I'm gonna need you to show the math. Perhaps a bigger concentration of talent is what I meant to say. If their school drops football, the kid's that have talent will go to the most successful program they can find that's close enough to travel to. So the good teams will get bigger and better. With fewer schools having a team, only the bigger/ more talented players will be out there and with increased competition there will likely be an increase in meatballery. Wouldn't you agree that the highly successful HS coaches are the most prone to having an "old school, toughen up" type mentality? 25 years ago I knew highly talented kids whose parents wouldn't let them play football. I'm not sure why you think that decreasing participation only means the bad players stop playing and the talented ones keep going. And FYI, this isn't about a high school, it's about a park district program stopping the tackle football program for kids. I'm also not sure I agree with the last point about successful HS coaches. Probably true in shitholes like Texas and Ohio, but there's a lot more football out there than just those places. And most people aren't moving school districts based on sports, even talented kids.