COMMENTARY

Football: Siloam Springs goes great distance to keep playoff hopes alive

What's so interesting about teams with a combined record of 3-13 playing each other?

Absolutely nothing unless, of course, you're among the players and coaches involved.

We're picking on Texarkana and Siloam Springs today to illustrate how goofy high school sports in Arkansas can be. Siloam Springs will leave this morning to play a conference game in Texarkana, which is 225 miles away with no easy way to get there.

Yes, a conference game. Siloam Springs is in the same 6A-West Conference as El Dorado, Benton, and Lake Hamilton, where the Panthers played two weeks ago. That's a lot of mileage and a lot of tread off those yellow dog tires.

Secondly, it's odd that two teams who'll finish below .500 for the season still have a chance to make the playoffs, but that's how we roll in Arkansas. Texarkana (2-6, 1-4) will clinch a playoff spot tonight with a win over Siloam Springs (1-7, 1-4), which must beat the Razorbacks and Russellville Cyclones to stay alive.

Arkansas isn't quite all-play, but teams have to be pretty bad not to make the playoffs in this state.

Although the format is bloated, we can at least make some sense of the playoff system for high school football. It's much easier to grasp than the new format for basketball, where teams in different classifications will be grouped into districts before breaking away for conference tournaments against teams in many instances they hadn't faced all year.

I think that's how it will work. Maybe not.

In Arkansas, who knows?

RICK'S PICK Texarkana

Other games involving teams from Northwest Arkansas (selections are capitalized).

CLASS 7A/6A

BENTONVILLE at Rogers Heritage

ROGERS at Bentonville West

FAYETTEVILLE at Springdale High

SPRINGDALE HAR-BER at Van Buren

Siloam Springs at TEXARKANA

CLASS 5A

MORRILTON at Farmington

ALMA at Greenbrier

Maumelle at HARRISON

CLASS 4A

Lincoln at GENTRY

PEA RIDGE at Huntsville

Berryville at PRAIRIE GROVE

Gravette at SHILOH CHRISTIAN

BOONEVILLE at West Fork

CLASS 3A

ELKINS at Greenland

CLASS 2A

Decatur at DANVILLE

Magazine at MOUNTAINBURG

LAST WEEK 12-4 (75 percent)

OVERALL 107-34 (76 percent)

Sports on 10/28/2016

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