Handicapping the 6A- East

Handicapping

the 6A- East

For the past couple of years, a common question for fans of Marion and West Memphis football has been the same: What do the other teams across the state look like?

Remember, those two schools were part of the blended 7A/6A-East conference and only saw three opponents that they may see in the playoffs and were forced to make comparisons through common scores and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s excellent high school football coverage through the week.

That’s all changed, however. Now that teams are playing only 6A schools, they’ll have an idea of at least half of the playoff field.

But which teams are the best? You’ve come to the right place. Here is my best guess of where the teams in the 6A-East stack up after four weeks of play, and one league game. 1.) Pine Bluff (3-1 overall, 1-0 6A-East)

These two will duke it out on October 7 in Jonesboro and it should be for the conference title.

Pine Bluff got dinged in its opener against Cabot, 28-27, and Jonesboro has thrown up some basketball scores on its way to a 4-0 start.

At gunpoint, I’d say Pine Bluff still wins the conference, but this should be the only game that either loses in the league.

3.) West Memphis (3-1, 1-0)

I’ve got the Blue Devils sitting third, and you can almost lock them into that position if they snap this Searcy streak on Friday night.

It’s really just a numbers game at this point. West Memphis has already beaten one of the teams that I expect they’ll be in the mix with for the third or fourth seed when they beat Marion last week. Searcy is the other swing game, and while the Blue Devils still will play Pine Bluff and Jonesboro, they also have winnable games left against Little Rock Hall, Jacksonville and Mountain Home.

People forget that West Memphis has lost four straight to the Lions, all by one point, but none of the games affected the Blue Devils’ playoff positioning one way or the other.

This year, it will.

4.) Searcy (3-1, 1-0)

5.) Marion (1-3, 0-1)

Searcy picked up a key resume win against Batesville in Week 2 of the season, but followed that up with a lopsided loss to Morrilton the following week, and then let Jacksonville hang around last week.

Which are the real Lions?

We’ll find out on Friday night at Hamilton-Shultz Field.

As for Marion, a 4-3 conference record would be important as it allow them to finish at 5-5 overall entering the playoffs, and put it in the mix for a home playoff game, which is a goal of the Pats and their coaching staff.

Look at it this way: For each conference win any team should pick up, it essentially moves them up seed in the playoff hunt. 07 means you’re definitely sitting home. 1-6 has you owning the tiebreaker against another school. 2-5 has you on the bubble of the dance, and 3-4 almost definitely gets you into the playoffs.

From there, 4-3 has you in the mix for a home game, and 5-2 or better has you looking at a bye.

These two will settle it on the field next Friday, October 7, in Searcy.

6.) Jacksonville (1-3, 0-1) 7.) Little Rock Hall (2-2, 0-1) 8.) Mountain Home (0-4, 0-1) These three teams will slug it out for the final playoff berth from the 6AEast.

As you can see, I have Jacksonville taking down the number 6 seed right now, but I think that this trio is on the same level and could beat up on each other as the fall goes on.

The reward? A first-round game on the road against some state power such as Greenwood, Russellville, El Dorado or Benton, whichever team finishes third.

As always, thanks for reading.

Chuck’’s Corrnerr

By Chuck Liiviingston

2.) Jonesboro (4-0, 1-0)