In their annual summer meeting this week in Little Rock, the Arkansas Activities Association has a few items to be voted on concerning football in both the near and far future.
First of all, the AAA would like to tinker some more with how the playoffs are organized each fall. There are at present, four different formats among the six classes that play football.
Currently, the 2A, 3A and 4A classifications advance the top five teams (of eight) of each district into the playoff brackets. There are six districts in each of the classifications and this allows for a five-week playoff schedule with the classes having their championship game in December.
The 5A has a very simple plan with the top four of each of the four 5A districts moving into a 16-team playoff bracket. The championship bracket would last four weeks, ending a week before the smaller conferences.
The 6A is a little more bizarre with all 16 teams making the playoffs, regardless of their records. This was set up in no small part to accommodate the trials of the Siloam Springs School District whose team is several hours drive from their nearest 6A opponent.
To ameliorate their situation, they gave the Panthers an all-7A conference schedule, which includes the toughest 7A schools in the state. So while they may get pounded all through their conference play, they can still play in the playoffs. They get to save a lot of gas and travel time this way, but being whipped on by vastly larger high schools over a two-month period seems a bit unfair.
In the 7A, the top six of each district (there are two) make the playoffs. With four byes, the playoffs take four weeks like the 5A and 6A does.
There is support to return all top three classes to a top four only arrangement which would make the top two classes have a three-week playoff. Some coaches oppose this as it would likely make the 7A and 6A championship games happen on Thanksgiving weekend. To me, I would rather have them then as it makes it easier for everyone to get there. My high school won two state football titles in Missouri, playing on Thanksgiving weekend and we all thought that worked out great.
There is even some talk of rearranging conferences on a geographical basis with a rating system placing teams for the playoffs. Missouri had such a system in the 1960s, '70s and into the '80s I believe. It worked pretty well and no team had to worry about long drives or large travel expense until they got into the playoffs.
Another significant rule change is one where high school football players not be subject to being hit on the field (contact) for more than three days a week. With the game counting as one of the three, that would mean that two days each week, players could not practice tackling or hitting other players.
To me, this rule is straight out of a "Nanny State" policy book that has come to afflict our country. Coaches need the freedom and leeway to prepare their teams for competition in the best way they know how. No bureaucrat in Little Rock can possibly know what any player needs to prepare for the particular situation that each athlete may find himself in.
Entering competition where contact is the name of the game, unprepared athletes are far more likely to get injured than those who are kept back from preparing in the name of safety. You can't know how to take a hit if you haven't practiced it enough for it to be automatic.
A properly coached, equipped and conditioned football player has a relatively small risk of injury.
Injuries can happen with the best of preparation and that, I would have to say, is just a part of life. Football wasn't meant to be tiddlywinks and for sure, it is a very physical competition. Ideally, participation in sports like football will help students go on to face life's challenges once they complete their education. With the problems facing our country in the immediate and distant future, we need all the "toughened" citizens we can get.
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Editor's note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports on 08/06/2014