Evanson: Let’s figure out this 6A state football bracket thing, it’s a problem

Published 2:00 pm Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Congratulations to West Linn…err…and North Medford, on their 2024 6A state football championships.

Confused? Me too.

Actually, I get it because I’m in the business and understand the difference between the “6A Open Football State Championship” and “6A Football State Championship” brackets not-so-aptly named by the OSAA prior to this past season. But without my professional stake in all things prep sports, I’d be like you, scratching my head as to what in the absolute heck this is about.

If you’re lost, allow me to explain.

Heading into the 2022 high school football season it was decided that as the result of a number of things, including but not limited to a recent history of lopsided first round games, that opposed to the traditional 32-team playoff bracket, the 6A would go to two 16-team brackets, with the state’s top-16 teams playing for a state championship, while the next 16 — teams ranked No. 17-32 — would play for what was then called the Columbia Cup.

Over the next two seasons, both Westview and Sunset high schools claimed Columbia Cup titles, while West Linn and Central Catholic were at the same time crowned state champions.

Works for me. After all, if you’ve been in and/or around this game as long as I have, you’ve seen the ever-growing chasm between the state’s top-tier teams and, really, everybody else.

Never has there been such a delineation between Oregon’s football “haves” and “have-nots,” and as a result, what was once a relatively even playing field has become something quite different.

The No. 32-ranked team is never beating a No. 1, and if we’re being real, it’s even hard to imagine anyone outside the top 10 having a legitimate shot at doing the same. So, the Columbia Cup option allowed for a more compressed and competitive championship bracket, while creating an equally competitive option for teams and schools to experience a little more of what we all hope to be our high school athletic experience — fun, memorable and unifying, be it within the confines of your team and/or beyond to the school and community.

But for whatever reason, this year the OSAA and the schools it’s comprised of decided not to continue on with the “Columbia Cup,” but rather go with “Open” and “State Championship” brackets to…confuse everyone?

The Columbia Cup was fine. In fact, while it took some hits from people who couldn’t get beyond their “loser’s bracket” mentality, I thought it was a success. It differentiated itself from the group of 16 teams that had earned an opportunity to and were actually playing for it all, while the group of 16 just beyond that were knowingly competing for something different yet still rewarding.

And they knew it.

I covered both Columbia Cup Championship games and under no circumstances were the winners citing a claim to the state’s football throne. But they were excited, proud and thankful for what were four more opportunities to play a game they love, with the people they loved playing it with.

Sounds like a win to me.

But this year as the result of the move to “open” and “state championship,” confusion ensued, along with a predictable level of backlash from outsiders for a North Medford team that rightfully celebrated a worthy accomplishment, but due to it’s name, was being called something it wasn’t — a state championship.

Social media trolls took to the proverbial streets in the wake of the Black Tornado’s title game win, chopping North Medford’s accomplishment down at the knees in an effort to put it in its appropriate place.

Wonderful, right?

Even media outlets scrambled to explain the game and what it meant, using “state championship” in their headlines, but then spending three to four paragraphs explaining what that did or in this case didn’t mean in the grand scheme of things.

The weight of that shouldn’t fall on North Medford who competed their rears off, won four postseason games and got to hoist a trophy for doing so. But it did, and all due to a rather unfortunate decision to try and fix something that ultimately wasn’t broken (the Columbia Cup).

West Linn is the 2024 state football champion. Congratulations!

North Medford is the secondary bracket champion. Congratulations to them as well!

There shouldn’t be any confusion around that, but there was, still is, and will continue to be until it’s ironed out.

How about we do that?