A different way to fix football districts

HALL ABOUT IT

By CRAIG HALL

I came across some people talking about making football districts more equitable yesterday.

Read more: A different way to fix football districts

Basically, it is a relegation and delegation system.

Under that system, the top two teams from each district would move up a class and the last two teams in a district would drop a class.

At first, it sounds a little complicated. But after some deep thinking of several minutes while driving to Fort Smith, Arkansas yesterday, it really isn’t that complicated. Each district in each class would have to be paired with another district in the class above and below them.

The problem is there are more districts in some classes than other schools so it might be the districts are adjusted after each year, which would probably make the most sense.

I wondered what would happen for local schools. For us, 4A-4 would be paired with the district Durant and McAlester is in. The 3A district is the one that includes Muldrow and Stigler, while we have 2A-1 and 2A-II districts, the two class A classes, even Class B. For the cruddy teams in class C, there is nowhere to go so they would have to stay in the same district if they stink.

Class C would have to have the top two teams out of a district go up to B-II, while the bottom two teams in B-II districts would go down. The top teams in Class B would have to stay put unless they get moved up to 11-man football, but that gets complicated.

If we are going off the final standings in districts last year, the two top teams in 4A-4 (Ada and Sallisaw) would go up to Class 5A, Booker T. Washington would move up to 6A-II. The bottom two teams in 5A-3 (Coweta and Edison) would take Ada and Sallisaw’s place.

Glenpool and Stilwell (the bottom teams in 4A-4) would then drop to 3A-3, replaced by the top two teams in that district (Lincoln Christian and Idabel. The bottom two teams in 3A-3 (Locust Grove and Eufaula), would drop to 2A-3. Then the two teams in 2A-3 (Kingston and Kiefer) would move up to replace Locust Grove and Eufaula.

The two bottom teams in 2A-3 (Roland and Okmulgee) would drop to 2A-8. The top teams in 2A-8 (Vian and Valliant) would move into 2A-3. The two worst teams in 2A-3 (Wilburton and Morris) would drop to A-4 and be replaced by Rejoice Christian and Pocola.

The top teams in A-7 would move up to A-4. The bottom two teams (Wewoka and Allen) would move into something else, which I don’t know because to go down would force them to play in an 8-man class.

There is one major problem that I see. A lot of the times, the two teams moving up, would likely win the district they are moving into. But if that happened, it would be rearranged the following year. So you could see a team like Vian, which would probably win 2A-3, would be in 3A-3 the following year. If a team moved up and finished in the bottom two schools in the new district, they would drop down to the old class and district.

There is no place for teams in 6A-I to go. But you could swap those teams with the best teams out of the corresponding district in 6A-II. The worst teams in the two 6A-II districts would drop down to Class 5A.

Again, most classes do not have the same number of districts. But there would be ways around it. It would be interesting to see how a team like Lincoln Christian, which has dominated 3A, would do against Poteau, Hilldale and Broken Bow.

It would work well with 5A, 4A and 3A because they have the same number of districts. Class 2A has more districts than 3A, so that creates a problem. Class 2A-1 and 2A-II along with the two Class A districts also have the same number of districts. So the big problem would be what to do with the top teams in 2A-1 when they move into 3A as there would be more teams moving up than are leaving.

I look back at when Heavener had pretty good teams in the mid 2010s, but they were in 3A and could not really compete. But if they had been dropped back to 2A in 3A, the Wolves would not have struggled as badly.

The easiest fix would be to take the 5A, 4A and 3A districts and divide them into four-team districts. Then, you would have eight districts in 5A, 4A, 3A, both 2A and A classes.

You could also eliminate the 6A-I and 6A-II and make it into one class since they would then have the same number of teams as 5A. The bottom teams would drop into 5A. The top teams would have to stay in 6A, since there is no way to move them up and keep the same number of teams.

You would still have the traditional 6A powers staying in 6A, but they would be competing against the 5A powers like Carl Albert, etc.

Plus, it would put the private schools (like Lincoln Christian) in classes where they would not necessarily dominate and it would eliminate the need to boot them out of the regular districts and into their own classes.

The bottom team from the district moving up would assume the district schedule for the district champion while the other district team moving up could take over the former second place district schedule.

You could also do something in the other sports such as if you made the state tournament in basketball, you move up the next season. If you do not make it back to the state tournament in your new class for five years, then you go back down to your former class.

There, you have it. Leave your comments below.

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