An Exercise in Futility

[GRN R H-2 X-Deep Over]

So I did a little exercise to see what the conferences might look like if we merged the 7A and 6A together, and see what that did for travel and competition. Here is how it went.
Note: I call it 5A for nostalgic and non-politically-correct purposes.

1-5A:Bentonville, Centerton, Fayetteville, Har-Ber, Heritage, Rogers, Siloam Springs, Springdale
     Not much changes except we save Van Buren and Siloam travel time. I find Siloam equally as bad in 6A so I don't feel so bad putting them here. This was the easiest conference to make.

4-5A:Conway, Fort Smith Northside, Fort Smith Southside, Greenwood, Little Rock Central, North Little Rock, Russelville, Van Buren
     This was the wonkiest feeling conference for me, putting Greenwood and North Little Rock together. I think Greenwood can handle every team here except NLR and Conway as they currently stand.

5-5A: Cabot, Jacksonville, Jonesboro, Marion, Mountian Home, Searcy, Sylvan Hills, West Memphis
     This one also feels weird since the teams span across about a quarter of the state. The previous were pretty close to or on a similar major highway.

7-5A: Benton, Bryant, El Dorado, Lake Hamilton, Little Rock Catholic, Little Rock Hall, Pine Bluff, Sheridan.
    Another larger-spanning area, but this seems pretty interesting with ED, PB, and Bryant.

Your guys' thoughts?? How good did I do on getting the shortest travel times? How competitive are these conferences?

[Rob Van Winkle]

I put something similar together a few weeks ago just for fun and the only difference I had as NLR in your 7 and Hall in your 4. The reason I did that was just to keep NLR and Greenwood in separate conferences.

It would be nice if this would actually happen.

[Razorback Red]

Nice job, fun exercise.  I really wish something like this would happen soon. 

5 and 7 would def be easier conf's from top to bottom, but not sure there is a way around that with the 7A West staying nearly the same as now in any scenario. 

[friscokid]

I actually would like to see the top 10 schools in the old school AAAAA Conference with Hall and Central playing on Turkey Day, but that day has obviously long passed.

The only way to get parity where 6A/7A can be recombined is for the state legislature to force schools bigger than 2,000 to split. Springdale isn't splitting 4 ways on its own.

[philip.seaton]

If you eliminated the mandatory eight-team conferences, instead go with four (which allows for more nonconference and more to play later in the season for struggling teams) and go with a district format. Example, your 4-5A, the 5A-4 East would have Conway, Russellville, North Little Rock and Catholic and the 5A-4 West Southside, Northside, Van Buren and Greenwood. Conference play in Weeks 7-8-9 and Week 10 would be the 5A match-up (top seed from East against West, and so on). This would save on travel, allow for nonconference teams (again less travel and better gates) and just make more sense. But this all for fun anyway.