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Before I crawl back into my hole until the next conference re-alignment…

I’m being 100% heartfelt and sincere (make fun or call me old if you want; I am 41 if you’re curious 🤷🏻‍♂️)

I talk a lot about how the legislation of contact out of the game is going to be the ruin of American football (and I mean every word of it), but I’ve come to realize this season (and not just during the show me bowl) that there’s something else our sport should be just as worried about…

…and that’s the fact that football is quickly becoming the most classless of ALL sports (not just American sports). This is not a Missouri problem, this is not a STL problem, this is not a private school problem; this is a football problem (and yes, I blame the NFL!)

The NFL’s rules and precedents always bleed down (always have); so when the NFL allows players to taunt, jaw, and even shove each other after nearly every play without any consequences, it’s naturally going to bleed down to the college and high school game.

Part of the reason I’ve long preferred college and high school football to the NFL is because it use to be the case that refs wouldn’t tolerate that crap at those levels; the flags came out quick. That’s not the case anymore, and yet we still act surprised when games get out of hand (or worse yet, we defend it! …with stupid crap like “let them have fun” 😡)

Baseball bores me to tears, but at least they govern themselves (that’s why you never even look at a home run for too long after hitting one); hockey’s the same way. For the NBA, it took players going after fans in the stands before they took action; now, the kind of taunting and jawing you see in football will get you a technical foul in basketball…

…and that’s what it’s going to take to save football from being the most classless of all sports; THROW THE FLAGS! No more taunting, jawing, and especially shoving after the play; flag’em early and demonstrate that their behavior hurts their team and gets them ejected after a couple of offenses.

Remember when a runner could get a first down and not feel the need to get up and give the first down signal in the face of the tackling defender?…

Or when a pass could simply fall incomplete without the defender giving the signal for incomplete pass on the face of the receiver?…

Or when an NFL defender could recover a fumble without the entire defense then running to the opposite end zone to do a choreographed dance number 😒

It all has consequences, and we are seeing those consequences play out before our eyes in real time. Ours is the sport (and high school is the level) where you see players outright attacking refs on the field when things don’t go their way!

I, at least, am not OK with this sport I love so much being the most classless of all sports (it didn’t use to be… and I hope and pray the culture changes, top to bottom 😢)

Best matchups of week 1

We are only a little over a week from the first official games of the season. Thank God! What matchups you guys looking at for week 1? I'll be going to the Father Tolton/Forsyth game for personal reasons but I'm definitely interested in that Lebanon/Webb City matchup. Should learn a decent amount about those two right off the bat.

Who are the Illinois(Mainly metro east) Usual Suspects ?

I know this is a Missouri sports page, and i don't want to change that. But i figure there's probably a decent amount of Metro East Missouri schools playing Illinois schools to start the year off. Im just curious on the current landscape of it all right now. Who's a team to try not to play, who's a tune up game, any possible champions coming out of the area, which teams playing could win/lose this year, etc. If any of you all have any insight or good conversational pieces involving any of this, i'd love to hear or engage with ya. Ive seen a few metro east fellows pop in every so often.

1. Its almost the end of summer and season is almost here, but theres nothing really new to engage in outside of some of those drugs from the bots and im getting bored without my football.

2. If it doesn't involve players playing football, i dont want to hear about it. I've seen where some of you all take conversations. Please dont bring anything that isn't in the sport of "Which teams are good, who's mediocre, and who's winning less that 3 games".

3. I won't have time during this football season to continue to keep up with it all, but would love a crash course

MRVC East preview on preps

Glad to see Dion et al cover this mostly rural league: Many in C2 circles have been wondering about Higginsville (Lafayette County if you prefer) well wonder no more. ABSOLUTELY LOADED lots back very small SR class last year won't be the case this fall plus Cook is (wow) in his 18th season so that program will just roll on and likely sweep this league yet again.

