Oklahoma Football Needs a Relegation System

From 1996 to 2013, no team won the top classification of Oklahoma high school football but Jenks and Union. The Trojans won 11 titles during that timeframe while the RedHawks won seven.

The Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association recognized that its largest classification was largely noncompetitive. It also acknowledged that there were glaring disparities across the classification.

I don’t have the 2014 numbers, but in 2022 the top four schools in 6A by enrollment are Broken Arrow (5559), Union (4524), Mustang (3587), and Jenks (3557). At the bottom of the class are Capitol Hill (1315), Muskogee (1303), Booker T. Washington (1284), and Midwest City (1270).

Not only are the top schools double, or even triple, the enrollment of the bottom schools, but they’re significantly more affluent. So, in 2014, they split Class 6A into two divisions and added another state championship title to reinvigorate the programs that fell into that division.

It worked. Bixby won its first-ever state title in 2014 and Lawton made its first finals appearance since 1987. Bixby repeated in 2015, while Sand Springs made its first finals appearance since 1966. Many programs that had been dead for a decade have new life because of the split, but it still didn’t solve the major issue, which was the same team winning every year.

Now instead of being dominated by Jenks and Union, these smaller 6A schools were dominated by Bixby, who won the division seven out of the last eight years before finally moving up to 6A-I in 2022. By the time it graduated to Division I, Bixby held a 49-game win streak.

Meanwhile, Division I had continued to be dominated by the Big Four. Jenks and Union finally lost their total stranglehold, but the new winners were Broken Arrow and Owasso. Hardly outsiders to success.

The reality is, there’s more to winning football programs than high enrollment. Not only do wealthy suburban schools have more resources and better facilities, but they also don’t struggle with a lot of issues that inner-city schools have to deal with, such as behavioral problems, or simply having enough students who are even interested in extracurricular activities.

Enrollment-based divisions do not adequately address program disparities and fail to nurture parity and competitiveness.

Broken Arrow has an enrollment of 5559 and has long been the largest school in the state, but it didn’t win its first state title till 2018. This year BA went 5-7 record and was trounced 77-17 by Bixby, whose enrollment is only 1981.

Some other lopsided scores this season: Jenks beat Southmoore 90-9, Norman North beat Moore 72-29, Union beat Yukon 61-3, Stillwater beat U.S. Grant 85-0, Ponca City beat Capitol Hill 67-0, Grove beat Nathan Hale 70-6, Cushing beat Cleveland 70-7.

Some of those games were flukes and some of those teams are simply having downs years. But some teams, like U.S. Grant, Capitol Hill, and Nathan Hale, have a history of total noncompetitiveness.

Capitol Hill and Grant were actually granted a reprieve from OSSAA competition in 2014 and played independent schedules for six years while they attempted to rebuild their programs from the ground up.

The result? Capitol Hill went 1-9 and was outscored 496 to 48. Their only win was over Grant. Grant went 0-10 and was outscored 621 to 14.

Northwest Classen was a much improved 2-8 this season (only beating Grant and Capitol Hill) after going winless last season. Nathan Hale is riding a 34-game losing streak. Altus has one win in three seasons, against Capitol Hill. Western Heights is on a 21-game losing streak. Guymon is currently playing an independent schedule (like Capitol Hill and Grant did) after going 7-62 from 2014 to 2020. Daniel Webster put its football team on hiatus in 2021 after going winless the previous two seasons.

Every dog has his day, and every dynasty falls eventually, but I think we’re all getting tired of seeing perennially excellent teams beat up on underprivileged schools.

Every time somebody breaks off a 60+ point win, the cries come out about sportsmanship. I’ve seen my team (Sand Springs) on the receiving end of a 75-point shutout at the hands of Bixby, and let me tell you - it sucks.

But what do you tell the third-string 5’5” 150 pounds freshman running back who doesn’t normally see action? Don’t score? Take three knees and punt the ball even though it’s early in the third quarter?

Blaming good football teams for being good doesn’t accomplish anything, and blaming bad teams for being bad is pointless too. At the end of the day, the whole point of high school sports is to teach kids life lessons about hard work, commitment, overcoming adversity, and how to both win and lose with grace.

Allowing terrible teams to get brutalized year after year is doing them a disservice, as is allowing good teams to dominate lesser schools without ever being tested. Allowing Bixby to stay in Division II for eight years was as much a disservice to the Spartans as is making Capitol Hill and US Grant play in 6A.

While my colleague Bill Haisten has suggested creating a “City Conference” for these outmatched schools, I suggest a relegation system.

Imagine if the top two schools from each classification graduated to a larger class every two years, while the bottom two schools were demoted to a conference they could more easily compete in.

Here’s how that would have shaken out for this season, based on the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

From Class 6A-I, Edmond Memorial and Southmoore would drop to Division II. Memorial went 1-19 over the past two seasons, 1-13 in district play. Southmoore went 3-17 overall, 3-11 in district. Where are they now? Memorial actually had a resurgent 4-6 season in its second year under Logan Thomas, but Southmoore went 1-9 and was beaten 63-7, 80-0, 70-28, 64-10, and 90-9. I think both teams would have enjyed Division II far more this past season.

