(11-2-26) Every year the Missouri postseason arrives and somebody calls for changes. This time, it’s the district first-round games on the chopping block.

That was the argument Jefferson City News Tribune sports columnist Trevor Hahn made in his “Press Box” column on Saturday, Nov. 1, in a post that read: “The numbers don’t tell the same story as the narrative being spun.” His headline said the rest: if you’ve played nine weeks of high school football season, you should play in districts.

What follows is an independent count of the first round itself — and it shows why both sides of the argument can claim support.

How Missouri does it

Missouri is an everybody-in state. All schools in 11-man and 8-player football qualify for the district playoffs regardless of regular-season record. The nine-game regular season sets the seeding within predetermined districts, using a MSHSAA points system based on wins, losses and strength of schedule, with an “automatic switch” rule that flips two consecutively seeded teams if the lower seed beat the higher seed head-to-head.

Districts with fewer than eight teams produce first-round byes for top seeds. This year’s bye teams included Jackson and Nixa in Class 6, Platte County and Republic in Class 5, Kearney in Class 4, Blair Oaks and Lamar in Class 2, and Marionville in Class 1.

The path from here: district semifinals Friday, Nov. 6; district championships Nov. 13; state quarterfinals Nov. 21; state semifinals Nov. 28; and the Show-Me Bowl state finals Dec. 3-5 at Craig Field at Spratt Memorial Stadium, Missouri Western State University, in St. Joseph.

The first round, by the margins

There were 107 first-round games in 11-man football, played Oct. 29-31 — 106 of them played to a finish, plus one forfeit (Montgomery County advanced 13-0 over Confluence Prep Academy without playing). Counting the 106 played games:

  • 18 games (17.0%) were decided by one score or less — 1 to 8 points.
  • 13 games (12.3%) were decided by 9 to 20 points.
  • 30 games (28.3%) were decided by 21 to 34 points.
  • 45 games (42.5%) were blowouts of 35 points or more, including 12 shutouts.

In other words: nearly three in ten first-round games were within 20 points, and nearly one in six went down to a single score. But more than four in ten were decided by five touchdowns or more — the core of the case against the round.

Class 6 was by far the most competitive: three of its ten games were one-score games, only one was a 35-point blowout, and there were no shutouts. Classes 4 and 5 produced the most lopsided scores — Class 4 had 13 blowouts in 22 games, Class 5 had 9 in 22.

The close ones

The best game of the first round was in Class 6: Marquette 28, Lafayette 27 in overtime. Marquette now travels to Kirkwood in the district semifinals.

The rest of the one-score-and-under set:

  • Pleasant Hill 28, Harrisonville 27 (Class 4)
  • Lincoln College Prep 15, Winnetonka 14 (Class 5)
  • Carthage 10, Webb City 7 (Class 5) — billed as the most anticipated first-round matchup in the state; Carthage now faces bye-rested Republic
  • Blue Springs South 24, Lee’s Summit North 21 (Class 6)
  • Chillicothe 31, Macon 28 (Class 3)
  • Liberty (Wentzville) 7, Francis Howell Central 3 (Class 6)
  • Windsor 20, Linn 16 (Class 1)
  • Fayette 12, Harrisburg 8 (Class 1)

Nine more games finished within eight points, including Glendale 28-22, De Soto 34-27, Jennings 34-26, Orchard Farm 42-35, Winfield 28-21, Nevada 20-14, Ava 19-14, California 18-13 and Plattsburg 27-20.

The lopsided ones

The other end of the ledger was emphatic. The biggest margins:

  • Smithville 81, Northeast Kansas City 7 (74 points, Class 4)
  • Seneca 69, Hollister 0 (69, Class 3) — Seneca is the defending Class 3 champion
  • Strafford 68, Pleasant Hope 0 (68, Class 3)
  • Cardinal Ritter 66, McCluer 0 (66, Class 5)
  • Rockwood Summit 61, Parkway Central 0 (Class 5) and Bowling Green 68, Mark Twain 7 (Class 2)
  • Savannah 72, Excelsior Springs 12 (60, Class 4)

Twelve games ended in shutouts, five of them in Class 5 alone.

The defending champions

Five of the six defending 11-man champions had byes or romped. Platte County (Class 5) and Kearney (Class 4) rested on byes. Seneca (Class 3) won 69-0. Blair Oaks (Class 2) and Tipton (Class 1) advanced. In 8-player, defending champion Worth County/Northeast Nodaway had a bye.

What happens next

The district semifinals are Friday, Nov. 6, and several first-round winners walk straight into the rested favorites: Waynesville at unbeaten Nixa, Lindbergh at unbeaten Jackson, Carthage at Republic, Glendale at Helias Catholic, and Smithville at Savannah — two teams that combined for 153 points in the first round.

Hahn’s column says the numbers don’t match the narrative. The count says the narrative has a point — 45 blowouts is a lot of them — and so does he: 31 of the 106 played games were within 20 points, and 18 of them came down to one score. That’s the first round Missouri just played. Whether it’s worth keeping is the argument his column started, and the one the rest of the postseason will keep having.

Muse AI assisted story