Reclassifying and combining the 7A, 6A, and 5A

[Sweet Feet]

I took the 7A, 6A and 5A, and realigned them into one major class 5A based on geography. This is what i got

5A Northwest
-   Bentonville
-   Bentonville West
-       Pea Ridge
-   Springdale
-   Springdale Har-Ber
-   Rogers
-   Rogers Heritage
-   Siloam Springs

5A West
-   Farmington
-   Fayetteville
-   Fort Smith Northside
-   Fort Smith Southside
-   Greenwood
-   Clarksville
-   Alma
-   Van Buren


5A North
-   Harrison
-   Mountain Home
-   Conway
-   Greenbrier
-   Maumelle
-   Morrilton
-   Russellville
-   Vilonia

5A Central
-   Little Rock Catholic
-   Little Rock Central
-   Little Rock Christian
-   Little Rock Hall
-   Little Rock Parkview
-   Little Rock Southwest
-   North Little Rock
-   Pulaski Academy

5A Southwest
-   Benton
-   Bryant
-   Dequeen
-   Hope
-   Hot Springs
-   Hot Springs Lakeside
-   Lake Hamilton
-   Texarkana


5A South
-   Camden Fairview
-   El Dorado
-   Magnolia
-   Pine Bluff
-   Sheridan
-   Watson Chapel
-   White Hall

5A Northeast
-       Marion
-   Brookland
-   Greene County Tech
-   Jonesboro
-   Nettleton
-   Paragould
-   Valley View
-   West Memphis

5A East
-   Beebe
-   Cabot
-   Forrest City
-   Jacksonville
-   Batesville
-   Searcy
-   Sylvan Hills
-   Wynne


What do you think of the conference pairings? What conference matchups would you enjoy? Who do you think still wins state in a 32 team playoff?

Edit: Updated for the 2020 season

[The Future]

NW woulda been between the two Bentonville schools with Harrison taking the third spot. Then looks like everyone else would be battling for the 4th seed.

West looks very interesting. Greenwood looks to the best team in the conference but let's not forget Northside beat them week 1 this past year.

The North looks to be Conways playground.

Adding NLR to the Central aka PAs conference (yea I know LRC beat them but one victory out of a dozen or so games, I'd still call it PAs conference) would give PA and LRC a quality opponent and potential playoff rematch.

The salt bowl game one will have its week 10 rematch for the conference title. Lake Hamilton and Texarkana could make noise.

The South west doesn't scream anything at me. The injury bug got Pine Bluff and Eldo this past season but they still should be the top two in the conference.

Northeast would have 5 teams vying for the 4 spots each year. Jonesboro Wynne Batesville Nettleton and Blytheville.

The East would have West Memphis 9-1 or 10-0 again. Cabot would be the 1 loss.

Overall.... I'd say it's definitely not worse than what we have now. If it came to pass tomorrow, I wouldn't have anything against it.
Strong 6/10. Small nod and clap. Go pass go and collect your 200.

[incogneto]

5A and 6A are about to get combined for real.  Or at least 7A is going away and 6A teams will go down to 5A or stay in the new 6A. 

[we_hate_the_band]

Sub Wynne and Batesville for Marion and WM and you are half way logical.

[OB11]

Sub Wynne and Batesville for Marion and WM and you are half way logical.

I said the same thing on the basketball thread for this!

[YoungThunder]

Why is there 2 5A Southwest?

[purpleswag]

Sub Wynne and Batesville for Marion and WM and you are half way logical.

You would sub Wynne and Batesville before Nettleton and Blythville?

[Sweet Feet]

Why is there 2 5A Southwest?

Typo. Should be Southeast with the conference Pine Bluff in

[friscokid]

The only sport this could work in is basketball because it's 5x5 and depth, physical size and strength don't matter quite as much. In fact, I think that's what Tennessee does, or at least used to back in the Ron Huery/Cannon Whitby days — 3 classes in basketball. Other sports are classified differently.

[Scorpius]

This would be a terrible idea. It puts some teams in position to never win more than maybe 2 or 3 games in conference.