Bixby would have moved up to Division I based on its 24-0 record over the past two years, and fortunately, they did move up this year based on enrollment. The change didn’t stymie them at all as they went 12-1 and dominated Owasso 69-6 in the finals.

Also moving up would be Stillwater, who went 18-4 overall and 14-4 against teams from their class with two semifinal appearances. This year they went 13-0 and outscored their district foes 378 to 48 en rout to a state title. While I doubt the Pioneers would be happy about having to move up and play with the Spartans, Trojans, RedHawks, and Rams, I think the rest of Division II would be quite happy to trade Stillwater for Southmoore.

Dropping from Division II down to 5A would be Putnam City West, who went 0-18, and Northwest Classen who was 1-11. The Patriots went 1-6 in district this year and would have been spared a 61-0 shellacking by Muskogee, while Northwest Classen would have been saved from losses like 64-0 to Deer Creek, 63-6 to Choctaw, and 62-14 to Lawton.

Replacing the struggling teams in Division II would be Collinsville, who went 25-1 and won a state title in 2021, and Carl Albert, who went 21-4 and won state in 2020.

Capitol Hill went 0-13 over two years in 5A and would have dropped to 4A in my system, but enrollment actually pushed them up into 6A-II this year, where they’ve been beaten 65-0, 59-0, 48-0, and 67-0. My relegation system wouldn’t disregard enrollment entirely, but the two would go hand-in-hand. In a situation like this, I would leave them in 5A instead of dropping them or moving them up. If they go winless the next two years as well, then I would drop them to 4A.

Nathan Hale went 0-17 the last two seasons, so I would drop them down to 4A so they wouldn’t have had to suffer losses of 48-0, 63-6, and 70-6 this year.

Graduating from 4A would be Tuttle (24-3) and Wagoner (23-3). Wagoner won the class in 2020 while Tuttle was runner-up in 2021. This class was interesting because Clinton was actually a finalist both years, but suffered more district losses than Tuttle in 2020 before buckling down come playoff time. I based my relegation off of district wins plus playoff wins rather than final playoff positioning.

How would that affect 4A this season? Wagoner beat Tuttle in the quarterfinals on its way to a gold ball. Wagoner has seven finals appearances in the last 20 years and Tuttle has three.

Back-to-back 3A Champion Holland Hall and back-to-back Runner-Up Lincoln Christian would graduate to 4A where Lincoln would undoubtedly still be competitive. This year would be unfortunate for Holland Hall, who went a surprising 5-6, but drop-offs like this are rare for elite teams.

Taking the Dutch and the Bulldogs’ place in 3A would be Classen SAS and McLain. Classen went 0-12 against 4A teams while McLain was 0-14. McLain was a much improved 5-6 this year and Classen was 2-8, but I’m sure they’d much rather have been battling for a gold ball than for a few wins here and there.

Moving up from 2A would be back-to-back runner-up Washington and 2021 champion Marlow. Washington was 22-2 against the 2A field while Marlow was 22-1. Washington waltzed to an undefeated gold ball in 2A while Marlow actually did move up based on enrollment and went 7-4.

Dropping into 2A would be Little Axe, who was 0-14 against 3A, and Tahlequah Sequoyah, who was 0-9 in 2021 after canceling the 2020 season. Both teams actually did drop into 2A this year based on enrollment, and Sequoyah picked up its first district win since 2019. Little Axe still failed to win a game.

Graduating into 2A would be the back-to-back champions from Cashion, as well as Ringling, who has been in the finals two out of the last three years. Cashion experienced some drop-off at 4-7 this year, which anyone who dislikes my relegation system will point to, but they’ll either rebound or they’d eventually get pushed back down to Class A eventually. Ringling, meanwhile, went 12-1 and would have been more than capable of competing in 2A.

Meanwhile Nowata and Crooked Oak would fare much better in Class A after going a combined 0-25 against the 2A field these past two seasons. Nowata got a district win by way of forfeit this season, but failed to beat any 2A teams on the actual gridiron. Crooked Oak managed its first district win in many years, but is still a long way from competitive against the playoff contenders.

Down in eight-man action, 2021 Class C Champion Timberlake and runner-up Mt. View Gotebo would graduate to Class B and would be replaced by Prue and Olive who were a combined 31-0 against their classification. Both of the graduates made it to the semifinals again this year and could have competed in B far better than their replacements. Olive went 0-8 while Prue dropped its program altogether.

You’re not going to find many small schools who will be happy about the idea of moving up and facing tougher competition, but I think you’ll find plenty of unsuccessful schools who would love to drop into a field they can compete in. And I think you’ll find plenty of perennial runners-up who are always on the outside looking in and unable to get past the giants like Bixby.

A relegation system would also address the concerns of 3A, in which three of the four semifinalists and both finalists were all private schools that have a recruiting edge on public schools. It would also allow for homeschools like NOAH to compete against the rest of the state.

Whether the answer is a relegation system, a “City Conference,” or simply to continue watering down the existing system with additional classifications, at some point something’s going to have to change.