Do Kroger Field’s narrow goalposts change game at Kentucky’s football state championships?
The question rings out on high school message boards each year like the doink of a football off the left upright.
Why doesn’t the Kentucky High School Athletic Association replace the narrower college goalposts for high school ones at the state football championships held at the University of Kentucky’s Kroger Field?
If you didn’t know, high school goalposts have an inside width of 23 feet, 4 inches. College and pro goalposts are 18 feet, 6 inches apart. Colleges played with the wider width prior to 1991, but changed to conform with the pro game. High schools did not.
So, high school kickers enjoy the wider width all year until the state finals, when the championships move to a college stadium.
Critics say that’s unfair.
Last season at Kroger Field, Mayfield’s late extra-point attempt to tie its game with Beechwood clanged off the left upright. The Cardinals also had a short field goal miss early in the game. Mayfield lost 14-13.
In last year’s Class 4A title game between Boyle County and Corbin, the Rebels’ kicker missed three extra points (one hit one of the uprights). But Boyle County’s defense helped preserve a 32-26 win that could have been decided by an extra-point try.
Beechwood’s recent run of three straight Class 2A championships began with a potential game-winning Lexington Christian field goal at the final horn. It bounced off, you guessed it, the left upright. Beechwood went on to win in overtime.
But the answer for coaches who’ve seen their teams affected by missed kicks is pretty simple and similar.
“The way I look at it, both teams have to play on it,” said Mayfield coach Joe Morris, whose Cardinals advanced to Friday’s Class 2A championship against Owensboro Catholic on a late field goal by Lincoln Suiter. “It’s just like the elements — rain, snow, perfect day, whatever — the elements are the same for everybody. We’re not getting an advantage because the goalposts are more narrow or the hashes are more narrow. It is what it is.”
Mayfield has also benefited from the narrower posts in the past. The Cardinals’ 28-27 championship win over Williamsburg in 2014 came thanks to a missed extra point in overtime.
Boyle County coach Justin Haddix feels the same way. And he noted that he likes that the left and right hash marks, which go the length of the field and help mark the placement of the ball, are narrower too.
“Everybody’s just got to deal with it,” Haddix said. “We’ve missed some, we’ve made some. It’s just part of the game. I don’t think there’s any big deal with it. We’ve got to deal with it and go on.”
Cooper advanced to its Class 5A state finals against Bowling Green on Saturday thanks to a late field goal by Carson Taylor last week. Jaguars coach Randy Borchers said he’s been preparing for the finals by having his kickers practice this week at a nearby college stadium.
“You could look at everything and have issues with many different things (at a particular venue),” Borchers said. “Every place is going to have disadvantages. But I think the biggest thing is you have to prepare for it.”
Kroger Field has some advantages, too, Borchers said.
“It’s a fantastic facility. It’s a great place to play,” Borchers said. “If that’s the only issue we have, we just have to adapt and make the best of the situation.”
Addressing the issue in response to the Herald-Leader, KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett noted that while the college goal posts are narrower, the college hash marks are narrower too, meaning that kickers don’t have to kick at the extreme angles they sometimes face at a high school field.
“You cannot just consider the goalposts with this question,” Tackett said. “Even though the posts are slightly closer to each other, the kickers are more than likely straighter in front of the crossbar than a lot of high school kicks.”
To fully mimic actual high school kicking conditions, officials would have to step off the placement of the ball to the wider hash width, as well, Tackett said. States that experimented with that didn’t stick with it for very long, he noted.
When the college goals narrowed in 1991, the KHSAA did discuss alternatives, Tackett said, but ultimately having kickers more centered up on the narrower hashes alleviated concerns.
“Our coaches advisory groups always wanted to leave things on a normal college-marked field,” Tackett said. “... more importantly, they always felt it was the same for both teams.”
State championships
At Kroger Field in Lexington
Tickets: Available by advance sale digitally at KHSAAtickets.org. No walk-up paper tickets sold.
Streaming broadcasts: Subscription required for live video stream at KHSAA.tv. Pay-per-view live video at Go.PrepSpin.com. Free audio stream at KHSAA.net.
FRIDAY’S GAMES
Class A: Raceland (11-3) vs. Pikeville (11-2), Noon
Class 2A: Owensboro Catholic (14-0) vs. Mayfield (12-1), 4 p.m.
Class 4A: Covington Catholic (14-0) vs. Boyle County (14-0), 8 p.m.
SATURDAY’S GAMES
Class 3A: Christian Academy-Louisville (13-1) vs. Bell County (13-1), Noon
Class 6A: Bryan Station (11-3) vs. Trinity (11-3), 4 p.m.
Class 5A: Cooper (12-2) vs. Bowling Green (11-3), 8 p.m.
Class 4A football state championship preview: Boyle County vs. Covington Catholic
Class 2A football state championship preview: Owensboro Catholic vs. Mayfield
Class A football state championship preview: Pikeville vs. Raceland
