How many believe?

[High Voltage]

And PA for that matter. I think that this year may prove that the 6A and 7A should merge into 32 teams. There are a few teams that could and would compete and win at the 7A level and on the flip side several 7A teams could not and would not compete in 6A. I think it evens out.

6A teams that could compete/win, IMO.
Greenwood  compete and win
Eldo compete and win
Pine Bluff compete and win
Jonesboro compete and win
Texarkana compete and win
West Memphis compete and win
Benton compete and win
Searcy compete
Lake Hamilton compete
Russellville compete

7A teams that would struggle in 6A
Van Buren
Rogers
Rogers Heritage
Southside
Northside
LR Catholic
LR Central

[High Voltage]

So now look at the conferences based on location only. I have no idea where the Little Rock Schools are located so I just threw them into conferences. They could be switched easily.

West                       East                    Central           South
Bentonville              West Memphis      Van Buren      Texarkana
Bentonville West      Mountain Home    Southside       Eldorado
Fayetteville              Marion                 Northside       Benton
Rogers                    Jonesboro            Greenwood     Lake Hamilton
Rogers Heritage       Searcy                 Russellville     Sheridan
Springdale               Jacksonville         Conway          Bryant
Springdale Harber    Cabot                  LR Catholic     Pine Bluff
Siloam Springs        North Little Rock   LR Hall           LR Central

Take the top four from each conference. Rotate each year what conferences match up. Here is my take on the playoffs based upon history and what they have done so far. Obviously this could change and is just my opinion. But this would be an interesting playoff scenario.

W1 Harber         Harber          Harber                       Harber                       Harber State Champs
C4 Catholic

C2 Conway
W3 Fayetteville  Fayetteville

C1 Greenwood    Greenwood    Greenwood
W4 Springdale

W2 Bentonville    Bentonville
C3 Northside

E1 North LR           North LR             North LR
S4 Benton

S2 Pine Bluff          Pine Bluff
E3 West Memphis

S1 Bryant              Bryant                Bryant                     Bryant
E4 Jonesboro

E2 Cabot                Cabot
S3 Eldo

Again the 7A in my scenario wins but the 6A would make some noise and the 6A brings some teams that make it interesting instead of having bad 7A/6A teams in the playoffs. Just some notes, Bentonville West could very well replace one of the 4 in the West and Southside could replace Catholic and Texarkana could very replace someone in the South. These playoffs would be very interesting. Interested to hear everyone's thoughts as to the conferences and teh playoffs.

[High Voltage]

One more note, this is how I think it would play out this year if they were combined.

[HorseFeathers]

Seems to me the

One more note, this is how I think it would play out this year if they were combined.

The playoffs looks about similar to before the split...which is why the 6a schools wanted to split in the first place..

[High Voltage]

Seems to me the
The playoffs looks about similar to before the split...which is why the 6a schools wanted to split in the first place..

Yeah I know but the top of the 6A is so much better than some of the teams that will make the 7A playoffs, and who knows, maybe a 6A team wins it? You never know. The last 6 years between Pine Bluff, Greenwood and Eldo it could happen.

[Pr8hd]

I think the 7A, 6A and 5A are all top heavy with a handful of real contenders with a much larger amount of pretenders and not so good teams. Some in 5A think they can win 6A and some in 6A thinks they can win 7A and 7A well they don't think the top teams can't be beaten by any other team but a 7A contender, let alone a lower class team.  The brackets can be filled out to some degree in each 4 games in with a pretty good amount of accuracy.

I'm for 24-32-32-32 and so forth alignment in classifications. That's never going to happen. Next year 6A trades Texarkana for Hall....so 6A gets weaker and 5A stronger. I hate the 6A having a bye week the first week of playoffs but also hate the way when all made it and you played a Hall or Fair in Round 1.

The bottom line is there is just no easy answer ...consolidation of the 2 largest classes is unlikely to happen again. 

[ricepig]

I think the 7A, 6A and 5A are all top heavy with a handful of real contenders with a much larger amount of pretenders and not so good teams. Some in 5A think they can win 6A and some in 6A thinks they can win 7A and 7A well they don't think the top teams can't be beaten by any other team but a 7A contender, let alone a lower class team.  The brackets can be filled out to some degree in each 4 games in with a pretty good amount of accuracy.

I'm for 24-32-32-32 and so forth alignment in classifications. That's never going to happen. Next year 6A trades Texarkana for Hall....so 6A gets weaker and 5A stronger. I hate the 6A having a bye week the first week of playoffs but also hate the way when all made it and you played a Hall or Fair in Round 1.

The bottom line is there is just no easy answer ...consolidation of the 2 largest classes is unlikely to happen again.

Hall is already 6A, it's Sylvan Hills for Texarkana. Now, you do get Hall in your conference. 

[AT]

Without getting too much into it for now, I do believe putting the top 32 teams together is the best option. I also don't think it will happen.

[Pr8hd]

Hall is already 6A, it's Sylvan Hills for Texarkana. Now, you do get Hall in your conference. 

Oh, that's what it is...SH is a better replacement in 6A then but not so much getting Hall in conference. Hall down, SH up and AHS stay would be better.

[Razorback Red]

Without getting too much into it for now, I do believe putting the top 32 teams together is the best option. I also don't think it will happen.

I agree and wish we could eliminate 7A and go top 32 6A, but it won't happen soon.  I remember Bentonville's first title coming against ED in a slugfest (sure miss those days).  I am a 7A guy, but realize the top programs in 6A could and should compete.  Year in and year out, GW, PB, ED and JB would be just fine and could all make noise.  They are all stronger than the bottom half of 7A and it some cases as strong as all but a couple of teams in 7A.  The problem is the bottom 7A and 6A teams are really, really bad.  I guess that's the case in every conf, but magnified due to the powers in both leagues being so much better. 

Take this season as the example, I think you could easily argue that GW is the 2nd best overall team in the state, but that doesn't mean they'll even win 6A. 

5A is a different story.  Yes, PA is a great program and could probably compete a lot of years, but after that it wouldn't be pretty.  Just not enough depth on the lines and too many guys have to play both ways.  With that said, I think this season PA could hang with anyone but Harber.  They seem to be at another level. 

[Hogman2018]

If u remember Bentonville beat Texarkana in the semifinals that was the championship game! We beat Eldo for the conferece championship that same year

[Razorback Red]

If u remember Bentonville beat Texarkana in the semifinals that was the championship game! We beat Eldo for the conferece championship that same year

Thanks for the walk down memory lane.  I had just finished college then and didn't follow them as closely as I do now.  There were and still could be many good 7A/6A battles.  PB and NS are one of the state's finest rivalries and they give each other a great noncon test every season. 

My memories of HS football go back to the early 80's, when Bentonville was 4A and Billy Dawson was our QB.  My oldest sister was a Golden Tamer for BHS in those days. 

Sorry all, but I had to come to the 6A board to find some chatter, 7A board is dead this year. 

[AHS06]

If u remember Bentonville beat Texarkana in the semifinals that was the championship game! We beat Eldo for the conferece championship that same year

That was the title game.  Bentonville barely escaped Texarkana with the win.  We would have hammered El Dorado for the title just as we did for conference.