FAYETTEVILLE - More often than not, Little Rock is a fine meeting place for teams in the football state championship game.
It was a centralized location for the game between Pine Bluff and Greenwood last weekend and will be for the one between Prairie Grove and Nashville on Saturday. By and large, that's the reason the Arkansas Activities Association continues to sign contracts that keep the state's championship games at War Memorial Stadium, where they have been for as long as anyone cares to remember.
But it doesn't mean it should always be that way.
Reader poll
Where should the 7A state championship be played?
- Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville
- War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock
- Keep it flexible
- Other
290 total votes.
The AAA would be wise to create some flexibility in its championship game scheduling to accommodate the schools that shouldn't have to travel to Little Rock when closer playing options are available.
The 7A championship game is the easiest example because nine of the last 10 have included two teams from the northwest corner of the state. Before Fayetteville and Springdale Har-Ber played last Saturday, the teams' buses passed through three cities - Fayetteville, Russellville and Conway - with college stadiums that would have been large enough to accommodate the 6,989 who attended the game.
Fayetteville elected for an overnight trip to Little Rock, with its booster club paying for food and lodging. Har-Ber traveled to Little Rock twice - once for a practice on Wednesday and again on the day of the game.
Had the game been played in Fayetteville, the teams could have avoided such fees. There are operational costs for using college stadiums, but the AAA is paying to use War Memorial.
As it was, programs from high schools located about 15 minutes apart drove nearly three hours to play a football game. Chances are that the attendance for Fayetteville-Har-Ber would have increased twofold or greater had it been played at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.
Similar to the 7A game last week, the 3A championship game Saturday will include two teams from the northeast quadrant of the state. Harding Academy's trip to Little Rock from Searcy will take about an hour, but Rivercrest will travel close to three hours from Wilson.
By comparison, both teams could be at Arkansas State's Centennial Bank Stadium in Jonesboro in a little more than an hour.
Whether Little Rock is the most logical location for a championship or decentralized in the case of the 7A game, a long drive is a deterrent for casual fans to attend, especially now that the games are being televised.
Still, most state governing bodies operate like the one in Arkansas, playing state championship games in one location over the course of multiple days.
High school championships in Texas, Louisiana and Missouri are played at NFL stadiums. Championship games in Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama were all played on the same college campus.
But there is no one-size-fits-all model when it comes to scheduling.
In Oklahoma, the six largest classifications played their championship games at five different locations this year, including some large high school stadiums. Those sites are determined after the state semifinals and are chosen based on proximity to the championship participants.
In Arizona, five classifications played their championship games this year at four locations that included an NFL stadium, two college stadiums and a high school stadium.
With several college stadiums in the state and some high school stadiums resembling ones on college campuses, Arkansas can be progressive and do the same. War Memorial makes sense for a lot of championship games, but not for all.