The earthquakes continue

A few weeks ago, Rick Fires of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette remarked that the earthquake Arkansas residents felt earlier this fall was actually the balance of power in 4A football shifting from southern Arkansas to the northwest.

Sure enough, when the state football playoffs had whittled the 48-team classification pool down to the final four teams, three of those four were from northwest Arkansas represented by teams from Pea Ridge, Prairie Grove and Shiloh. While the 4A-8's district champion Warren went on to claim the state's top honor, the 4A-1 were crowding the top of the list.

In the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's final Super Six Poll, the sportswriters agreed that the four semi-finalist teams deserved to be there, ranking our Blackhawks second, Prairie Grove's Tigers third and Shiloh fourth. Hooten's football writers came to the same conclusion with their final rankings mirroring what the Democrat-Gazette came up with.

I did a little math to come up with some figures to support both these organizations conclusions, and what do you know. There is solid empirical evidence to support the conclusion that the 4A-1, aka northwest Arkansas football, is now the toughest league in the state in 4A.

Counting all games during the past season, the eight teams from the 4A-1 garnered 55 victories, well ahead of the 4A-7's total of 47 total victories. A perennial power, the 4A-7 finished just ahead of the other previously recognized power in Arkansas 4A football, the 4A-8. Though the 4A-8 boasted the 15-0 undefeated Warren Lumberjacks, the league came up with 44 total wins, just 29 wins not taken by Warren.

The 4A-3, the league in north central Arkansas, was fourth overall with 43 victories, just ahead of the west central 4A-4 with 42 wins in their total. The weakest football league in the state in total victories was the northeast 4A-2 which claimed 40 victories in 2016.

The above prompts me to say something about the way the Arkansas Activities Association goes about populating their all-state lists of athletes. I have been checking nearly daily for the AAA to release their all-state list for 2016 but so far, I haven't seen it.

From where I grew up in Missouri, the all-district and all-state honorees were chosen by coaches and writers without regard to any quota limiting any one team. In fact, when my high school won a state title in 1971, there were close to 20 athletes who made all-district that season. The team that year averaged more than 40 points a game and allowed less than six, with no school crossing the goal line with a rushing play. All district teams in those days reserved 11 spots for offense, 11 spots for defense, with other slots for special teams players. They also had awards for second team all-district athletes.

Arkansas divides up its all-state honorees in equal amounts to all the six conferences in the state. Each league can expect to have eight all-state selections from among their members, no matter how weak or how strong that league may be.

The 4A-1 league of which we are a member, had an 11-5 record in the playoffs. The 4A-3 district had a playoff record of 2-5. The 4A-3's Gosnell had both wins, edging Ozark after beating Huntsville before being totally destroyed by Prairie Grove. The other four members of the 4A-3 in the playoffs were one and done, mostly by lopsided scores. The 4A-3 is much inferior to the 4A-1 in player personnel but in keeping with politically correct AAA thinking, each league has to have the same number of all-state players. The other weak member of the state, the 4A-2, had all their teams eliminated by the second round.

The Gravette Lions finished fourth in the 4A-1 but I would wager they could take out both champions from the 4A-3 and 4A-2. Gravette did take out Pocahontas after riding all day over bad roads to get get to their stadium. Pocahontas has a record of winning their league most of the time but getting "upset" in the first game of the playoffs.

I would advance the idea that there are at least six Blackhawk athletes that deserve the all-state tag, and after perusing the 4A-3 stats, I don't know that any of those boys in the other league deserve the honor. There are quite a few Shiloh and Prairie Grove athletes that I could see being so honored but the 4A-1 can only have eight selections total, and as best as I can tell, no team may have more than four honorees.

Here's to wishing and hoping that sometime in the future, all governing bodies of youth athletic programs in our great nation will abandon politically correct ideals and just do the right thing.

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Editor's note: John McGee, an award-winning columnist, writes a regular sports column for The Times. The opinions expressed are those of the author. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].

Editorial on 12/21/2016