Note: Each week Utah high school football historian George Felt offers his insights and provides a historical perspective about the coming week's games at deseretnews.com.
Black and Blue Classic
The second game of Saturday's doubleheader at Rice-Eccles Stadium features bitter rivals Alta and Bingham, who have shared the last four Class 5A titles (Alta in '07 and '08, Bingham in '06 and '09). Over the last four seasons the two have battled in August and again in the semifinals or finals. In those eight games, Bingham is 5-3 and won both games last year. Since the series resumed in 2001, the Miners have won eight of 13 contests over Alta. However, Alta leads the all-time series, 24-10.
Realignment Speculation (1)
Here's what you've been waiting for, or skipped to. These speculations are based on October 2009 enrollment numbers with a bit of fudging for new schools. The first possibility is also based on the seven St. George area schools being in same region and classification. There would be four regions in each of 5A (24 teams), 4A (28) and 3A (28). For football, 2A would have 12 teams (no change); and 1A would have eight (no change). (I tried a 28-team 5A and 24-team 4A but that didn't work as well, at least for me.)
5A – Region 1: Davis, Fremont, Layton, Northridge, Syracuse, Weber.
5A – Region 2: Cottonwood, Cyprus, Granger, Hunter, Kearns, Viewmont
5A – Region 3: Bingham, Copper Hills, Herriman, Riverton, Taylorsville, West Jordan
5A – Region 4: Alta, American Fork, Brighton, Jordan, Lone Peak, Pleasant Grove
4A – Region 5: Bonneville, Box Elder, Clearfield, Logan, Mountain Crest, Roy, Sky View
4A – Region 6: Bountiful, East, Highland, Olympus, Skyline, West, Woods Cross
4A – Region 7: Hillcrest, Lehi, Mountain View, Murray, Orem, Uintah, Westlake
4A – Region 8: Maple Mountain, Provo, Salem Hills, Spanish Fork, Springville, Timpanogos, Timpview
(I know Region 7 is kind of a hodgepodge, but Uintah had to go in somewhere.)
3A – Region 9: Canyon View, Cedar City, Desert Hills, Dixie, Hurricane, Pine View, Snow Canyon
3A – Region 10: Carbon, Emery, Juan Diego, Judge Memorial, Park City, Union, Wasatch
3A – Region 11: Bear River, Ben Lomond, Grantsville, Morgan, Ogden, Stansbury, Tooele
3A – Region 12: American Leadership, Delta, Juab, Manti, North Sanpete, Payson, Richfield
Several schools are interchangeable – their enrollments are so close and right in the cut-off between classifications that newer numbers could push them either way: Cyprus and West, for example, and southern Utah County schools (Payson, Spanish Fork, Maple Mountain, Salem Hills). Geographically, changing one team for another won't make much difference.
Realignment Speculation (2)
However, some at the UHSAA would reportedly like to see 5A limited to the largest 16 schools. 4A and 3A might then each have 32 teams – four regions of eight.
The breakdown could look like this:
5A – Region 1: Brighton, Davis, Hunter, Kearns, Northridge, Syracuse, Taylorsville, Weber.
5A – Region 2: Alta, American Fork, Bingham, Copper Hills, Herriman, Lone Peak, Riverton, Pleasant Grove
4A – Region 5: Bonneville, Box Elder, Clearfield, Fremont, Logan, Mountain Crest, Roy, Sky View
4A – Region 6: Bountiful, Cyprus, East, Highland, Layton, Viewmont, West, Woods Cross
4A – Region 7: Cottonwood, Granger, Hillcrest, Olympus, Skyline, Murray, Jordan, West Jordan
4A – Region 8: Lehi, Orem, Mountain View, Provo, Springville, Timpanogos, Timpview, Westlake
3A – Region 9: Canyon View, Cedar City, Delta, Desert Hills, Dixie, Hurricane, Pine View, Snow Canyon
3A – Region 10: Carbon, Emery, Park City, Juan Diego, Judge Memorial, Uintah, Union, Wasatch
3A – Region 11: American Leadership, Bear River, Ben Lomond, Grantsville, Morgan, Ogden, Stansbury, Tooele
3A – Region 12: Juab, Maple Mountain, Manti, North Sanpete, Payson, Richfield, Salem Hills,
Spanish Fork
Or 4A and 3A could be limited to 24 or 28 teams and 2A could pick up another the rest.
Disclaimer: This exercise is just for fun, actual results will probably end up being vastly different
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700060363/High-School-Football-Felts-Facts-Week-2.html
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