Hear Me Out—An Unoriginal Idea
After what I’d call an amazing Premier League season (Arsenal fan right here), an exquisite World Cup on home soil and the promising notes of local soccer greatness coming down the pike, I’d like to visit a couple of ideas.
Neither of these ideas are my own, and I’m not claiming to be the originator at all.
In fact, these two things have been done in other places, other states, and have both been the subject of many a conversation between footballing compadres within the Magnolia State.
I’m talking about a version of conference alignment with a promotion/relegation model and a win-loss-draw point system.
Change Can Be Good
I don’t claim to have the answers. I don’t even claim that this is fair. Fair isn’t the word—maybe we should use easy, or clean. Both would require a mindset shift and a unified front (two things that seem to be in short supply these days throughout various fronts).
The murkiness of the process required to set Mississippi high school soccer into a promotional model and use a point system keeps people from entering that conversation.
“We’ve done it like this forever,” one might say. If forever happens to have begun in the mid ‘80s, then I guess I’m forever old as well.
Sometimes a little change is good. Sometimes a lot of change is good too—hard to do, but certainly sometimes needed.
Classified Operations
In an opinion piece from the Portland Press Herald, published in January 2024, basketball classifications in Maine allowed for a slew of lopsided victories because schools are traditionally grouped together based on enrollment and not production.
What has rarely been mentioned, though, is that these two basketball programs probably shouldn’t even be playing against each other in the first place, and that the classification system of high school athletic programs needs to shift from an outdated model that primarily emphasizes school enrollment to a model of classification based on the actual performance of individual athletic programs.
When it comes to reclassifying overall, I very much understand that this effort will not translate to all the sports, interrupting the continuity of regions and divisions, wildly upsetting the apple cart that has worked for so long and isn’t necessarily a broken system. I get it.
But I’d be willing to argue that baseball, softball, basketball and, of course, soccer, would be able to work well in a system like this. Each season, teams would naturally align themselves based on their performance.
A large enough sample size of wins and losses would create a truly competitive bundle of teams, establishing leagues of various levels that would provide consistent competition, similar skill and proper parity.
Along with amazing alliteration, student-athletes would be able to grow in their respective sport without experiencing utter frustration when their team is getting drummed or, even worse, when their team is doing the drumming. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but beat downs don’t typically produce authentic opportunities to grow.
Even with the recent talks of adding multipliers to private schools who participate in the public school athletic association, creating a promotional model would almost (not almost) make it null and void.
So how would such a league be constructed? Good question.
A System of Points
A complete reclassification may be completely out of the question, I get it. But smaller changes can be instituted that may just help alleviate some of the frustrations that come along with the already established system.
In America, anytime extra innings are added to baseball game that has ended in a tie, we call it free baseball. With baseball and softball being very American sports, the idea of ending in a tie doesn’t sit well with some.
Many of those same people can’t stomach the idea of “European Football” ending in a tie either, never mind the fact that those who created the game established protocol for such an event.
Implementing that very process is what has been discussed right here in Mississippi. By doing this very thing, divisions and regions would be governed by equitable scoring practices and student-athletes would not be subject to possible injury caused by minutes played beyond regulation.
Inside district play, three points for a win. One point for a draw. No points for a loss. No extra time. No golden goal. No PKs. No disrupted start times.
Tie breakers could be set in place, and playoffs would include these extra minutes.
It’s almost as if the largest sport in the world already has the largest tournament in the world that could assist in setting the groundwork for such an idea.
Small Bites for Big Wins
A complete realignment for classifications is a tall ask, I get it. In order to reach that massive goal, it’s going to take small steps. The best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
The larger conversation involving regulation and promotion may need to be workshopped a bit more, but if the conversation can at least begin, then there’s a chance that a solution could be found.
The easy win can be found in the adoption of a points system, keeping the integrity of the district season in tact, allowing for greater drama in the playoffs.
It may be that this opinion leaves me standing alone,, but I have a feeling that’s not the case.
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