All eight members of the 4A-1 will be busy this week in their various opening contests.
Only two schools will be opening their season on the road with the rest enjoying home field status. Two games will be involving teams who have never met.
Booneville's trek to Blackhawk stadium will be the first time the two have met. The Bearcats produced Tony Travis who was an outstanding high school player in his time there and who went on to become a coach and eventually revive the football fortunes of Pea Ridge. Travis decided to sign with 7A Rogers Heritage last spring and attempt to pull off a resurrection like the one he performed for the Blackhawks. The War Eagles were 0-10 in 2015 so his job will be tougher than most.
Hootens rates Pea Ridge likely to defeat the visitors this week, with MaxPreps power rankings also giving the edge to the 'Hawks. Hootens has Pea Ridge winning by 10.
The other game of first timers involves Gentry traveling to 2A team Lavaca. Once a pretty good program, shrinking enrollment in Lavaca has dropped the longtime 3A school to 2A this cycle. Gentry is a 7-point favorite to prevail.
Prairie Grove will host Farmington, their neighbors who handed the Tigers their only regular season loss last year. The 5A Cards have won six of the last 10 meetings between the fierce rivals and are rated a 1-point favorite, meaning "it's a toss-up."
Another close matchup involves Lincoln hosting Westville, Okla. Though the Okies and Wolves have split their last eight games together (4-4). The 33rd state ranked Lincoln squad has a 2-point edge in the predictions.
Two other conference schools have been given nods to win by 4 points. Thirty-seventh ranked Huntsville is hosting 34th ranked 3A Green Forest . The Eagles are 3-0 against the Tigers since 2000. Twenty-fifth ranked Gravette is hosting former conference rival Ozark, now ranked 15th. Gravette has a smaller roster than usual and I don't know that prediction holds water. We will see. Gravette has won three of four from the Hillbillies previously.
The other two games have acknowledged blowout potential. Third ranked Shiloh will invade 22nd 3A ranked Elkins. Elkins dropped Pea Ridge from their schedule, with the general consensus being that they just weren't competitive to the 'Hawks' rising program. I don't think they improved their chance to open with a win. Shiloh is rated to win by 28 and is 3-0 against the Elks.
Berryville, 4A ranked 48th, will be playing one of the lowest ranked 2A schools in Decatur. The Bulldogs are ranked 21st in 2A and are 21 point underdogs to the Bobcats. Berryville is 2-0 against Decatur.
In other big games
around the state
Defending 4A state champion and the currently top ranked Nashville Scrappers will be battling 5A Hope this week. The Scrappers escaped with a 1 point win in 2015 on their way to a perfect 15-0 season. Hope has improved over 2015 while Nashville may be down a bit in talent so there might be an upset.
My pre-season pick for the best team in the state is the Warren Lumberjacks who took on Little Rock Christian Tuesday. LRC is 13th ranked in 5A and will be an opponent for Shiloh next week. How these two matches go make give us an idea of how good Warren and Shiloh will be this year.
But for a rash of third quarter Lumberjack fumbles against Nashville in the playoffs last fall, Warren would have probably won the 4A title last fall. While Nashville lost quite a bit of talent through graduation, Warren did not.
Current 4A state rankings
During the fall football season, I will be relying on the MaxPreps/CBS 4A poll for inclusion into my column. The primary reason is that the MaxPreps poll is released on the weekend before the Monday publishing deadline, whereas the Hooten's poll isn't released until Monday night late or Tuesday.
A secondary reason is that I actually believe the MaxPreps poll is more accurate. Further, MaxPreps is used by the Arkansas Activities Association to keep track of AAA members and they maintain the playoff site as well.
Speaking of the playoffs, it looks like a good year to win the 4A-1. Our district champion will be given a first round and then have to play the winner of the game between the third finisher in 4A-2 or the fourth placer from 4A-7. After that the likely opponent is either the winner of the 4A-3 or probably the third place winner from the tough 4A-7. The winner of that will go into the semi-finals.
Perhaps best of all, especially for school administrators, is that the 4A-1 champion will have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. That is, as long as they keep winning.
MaxPreps/CBS state 4A poll
1. Nashville
2. Warren
3. Ashdown
4. Central Arkansas
5. Shiloh
6. Prairie Grove
7. Pea Ridge
8. Dardanelle
9. Arkadelphia
10. Hamburg
25. Gravette
32. Gentry
33. Lincoln
37. Huntsville
44. Berryville
Hooten's 4A state rankings
1. Nashville
2. Warren
3. Shiloh
4. Central Arkansas
5. Pocahontas
6. Ashdown
7. Hamburg
8. Robinson
9. Pea Ridge
10. Stuttgart
15. Prairie Grove
23. Gravette
35. Gentry
37. Lincoln
40. Huntsville
48. Berryville
Combining the points from both polls, the following ranking for the 4A-1 can be deduced.
4A-1 poll
1. Shiloh
2. Pea Ridge
3. Prairie Grove
4. Gravette
5. Gentry
6. Lincoln
7. Huntsville
8. Berryville
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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. The opinions expressed are those of the author. Mr. McGee can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports on 08/31/2016