Second tier likely is Richmond and Holden. Spartans were oh so young last year always very well coached. Here's hoping they return to two years ago and perhaps my Week 5 will be over in Higginsville! Holden is always so hard to figure but have enough back, I think, to crest .500 overall.

The rest, for the most part, have lots of returnees of particular interest may be Knob Noster who is co-oping this year that could benefit their numbers.
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NWCMO Pick Em 2024 rules, changes and process

WELCOME BACK to our annual regular season contest which commences one week from Friday (August 30): Those of you new to this contest please ask any questions by responding to this thread. Hopefully this explains everything concisely enough:

As posted over the BOTGATE summer I have decided to focus mainly on 11-man but not totally leaving 8-man out just trimming it to a single "game of the week". We will discuss the Playoff Challenge once that time arrives. There will be TWO other such games of the week (no duplicates unlike years past) one inside the NWCMO region one outside involving at least one MO team which will be italicized for clarity.

The bonus/deduction will remain at 30 points but this year reverts to the same number for 8-man games of the week. Those games of the week will have their own bonus just like the past two seasons i.e. players selecting correctly under 30 point spread receive 2 points and those incorrectly are deducted 1. IF the game(s) spread beyond 30 points that comes into play as well i.e. correct selections get 3 points and incorrect are deducted 2.

Games will post Sunday Mornings with the deadline being the earliest kickoff time/day among those posted.

There will be no weekly tiebreaks until the final one (9) for position.

Once I return from games will post a NWCMO Pick Em rolling scoreboard posting scores as they are received AND VERIFIED. My primary score source is MSHSAA but also check other sites which have shown themselves to be reliable.

Once all games are known will immediately (this often finishes after midnight) post the weekly and overall stats.

PRIZES will happen again this year (my little gratitude for all of you who take the time and effort to participate) same as years past i.e. First, Second and Third overall will receive gift cards by mail and there will be a random drawing among all weekly top scorers (no tiebreaks all will go into the pool) and that player will receive a prize. NEW this year is a kinda "gag" hard luck prize for the player finishing last (please don't dump LOL). To be eligible for that, though, there is a twist in that you MUST play every week to be eligible.

My current attendance schedule has me on the road all but one week so please bear with my travel plus I am still on for the Duncanville at DeSoto TX game will do everything on my notebook from downtown Big D hotel room that Week 7 night. If that travel changes will, of course, notify everyone.

THERE YOU HAVE IT. Again anyone with any questions etc. please respond to this thread. One of my little requests is PLEASE do not post outside stuff especially banter etc. on the weekly threads. It helps this suddenly 60 year old stay on track LOL!

Week 1 games and all the matrix worksheets etc. are ready to go look for TWENTY THREE opening week games to post this Sunday morning. As of now it appears all of them are on Friday and the earliest KO is 5:30 PM.

GOOD LUCK everyone cannot wait!

St. Pius X on 810Varsity now

More in-depth read than preps (for obvious reasons as preps covers entire conferences at a time as opposed to single teams). Strongly encourage KC metro folks etc. to read it. Week 1 is a pure opportunity game (barring injuries) for the Warriors taking a major leap up going to the Rock and their size/depth advantage.

Regardless where they fall my question for them going deep into November and perhaps to CoMo will be the DEFENSE. One thing is for certain this will be one of the most potent rushing offenses in the region, a mouthful considering the 2024 Metro competition.

"Just work harder" (again)

16 of the top 28 players in 247 (all 3 and 4 stars) attend private schools. 7 of them attend Cardinal Ritter.
So far, 9 of the first 16 in the post dispatch top 30 attend private schools.
From the post dispatch this am in article about Landon Pace at SLU - "He fits in with all the kinds of kids on the team from all walks of life," Cruz said. "At SLUH, we have guys from over 190 zip codes and Landon can fit in with everybody, which is cool."

Tell me again why schools who draw from multiple zip codes play in the same playoff system as those who are bound to 1 or 2?
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