Press Box: Football districts will never be perfect

News Tribune Sports Commentary

Helias Crusaders running back Jacob Storms slips his feet through the hands of a Warrensburg defender for a large gain on the ground during their first-round district football game in Jefferson City on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016.
Helias Crusaders running back Jacob Storms slips his feet through the hands of a Warrensburg defender for a large gain on the ground during their first-round district football game in Jefferson City on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016.

The opening round of football districts wrapped up Saturday.

The complaining about the football districts? Well, that will continue.

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JOHN SYKES JR.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/JOHN SYKES JR. - Andrew Collins and Meghan Collins are co-chairs of the Dinner on the Grounds event for Our House, set for the Terry House grounds on May 3.

The one consistent thing about football playoffs is there will be some unhappy people.

I've seen the districts go from the points system to four-team round-robins where one team advances to four-team round-robins where two teams advance to back to the points system.

The wheel keeps getting reinvented, but not embraced.

When the Missouri State High School Activities Association went back to the points system a few years ago, there was a provision where if a team beat the team ahead of it in the regular season, those two could flip spots in the seedings.

But that would only happen if the other six schools in the district approved it.

And so when Helias beat Hannibal in the regular season earlier this decade, but finished behind the Pirates in the district, it came down to a vote. And with the majority of the schools members of the North Central Missouri Conference - and hey, so is Hannibal - it wasn't difficult to figure out how that vote was going to go. Hannibal was No. 1, Helias was No. 2.

Fair? Well, a rule is a rule.

So MSHSAA, in a wise move, decided to change that rule to where no vote was necessary. Now it is automatic the teams switch spots. So this year, when Helias finished ahead of Hannibal in points, the Pirates got the No. 1 seed ahead of the Crusaders because of their win when the two teams met to open the season.

Fair? Well, a rule is a rule.

To me, the current system is about as good as it's going to get. But if it was going to get changed, I would do one of these two things.

1. Make the districts a true round-robin. You have eight teams in your district, you play each of the seven other teams. The best record is the district champion.

To fill out a 10-game season, that would give teams three games to play whoever they wanted.

This will never happen. Why? Conferences.

At a lot of schools, conference championships still mean something. And with a lot of conferences having schools in at least two classes, if not three, football league titles would go the way of dial-up internet with this change.

2. After the conclusion of the regular season, have the eight coaches vote on the district seeding.

If it's good enough for every other sport, and it must be since every other sport does it, it should be good enough for football.

I've had football coaches tell me they are in favor of this. I've had football coaches tell me they would rather set their hair on fire than go through this.

I've heard enough coaches complain about other teams voting for their best interest - work the math to avoid playing someone for as long as possible - I'm not sure this is the best idea.

And while it's true other sports do it, there's still some politics involved. The others play their district tournaments at a single site and the schools vote on who will host. Some schools never want the hassle of hosting. And giving a particular school a homefield advantage often comes into play when it comes time to select the host.

Schools host individual football games in the district, a single site can't be used for obvious reasons. So then angling to get as many home games as possible understandably comes into play if you vote for seeding.

Is the current system perfect? No. Is someone always going to feel like they've been wronged? Yes.

But the answer isn't fixing the system. It's winning enough games so the system doesn't ever come into play.