Conference playoff seeding all but set

Prairie Grove pounded Berryville 49-6 to clinch their second straight conference title and the No. 1 seed that goes with it. Gentry lost to Lincoln 42-34 to be assured of the basement this season while Gravette is firmly in control of the No. 4 seed.

The way it stands is that the winner of the Pea Ridge/Shiloh game will get the second seed with the loser getting the third. In the Huntsville/Berryville matchup, the winner gets the last and the No. 5 seed with the loser packing it in for the year.

It would seem the No. 2 seed from our district will host either Malvern or Arkadelphia next week. The No. 3 seed will be hosting the No. 4 seed from the 4A-8 which would either be Crossett, Monticello or Star City. Crossett plays Star City Friday and will have the inside track to that seed.

Gravette will be going to play the No. 18 team Pocahontas with Huntsville/Berryville going to 4A-3 leader Gosnell who is No. 13 ranked. Our league champ will either play No. 10 Mena or No. 7 Ashdown first, then likely play the other one the following week if my predictions hold water.

Conference games

This is rivals week with Pea Ridge hosting Shiloh, Gentry taking on Gravette, Berryville battling Huntsville, with the league slate rounded out by Lincoln/Prairie Grove.

The aforementioned games are important for conference standings as well as being games that each team looks forward to every year with the exception of the Lincoln/Prairie Grove tussle. The Tigers' real rival is Farmington but they have moved out of the 4A class to the 5A. The next door town the other way happens to be Lincoln but for a rivalry to be a true, both teams need to win at least some of the time. The Wolves are 0-11 to the Tigers in this millennium and I don't know that they have ever beaten Prairie Grove in football.

4A-1 league standings

Oct. 30, 2016

Prairie Grove 6-0 9-0

Pea Ridge 5-1 8-1

Shiloh 5-1 8-1

Gravette 3-3 5-4

Huntsville 2-4 3-6

Lincoln 2-4 3-6

Berryville 1-5 3-6

Gentry 0-5 2-7

4A games across Arkansas

The final week games are at hand. By Friday evening, we will know who will play whom and where.

There are several big games this week involving top 10 ranked teams. The biggest and likely 4A Game of the Week will be the Pea Ridge/Shiloh contest. It has the highest ranked teams in the same game together.

Another big tilt will be the game of No. 8 Dumas at No. 9 Hamburg. The game will divvy up the second and third seeds from the 4A-8 District with No. 4 Warren the league leader there.

Games that could possibly impact Pea Ridge's future will involved teams in the 4A-7 in the far south of Arkansas. No. 7 Ashdown hosts No. 34 Fountain Lake while No. 11 Malvern will be visited by No. 15 Arkadelphia. Malvern currrently has the fifth seed (the team that will travel to the winner of this week's Shiloh/Pea Ridge matchup) but should Arkadelphia win that game, they will tie with Arkadelphia taking the fifth seed away from their hosts. Should Fountain Lake defeat Ashdown, they would join the the two other teams if Malvern loses, then who knows. The most likely scenario I think is that the winner of Malvern/Arkadelphia will come up to northwest Arkansas next week.

Another game that I find interesting is the battle between Batesville Southside and Baptist Prep. The Southsiders should win and if they do, they will get at least a No. 3 seed from the 4A-4. I taught there a number of years and they have been only playing football for 10 years. While I was there, the boys head basketball coach made the boast that there would be a football team at Southside "over my dead body." Either that coach is dead or the climate has changed. This year is the first time they have ever had a winning record and they are at 6-3 right now.

MaxPreps/CBS

State 4A football poll

Oct. 31, 2016

A few teams switched places in the top 10, but no teams dropped out and no teams moved up.

Pea Ridge slipped a bit to sixth after a poor first half against Huntsville. Shiloh's domination over Gravette gave them a bump in their power rating to let them just edge past Pea Ridge into fifth. Just half a point separate the two squads. This Friday's game will widen that gap. The other teams to switch places were No. 8 Dumas and No. 9 Hamburg.

Six of the eight 4A-1 teams saw their power rating downgraded a bit with only Shiloh and Lincoln enjoying an upgrade. Besides the games played last week, the foes that each team had already faced figure into the power rating. If a team beats a 3-0 team, their opponent's success will help raise your score. If that same team falls to 3-3, a little bit of power ranking will come down as the value over that team has dissipated.

State poll

School^won-loss^pwr rtg^+/-

1. Prairie Grove^9-0^41.2^-0.5

2. Nashville^9-0^41.4^+0.5

3. Robinson^8-1^35.3^+3.4

4. Warren^9-0^31.0^+1.9

5. Shiloh^8-1^24.1^+1.5

6. Pea Ridge^8-1^23.6^-1.0

7. Ashdown^6-3^18.4^-2.7

8. Dumas^7-2^15.2^-2.0

9. Hamburg^6-3^13.7^-2.1

10. Mena^6-3^13.1^-0.5

22. Gravette^5-4^4.6v-2.0

33. Huntsville^3-4^-7.2^-0.5

35. Lincoln^3-6^-11.1^+0.9

37. Berryville^3-6^-14.1^no chg

41. Gentry^2-7^-17.4^-2.3

•••

Editor's note: John McGee, an award-winning columnist and sports writer, 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. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].

Sports on 11/02/2016