Just look at the west. How many games does Clarksville and Farmington actually win in that conference? They got a shot to beat each other and Alma some years. Other than that they might get an upset every few years on one of the bigger schools, but it puts them in a constant cycle of getting pounded on and winning 2 conference games a year for an at best 5-5 maybe 6-4 record in an upset year. They will not make the playoffs and participation will drop drastically because nobody wants to go out and get demolished by extremely over powered teams in comparison every week.

Im sure you can look through the other conferences and find similarly bad matchups and teams that don't belong.

Now, I am in favor of the basketball conferences we had this year. Things seemed to be pretty well matched up and geography was pretty decent for most, still a few head scratchers out there though.

[we_hate_the_band]

Just look at the west. How many games does Clarksville and Farmington actually win in that conference?

About as many as they do now.

[Scorpius]

About as many as they do now.

That may be true but, but at least it's competitive. Farmington lost 2 conference games by less than 7 points.  Win those and they are 4-3 in conference and in the playoffs.

Clarksville has struggled in recent years, but has been competitive in quite a few games. Especially with the offense they run, they are not a team that can be automatically chalked up as a W. You have to prepare for them.

The whole point is being able to be competitive, and some of these proposed conferences completely eliminate some teams from being competitive.

[GuvHog]

5A and 6A are about to get combined for real.  Or at least 7A is going away and 6A teams will go down to 5A or stay in the new 6A. 

My guess is 6A and 7A will be combined and the 5A left alone.

[incogneto]

My guess is 6A and 7A will be combined and the 5A left alone.

The lower 6A teams like Greenwood will go down at least that is what I think based on a comment from someone that would know.   

[Sporty]

Only if there is some way for AAA to make more money.

[HeberFan]

With these new classifications, the teams with the best teams would probably win.

[Cardinalboi07]

All of the 5A Central games are 20 minutes apart unless they are traveling in 5 o'clock traffic lol. Id like to think they would change it up a little so LR teams would at least get a couple of hour trips during the season. Just a guess. I miss the old 5A South when it was CF, Benton, Sheridan, Pine Bluff, Lake Hamilton, El Dorado, and Texarkana. Didn't claim a lot of state titles back then but it was some hard hitting games

[friscokid]

All of the 5A Central games are 20 minutes apart unless they are traveling in 5 o'clock traffic lol. Id like to think they would change it up a little so LR teams would at least get a couple of hour trips during the season. Just a guess. I miss the old 5A South when it was CF, Benton, Sheridan, Pine Bluff, Lake Hamilton, El Dorado, and Texarkana. Didn't claim a lot of state titles back then but it was some hard hitting games

Trade Lake Hamilton for Bryant and now you're talking.

[Cardinalboi07]

Trade Lake Hamilton for Bryant and now you're talking.

I'd be fine with that. Bryant is on a good run now with Buck there. I remember a game in the late 90's when Bryant was No. 1 in the state and they played a one-win C.F. team and I want to say we took them to over time. It was like 34-31 or something like that. I was young but it was a great game.

[GuvHog]

The lower 6A teams like Greenwood will go down at least that is what I think based on a comment from someone that would know.   

I don't believe that would ever come close to passing if the schools vote on it. Now combining 6A and 7A is a very real possibility. they could go to 6 conferences with 8 teams each.

[incogneto]

I don't believe that would ever come close to passing if the schools vote on it. Now combining 6A and 7A is a very real possibility. they could go to 6 conferences with 8 teams each.

Wait and watch

[royalhoops]

That 5A Northwest would get Huntsville kids killed!

[GuvHog]

That 5A Northwest would get Huntsville kids killed!

Which is a major reason why it won't work.

I still believe the best way by far is to merge the 7A and 6A into one 6A division and leave the other divisions as they are. It would look something like this:

NORTHWEST

Bentonville
Har-Ber
Springdale
Fayetteville
Rogers
Heritage
Bentonville West
Siloam Springs

WEST

FS Southside
FS Northside
Conway
Van Buren
North Little Rock
Russellville
LR Central
Greenwood

EAST

Jonesboro
Marion
West Memphis
Mountain Home
Searcy
Sylvan Hills
LR Catholic /Mount St Mary
Cabot

SOUTH

El Dorado
Bryant
Benton
LR Southwest
Lake Hamilton
Sheridan
LR Parkview
Pine Bluff

The 5A would be the next 32 and so on...

