Last Friday WFMJ-TV sports reporter Mike Ackelson asked me to pick the best high school football team I’d seen this season.

My answers (Canfield and Ursuline) probably offended the fans of unbeaten Mooney, South Range and Howland. But since I haven’t seen those teams, I couldn’t pick them.

Mooney is not only the best team in the Valley but probably one of the top two in Ohio regardless of division.

As everyone knows, Mooney (6-0) is gunning for its third Division IV state title in four seasons. Two years ago, Mooney finished state runner-up.

Even though Mooney’s region has toughened considerably this season with the addition of two-time defending state Div. III Steubenville and the resurgence of Canton Central Catholic, most observers are picking the Cardinals to be the team out of Region 13 playing in week 14.

Cardinals ranked
11th in the nation

How good is Mooney? The web site Rivals.com ranks P.J. Fecko’s Cardinals as the 11th-best team in the nation.

In the Rivals.com poll of Midwest states, Mooney is third. The only Ohio team ahead of the Cardinals is Cincinnati St. Xavier, a Div. I powerhouse that is second in the national poll and first in the Midwest rankings.

Mooney is ranked ahead Cincinnati Colerain (fourth in the Midwest rankings), Dublin Coffman (11th), Hilliard Darby (12th), Brunswick (15th) and Cincinnati Moeller (18th). All of those schools are Div. I programs.

It made me wonder — how would Mooney fare in the Div. I playoffs? Is this team good enough to win against Ohio’s biggest boys?

We’ll never know, of course, unless the Ohio High School Athletic Association revises how it determines divisions.

Private schools, which make up less than 15 percent of all secondary schools in Ohio, have won more than half of the 172 state championships decided on the field since the advent of the OHSAA playoffs in 1972. Yet public school officials have resisted revising the OHSAA rules.

If the OHSAA doesn’t want to create two levels of playoffs (private/open enrollment schools on one side, closed enrollment public schools on the other), how hard would it be to create a formula that has teams with players from multiple school districts elevated to a higher division?

Current format
just isn’t fair

The current OHSAA format punishes small schools whose football teams are made up only of the students who live in the district. Why is this a good thing? As strong as those teams might be, they are usually no match for private school teams playing in the same division.

This weekend’s Metro Athletic Conference football schedule is proof positive that the All-American Conference can’t get here soon enough.

This year, the MAC has four good teams — Howland (6-0), Poland (5-1), Canfield (5-1) and Niles (4-2). Unfortunately, there are eight teams in the conference.

This is one of those weekends where the top four teams don’t play each other, and that means lopsided scores are likely.

Compare that to the Inter Tri-County League where competitive games are on the docket just about every week.

ITCL merger
has been good

The ITCL was created when the old Inter-County and Tri-County leagues were merged into a 16-school league split by size into two tiers.

South Range (6-0) continues to dominate Tier One but the Raiders play a much tougher schedule now that Crestview, Columbiana and United have replaced Jackson-Milton and Western Reserve on the league schedule.

The news is even better for the ITCL Tier Two teams, all Div. VI teams which are competing on a much more level playing field.

Yes, there have been years when McDonald and Lowellville were just as talented as South Range. But thanks to the combined league, those smaller teams have playoff dreams every year.

And the Tier One teams are better off for playing tougher games for most of the season.

Will it be enough for South Range to get past Ursuline (now a Div. V team) in the postseason? We may find out in November.

XTom Williams is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write to him at williams@vindy.com.