Craziness hit before pandemic
The 2020 high school football season was already headed for some interesting twists and turns months before everybody turned their attention to the coronavirus pandemic and the need to wear face masks everywhere.
The craziness began when the conference alignments for the 2020-22 reclassification cycle were completed last summer. Nobody ever expected a school with a Class 5A enrollment to not field a football team, yet now there is eStem — a charter school in Little Rock that has grown so much that it had to be included in that 32-school group.
Because of that, it left Class 5A with only 31 football-playing schools, meaning one of the four conferences is left with only seven members for the next 2 years. That delegation went to the 5ASouth, so those schools had to find another nonconference opponent to fill their 10-game schedule or face having open dates when other schools were playing conference games.
How did this happen? Many people are quick to point a finger at the Arkansas Activities Association, but contrary to some beliefs, it’s not the AAA’s fault.
That organization does oversee high school athletics in Arkansas, but it’s the schools’ principals and superintendents who come up with the rules and vote for them during the AAA’s annual meeting of the governing body. None of these administrators saw this coming ahead of time, and nobody was prepared for it.
Until earlier this month, the portion of the AAA handbook’s guidelines on classification read as Class 5A being the next 32 schools, so eStem had to be included in that group based on its enrollment. Now the handbook reads “the next 32 football-playing schools” but won’t go into effect until the next cycle.
While there are those who grumbled about this snafu, Huntsville rejoices. The Eagles would have been the 32nd and smallest Class 5A school in the state, but instead, the Eagles will head for the 4A-1 Conference and fill a void left when Pea Ridge moved up to the 5A-West.
Meanwhile, the schools that make up the 4A-4 Conference have experienced a similar fate, but in a different fashion. That league originally had eight teams, but Subiaco Academy announced after the conference alignments were done that it would drop 11-man football and play 8-man football because of always its low numbers.
The remaining schools in the 4A-4 were also left to go find another opponent to fill their schedule. Lamar, the newcomer to the 4A-4, was able to pick up Riverview for an Oct. 23 game, but Waldron and Ozark weren’t as fortunate and will only have nine games to play this fall (if we can get through the full season, that is).
Again, this could have been avoided if people had known ahead of time. Like Huntsville, another NWA school benefited from Subiaco Academy’s departure to 8-man. Actually a couple of schools benefited.
Lincoln is back to Class 3A status after being a Class 4A school for 8 years, but the Wolves would have remained in the 4A-1 if either of the aforementioned instances were taken care of ahead of time. Elkins, meanwhile, gets to take over Lincoln’s spot in the 4A-1 and enjoy much shorter trips instead of being in the 4A-4 for another cycle.
But there is also Booneville, which would have remained in the 3A-1 had Lincoln not dropped down. Instead, Booneville has to go east and play in the 3A-4 for the next two years.
Let’s not forget Class 2A, either. The 2A-4 is the only conference to have a full eight-team allotment because of some teams dropping to 8-man football. However, in the 2A-7 after Spring Hill’s exit left just five teams in the conference, now all of those teams will be in the playoffs in 2020, regardless of their league records.
It’s all too late to change any of that now, much like having to deal with everything surrounding the pandemic. So enjoy the craziness while you can — and mask up.