[Sweet Feet]

With this Covid stuff, maybe this is the format we need to prevent spread.

[StingEm]

I took the 7A, 6A and 5A, and realigned them into one major class 5A based on geography. This is what i got

5A Northwest
-   Bentonville
-   Bentonville West
-   Springdale
-   Huntsville
-   Springdale Har-Ber
-   Rogers
-   Rogers Heritage
-   Siloam Springs

5A West
-   Farmington
-   Fayetteville
-   Fort Smith Northside
-   Fort Smith Southside
-   Greenwood
-   Clarksville
-   Alma
-   Van Buren


5A North
-   Harrison
-   Mountain Home
-   Conway
-   Greenbrier
-   Maumelle
-   Morrilton
-   Russellville
-   Vilonia

5A Central
-   Little Rock Catholic
-   Little Rock Central
-   Little Rock Christian
-   Little Rock Hall
-   Little Rock Parkview
-   Little Rock Southwest
-   North Little Rock
-   Pulaski Academy

5A Southwest
-   Benton
-   Bryant
-   Dequeen
-   Hope
-   Hot Springs
-   Hot Springs Lakeside
-   Lake Hamilton
-   Texarkana


5A Southwest
-   Camden Fairview
-   El Dorado
-   Little Rock Mills
-   Magnolia
-   Pine Bluff
-   Sheridan
-   Watson Chapel
-   White Hall

5A Northeast
-       Marion
-   Blytheville
-   Greene County Tech
-   Jonesboro
-   Nettleton
-   Paragould
-   Valley View
-   West Memphis

5A East
-   Beebe
-   Cabot
-   Forrest City
-   Jacksonville
-   Batesville
-   Searcy
-   Sylvan Hills
-   Wynne


What do you think of the conference pairings? What conference matchups would you enjoy? Who do you think still wins state in a 32 team playoff?

Edit: Reorganized a few teams closer, thanks to some help in the comments

You forgot Brookland and Blytheville is 4A

[Hawk4L]

I took the 7A, 6A and 5A, and realigned them into one major class 5A based on geography. This is what i got

5A Northwest
-   Bentonville
-   Bentonville West
-   Springdale
-   Huntsville
-   Springdale Har-Ber
-   Rogers
-   Rogers Heritage
-   Siloam Springs

5A West
-   Farmington
-   Fayetteville
-   Fort Smith Northside
-   Fort Smith Southside
-   Greenwood
-   Clarksville
-   Alma
-   Van Buren


5A North
-   Harrison
-   Mountain Home
-   Conway
-   Greenbrier
-   Maumelle
-   Morrilton
-   Russellville
-   Vilonia

5A Central
-   Little Rock Catholic
-   Little Rock Central
-   Little Rock Christian
-   Little Rock Hall
-   Little Rock Parkview
-   Little Rock Southwest
-   North Little Rock
-   Pulaski Academy

5A Southwest
-   Benton
-   Bryant
-   Dequeen
-   Hope
-   Hot Springs
-   Hot Springs Lakeside
-   Lake Hamilton
-   Texarkana


5A Southwest
-   Camden Fairview
-   El Dorado
-   Little Rock Mills
-   Magnolia
-   Pine Bluff
-   Sheridan
-   Watson Chapel
-   White Hall

5A Northeast
-       Marion
-   Blytheville
-   Greene County Tech
-   Jonesboro
-   Nettleton
-   Paragould
-   Valley View
-   West Memphis

5A East
-   Beebe
-   Cabot
-   Forrest City
-   Jacksonville
-   Batesville
-   Searcy
-   Sylvan Hills
-   Wynne


What do you think of the conference pairings? What conference matchups would you enjoy? Who do you think still wins state in a 32 team playoff?

Edit: Reorganized a few teams closer, thanks to some help in the comments

. Huntsville is 4A.  Pea Ridge would be there before they would

[Sweet Feet]

. Huntsville is 4A.  Pea Ridge would be there before they would

You forgot Brookland and Blytheville is 4A

This was done before the 2020 reclassification

[IAFLAR7]

Better scenario would be to take all 3 classes and divide them equally.

