All Class A football games will have meaning

There have been some exciting changes taking place with the Havre High football program, namely with the addition of new head coach Mark Samson. Yet, as exciting as Samson’s return to the sidelines will be, another thing that has me excited about the 2015 season of Class A football in Montana is a change in the way teams qualify for the state playoffs.

While change will be nothing new to the ranks of Class A athletics, which as a whole are underdoing some major adjustments this season with the reduction of teams from 22 to 20 and the formation of the new eastern and western divisions—the change that will have the biggest impact from my perspective is the new wildcard system that will be used to determine the final four playoff teams for Class A.

That’s because while the MHSA did approve the formation of the new Western A and Eastern A divisions, when it comes to football, the four conferences are still the same: the Central A, the Eastern A, the Southwestern A and the Northwestern A. So the only real difference in terms of conference structure is the loss of Anaconda in the Southwest and Libby in the Northwest, which both dropped down to Class B.

The only problem with that is that it left some conferences with as little as four teams, such as the Northwestern A which now has just Whitefish, Libby, Polson and Frenchtown among its ranks. While the Northwest has four teams, the Central A, which includes Havre, Browning, Belgrade, Livingston and Lewistown and the Southwest A consisting of Dillon, Butte Central, Hamilton, Stevensville and Corvallis have five teams. The Eastern A, which boasts Sidney, Miles City, Glendive, Billings Central, Hardin and Laurel remains the only division with six.

Yet, if the old playoff qualification rules were in affect this season, each conference would still get three automatic berths in the state playoffs. And even though there isn’t anything inherently wrong with that, as we saw last season, it was time for a change.

A big catalyst for the change to the playoff format was the loss of teams and conference games. Teams from the Northwest A will now play just three conference games as opposed to six non-conference games. On the other hand, a team from the Eastern A will do the exact opposite, playing five conference games compared to four in the non-conference.

These kind of schedule imbalances as well as different levels of competition in each conference necessitated a change in the playoff structure, which is why Class A will now be using a power-point system just like the one Class B uses to give out its final four playoff spots.

Now to me, this is one of the more exciting changes Class A football has undertaken in recent memory and the reasons why are twofold; First, it will do more to ensure that the 12 most deserving teams make it into the playoffs. Unfortunately, that was not the case last season as Sidney (6-3) stayed home in favor of Frenchtown (3-6). The Broncs were then unceremoniously trounced by Dillon 48-0 in the first round and while Sidney may not have won the game, it stands to reason it would have been more competitive. Secondly, the change is exciting because for the first time ever in Class a football, every game matters.

I know that coaches and players will say that every game matters and they do to a point. Certainly, no team or player ever wants to lose, especially not when they are representing both their school and their town. But, when a team plays nine games and only four of them impact whether or not that team will make the playoffs, it leaves a lot to be desired where the schedule is concerned.

However, with this new rule that issue has been remedied and for the first time, Havre and Whitefish will do battle this year not only for the BNSF Trophy, but also for better positioning in the run for a wildcard spot, should either team fail to finish in the top two of its conference.

That’s what is really great about this system is that is preserves the traditional method of getting in the playoffs as each conference is given two automatic berths like always, but after eight auto berths, there will be four wildcard berths on the line and up to 12 teams fighting for them.

The formula for the wildcard rankings consider a few different factors such as win-loss record, strength of schedule and other factors, but what it really means is that now every single Class A game has playoff implications.

Non-conference games still won’t be as important as conference ones, because winning the conference or finishing in the top two is still the preferred way of getting into the postseason. Yet, this system will, for the first time reward teams in Class A for quality non-conference victories. And in the case of a team like Sidney, it can open up doors that didn’t previously exist.

So yes there are plenty of things to look forward to this high school football season, but the idea that finally every game counts in Class A football, is near the top of my list.