of that move is that some teams that might not make the playoffs if the league were split more equitably have qualified for the postseason. 

Another issue is enrollment. South is listed as 1,326, but Steinhoff says the number is closer to about 800 and that charter schools attached to South are causing it to be categorized in a larger division rather than Division 3, where he believes the school should be.

Once upon a time the school was one of the largest in the state.

“The school has been shrinking so much. It’s in transition. It’s hard,” he said. “We’re trying. We’ve got an initiative where we’re trying to get more kids enrolled. But we lost over half our school and you lose half of every sport. That’s the challenge over here.”

And so, Steinhoff said no to the playoffs, a move supported by the school administration. Instead the team will play a 10th game against Wauwatosa East, an 0-9 team that is closer to South's caliber.

Steinhoff calls it a bowl game, a chance to end the season on a more positive note than a short playoff run would have provided.

"I suit up 20 guys. That's all we have," he said. "Of those 20, I have three freshmen, one sophomore. I have three seniors who never played football in their lives before this year. I have two juniors who never played football in their life before this year.

"I basically have eight guys who played since they started high school out of our 20. ... We're going to get hurt, to be honest with you. I don't know if we'd finish that game."