[ladycat]

If Pine Bluff and Dollarway consolidate PB may go back up, but Chapel and White Hall will most likely get some of those kids if that happened

[Gabe H. Coud]

I took the 7A, 6A and 5A, and realigned them into one major class 5A based on geography. This is what i got

5A Northwest
-   Bentonville
-   Bentonville West
-   Springdale
-   Huntsville
-   Springdale Har-Ber
-   Rogers
-   Rogers Heritage
-   Siloam Springs

5A West
-   Farmington
-   Fayetteville
-   Fort Smith Northside
-   Fort Smith Southside
-   Greenwood
-   Clarksville
-   Alma
-   Van Buren


5A North
-   Harrison
-   Mountain Home
-   Conway
-   Greenbrier
-   Maumelle
-   Morrilton
-   Russellville
-   Vilonia

5A Central
-   Little Rock Catholic
-   Little Rock Central
-   Little Rock Christian
-   Little Rock Hall
-   Little Rock Parkview
-   Little Rock Southwest
-   North Little Rock
-   Pulaski Academy

5A Southwest
-   Benton
-   Bryant
-   Dequeen
-   Hope
-   Hot Springs
-   Hot Springs Lakeside
-   Lake Hamilton
-   Texarkana


5A Southwest
-   Camden Fairview
-   El Dorado
-   Little Rock Mills
-   Magnolia
-   Pine Bluff
-   Sheridan
-   Watson Chapel
-   White Hall

5A Northeast
-       Marion
-   Blytheville
-   Greene County Tech
-   Jonesboro
-   Nettleton
-   Paragould
-   Valley View
-   West Memphis

5A East
-   Beebe
-   Cabot
-   Forrest City
-   Jacksonville
-   Batesville
-   Searcy
-   Sylvan Hills
-   Wynne


What do you think of the conference pairings? What conference matchups would you enjoy? Who do you think still wins state in a 32 team playoff?

Edit: Reorganized a few teams closer, thanks to some help in the comments

Not going to happen.  The current proposal to be voted upon is to align everything with Football:

16-16-32-48, etc.   

Which makes more sense, than the current "Blended Conferences" becoming final Conferences/4 year experiment, which was top heavy and only benefited 6A schools.

[Sweet Feet]

Based on this year and what you've seen, who do you think would've been conference champions? who do you think would've finished in the Top 4 in each conference?

[The Future]

Based on this year and what you've seen, who do you think would've been conference champions? who do you think would've finished in the Top 4 in each conference?

Based on what we've seen this year:
Bentonville takes the Northwest

Greenwood would win the West with Fayetteville behind

Conway battling and beating Harrison for the North

PA's conference, I mean the Central, looks much more improved with this setup. PA's 7-0 conference run presents some actual challenges. The biggest of which is NLR. I'm sure PA would give NLR all they can handle and some years I think PA could get the win. This year I think it's close

Bryant dominates their conference

The Southwest looks to be the biggest question mark. Really don't see anyone running away with the title

Jonesboro wins the Northeast

The East looks very entertaining. Sylvan Hills, Cabot, and Wynne battling for the title and top 3 playoff spots

[Sweet Feet]

Based on what we've seen this year:
Bentonville takes the Northwest

Greenwood would win the West with Fayetteville behind

Conway battling and beating Harrison for the North

PA's conference, I mean the Central, looks much more improved with this setup. PA's 7-0 conference run presents some actual challenges. The biggest of which is NLR. I'm sure PA would give NLR all they can handle and some years I think PA could get the win. This year I think it's close

Bryant dominates their conference

The Southwest looks to be the biggest question mark. Really don't see anyone running away with the title

Jonesboro wins the Northeast

The East looks very entertaining. Sylvan Hills, Cabot, and Wynne battling for the title and top 3 playoff spots

That Central conference would be amazing...all of it would honestly

It's super participation trophy minded, but for the sake of having 64 teams in playoff imagine how the playoffs would have turned out with all 64 teams in the bracket like how Texas has 64 in their playoffs.