Which Section of the State Runs High School Football?

By: Cade Carlton

Football season is rapidly approaching, with the beginning of the season slated for kickoff on August 24. The closer football season gets, the more we begin to have the conversation about which conference and which team is better, especially at the college level. So, instead of writing a piece on why the SEC is or isn’t better than the Big 10, I choose to keep it local and look at the best sections of the state in high school football.

The argument will go off the last three years, and for the purpose of this article, we’ll focus on 5A-6A. In the next segment, we’ll take a dive into Class 2A-4A. The stipulations we’ll look at in this article are:

·         State Championships won

·         Regular season record

·         Strength of conferences top to bottom

Let’s start first with the eastern part of the state. Over the course of the last three seasons, the 5A-East has seen three teams win 10 or more games in football. Over the course of the last three years, five teams from the 5A-East have made the Final Four, and two years ago, Wynne played for a state championship. Last season, the 5A-East was the strongest conference in the 5A, and maybe the state, with Nettleton, Wynne and Batesville all combined for 31 wins and two of three made the state semis. While the conference has been gaining momentum over the course of the last few seasons, one thing that hurts them is the strength of the conference from top to bottom. Since the 2015 season, 12 teams in the conference have finished with a record of .500 or below, making it a four-horse race for the playoffs almost every year. 

Now, let’s examine the 5A-Central football conference that boasts arguably the best team in the 5A, year in and year out. The 5A trophy has gone to Pulaski Academy the last three seasons. The Bruins have won a total of 41 games in that span, but how strong is the conference outside of them? Only six teams not named PA have finished with seven or more wins in the Central since 2015, and only two teams have advanced to the state semifinal round of the postseason. So, is the conference really strong, or do they just happen to have the best team in the state?

As for the 5A-South, there always seems to be three solid teams at the top every single year. Over the course of the last three seasons, the top three teams average eight, seven and six wins, respectively. The biggest strength of the 5A-South is that there is no one team that runs the conference like there is in the Central, and for the most part, the East. Over the course of the last three seasons, there have been three different conference champions, and this past seasons champ-Watson Chapel-didn’t even qualify for the playoffs in 2015. While the conference has an argument for being the most completive in the 5A, they’ve only sent one team to the state semifinal round since 2015. So, can the conference be considered strong if it consistently fades out in the postseason?

Now, let’s go over to the western part of the state and look at the 5A-West. After Little Rock Christian Academy’s deep run in 2015, the 5A-West has been fairly mediocre as a whole. They haven’t made it out of the second weekend once, and over the course of the last two years, the conference champion has won 6 and 7 games, respectively. Compared with the other three conferences, the West looks to be the weakest. 

If we base success solely off championships, then obviously the 5A-Central is the best conference in the state, but if you throw in wins, state playoff runs and straight of conference top to bottom, the 5A-East has a very strong argument. 

Now, we’ll shift to the 6A to close out this article, where the divisions are almost even. We’ll start with the east, which has featured three different conference championship winners since 2015. Four teams in the conference have tallied 10 wins or more in a season, and five teams have advanced to the state semifinals, including two playing for a championship. The East has one championship under its belt, thanks to Pine Bluff’s win in 2015. Although the East is usually strong at the top, it does have a bit of a depth issue. For the last three years, two teams have finished with two or fewer wins at the bottom of the conference, and the 4 seed has been mostly made up of teams that are .500 or below. Despite that, the conference still has teams like Pine Bluff, Jonesboro and Searcy, who always seem to be competitive, and both the west and east have placed the same number of teams (6) in the semifinals since 2015.

On the other side of the coin, the west has taken the last two state championships. Four teams have finished the season with double digit wins, while Greenwood has gone a combined 37-2 since the start of the 2015 season. Despite the fact that Greenwood has a hold on the league, much like PA does on the 5A-Central, the division has shown it’s depth over the last three seasons, as Greenwood is the only team to finish top-3 in the conference in multiple years. Much like the East, there is a huge drop-off at the bottom of the conference. Outside of Greenwood, the conference is very similar to the east, they just happen to have a dynasty. Does that make them better than the east? Perhaps. But, let’s not forget both divisions have sent six teams to the semifinals in the last three years, and the state championship is just 2-1 in favor of the west. 

Every year is the same for football in the natural state. No matter how much success teams in the east have, they can never seem to get the recognition that teams in the west and central get, but maybe it’s time to look up and see that there is no one dominant division in the 6A or 5A.